Nuance voice samples provide a taste of Lion text-to-speech

As we reported on May 14, Lion Developer Preview 3 includes a number of voices from Nuance's RealSpeak Solo software that can be used for text-to-speech (TTS) operations in the OS. These voices are a good improvement on the existing voices used by Mac OS X, and could point to a greater use of speech recognition and TTS as a user interface feature in Lion and iOS 5.

If you have a hankering to hear just how good these voices are, OS X Daily has linked to a number of samples that are available on the NextUp Nuance Sample page, some of which are listed below:

• Samantha - American English Female
• Serena - British English Female
• Sangeeta - Indian English Female
• Felix - Canadian French Male
• Karen - Australian English Female
• Lee - Australian English Male
• Yannick - German Male
• Monica - Spanish Female
• Paolo - Italian Male

My current favorite on the list is Karen, the Australian English female voice. What voice do you want to hear coming out of your Mac or iOS device speakers in the future? Let us know in the comments.