In the beginning of the month, we showed you an awesome new jailbreak tweak dubbed Aloud by iOS developer Ori Kadosh, which would announce your notifications as you receive them. It came with extensive settings for controlling the applications that would be announced, when notifications would be read out loud, and much more. The whole review covering all of its features we wrote on it can be read here.
Today, Aloud version 1.1 has been pushed out into the Cydia store – available for download now. The update comes with a whole truckload of new features that have both stumbled upon Ori’s thoughts and also have been requested from other Aloud users. The list of new features encompass the following:
- The ability to set delays before speaking notifications
- The ability to override the device's volume
- Support for Bluetooth headsets (Aloud also supports headphone jack accessories)
- The ability to pause music as a notification is being announced and then continue the music afterwards
- The ability to keep Aloud from voicing your alerts except when on a certain Wi-Fi network
- The ability to keep Aloud from voicing your alerts when in certain applications
- The ability to read entire e-mails
- A more human-like announcement instead of the robot-like diction, which was being used
- The ability to speak just the time instead of both time and date
- The ability to toggle Aloud on and off with an Activator action
- Support for a new Aloud SBSettings toggle – free in Cydia starting today
- The ability to speak all notifications that have not been cleared from Notification Center
- The ability to have Aloud announce the name of the person calling you
- Support for Notificator notification announcements
- Random bug fixes
- Announce directions from the Maps application
- Announce the directions step by step in the Maps application after you complete a step in getting somewhere
Through the long list of updates, the most impressive is probably the step by step navigation. iOS doesn’t come with turn-by-turn navigation natively and so we turn to the App Store for some rather expensive GPS solutions. If you want to use the Maps application for step by step directions (the next best thing), now you can. Aloud will announce where you must go and automatically tell you what to do next as you complete a step towards reaching your destination.
Apart from that, the other really big feature comes from the new voice system, which is less robot-like and actually speaks to you in a human-like tone. The big difference is saying something like, “Message from Anthony Bouchard” instead of, “Sender: Anthony Bouchard.” The new voice system makes for a more pleasant user experience overall.
The Aloud update is free for all existing Aloud customers and any new customers can reserve their copy of Aloud for only $1.99. Aloud works for all jailbroken iOS 5 devices.
Sources: Ori Kadosh
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