Umano wants to tell you the news, literally | Hacker News Reader

Umano wants to tell you the news, literally

pandodaily.com

39 pointsantonl32 comments

Im going to try to not be overly negative here... but arent there numerous other forms of media that already do this in a pretty crowded market? NPR, radio, podcasts, etc? I guess I dont really get why I would use this in that the audio forms of news that I have to choose from are pretty vast and high quality.

The idea is that they're curating content from across the web, and reading actual articles to you. Podcasts and the like have a different style of delivery.

Think of this as text-to-speech for articles you would normally read, except done by an actual human so it doesn't sound off-putting.

I think it's a fantastic idea, but its success will be determined by the team's ability to scale across a wider gamut of content.

But isn't this essentially what the radio/podcast form of news essentially is?

Each station/organization curates information (in a similar way web-based reporters do) and then reports as much of it as their resources allow via someone reading/talking?

I'm not trying to beat up on their idea but I dont understand their competitive angle or what would cause me to use it over the huge amount of content out there.

There are similarities, but there are differences too. Podcasts/radio will usually deliver the content more succinctly. Written articles tend to be more in-depth. Pros and cons to both.

Moreover, there is simply more written content than there are podcasts or radio. This can help bridge the gap.

I've never been a big fan of podcasts. Some have done a good job of mixing current topics with in-depth dives into specific areas and a dash of humour/personality (boagworld, for example), but most of the others I've tried out are either long rambles on very specialised topics or ego-stroking interviews. There's also production time delays/weekly (or longer) release cycles.

Radio news... I haven't really looked into this since moving to the US, but in the UK, no radio news channel covered technology well and it's difficult, given a finite amount of time, to use that time to listen to exactly what you want. e.g. tuning into the World Service here, I get some very random content which is sometimes interesting, sometimes not. Perhaps NPR is different.

I feel Umano addresses both of these - topic freshness/specialisation and good use of finite time - in different ways.

I listen to a lot of news radio programs as podcasts. I love that I don't have fit my schedule around the program, and I love that I'm not tied to a specific program but can listen to the most interesting stuff from various stations. Including a few that aren't even in my country, such as This American Life.

I've also got a few things subscribed that are "genuine" podcasts. My observations mirror your own (a few good ones/almost all are terrible). But if it works, it works really well, I've had podcasts that went on about a topic for 3 hours without getting boring.

But almost none of the stuff I get this way deals with technology per se. It's mostly politics, science, sociology, history -- anything but pure tech.

This reminds me of VoiceBunny. For short texts you can get a voiceover within minutes, and their API allows you to automate the whole process.

See API flowchart: http://voicebunny.com/developers/get_read

Definitely will be checking it out.

I've got to guess that the "125k people in the US commute to work" is a typo?

Edit for clarity - 125k seems very low to me.

I saw this too. Jumped out to me. (Apparently it's 125 million.)

Edit: From the comments "Just a quick editorial note, there are close to 125MM commuters per week. Most of those are by car. A smaller percentage take public transportation or walk. As for digital voices vs. human voices and reading of content, we at iHear Network believe that TTS technology will continue to improve and provides a much more robust means of tackling the amount of text created daily online. "

This caught my attention too. 125k people seems low for just the Bay area alone.

It's probably a typo; 125MM seems more likely

http://www.bts.gov/programs/national_household_travel_survey...

Does anyone else care if they are ex-googlers or not? Seems completely irrelevant.

It caught my eye, but I'm shallow.

Yes, I think this is absolutely important. Without knowing this, I would assume it was a crazy idea by former news operatives who think only content matters, not the logistics needed to efficiently execute on service. If it's ex-techies, then I wonder if they are misjudging what makes for compelling listening.

About a month ago I was thinking about having an app that would read stuff from your phone to you so that you wouldn't have to look at it while driving or doing something else. Glad they already came up with it.

Thanks! Let me know if there are any other features you would like to see in the app.

Strange that a company founded by 3 ex-Googlers would bring out an iPhone app first and there's no sign of an Android version: http://umanoapp.com/

In my opinion, this is a great strategic decision. IPhone users are more likely to be early adopters as well as become paying users (that's if the guys want to start charging for usage). Most YC companies focusing on mobile start with this as well.

One thing to note is that all Googlers are not Android addicts.

Google not only has Android developers, but also backend, frontend and iPhone engineers.

Copyright violation lawsuits will soon follow. I don't think you can just read someone else's articles without getting prior approval first.

It's hard enough producing the audio for this but having to get copyright permission for each article is going to make this a tough project to get off the ground.

You really need to get the app to see how big a difference professional voice actors make. Imagine if this became ubiquitous, and we could click on a Umano button right from our favorite outlet's site, switch tabs and listen to the article as you code away!

Great quality! Articles are read by professional voice actors, so none of that Siri stuff.

Yeah, it's called radio news.

Ignoring scaling issues, I don't see how they could compete with radio, in terms of informational and artistic value. If their premise is that radio is simply content read out loud, then that is a vast underestimation of the polish and narrative structure that radio producers add to a broadcast.

Most radio anchors ARE qualified to be professional voice actors. But a great radio report is not just great writing, but a different form of writing.

Have you tried the app? It is so different from radio content that I am a bit confused when people say that radio will be their competition.

I have two types of commutes with two very different sets of problems. I drive a car and ride the T (subway) in and around Boston/Cambridge.

When driving I (obviously) can't read. When riding the T it is usually a pain to read because there is no reception so the content must be preloaded and on top of that there are often no seats. It is not fun trying to operate an iPad[1] with one hand while holding onto a bar for dear life with the other.

Umano solves the car problem by having real humans reading to me and giving me the ability to queue multiple articles in advance. Once the app allows users to preload content it will solve all of my T pain points because I will be able get my news fix aurally without any reception needed. I would gladly pay for that.

Also, as others have mentioned, I see this as much more than an app for commuters. This seems perfect for the gym.

[1] I don't enjoy reading on the iPhone if I can help it because of the need to constantly scroll.

@weisser. Yes we imagine Umano being used in many more cases than just commuting including the gym, cooking in the kitchen, walking your dog, etc. Basically anytime you could be listening to music.

In terms of preloading content, it will be in our next release ;). Already implemented. Just waiting on Apple.

Please let us know at support@sothree.com any pain points you have in the app or anything else you would like to see.

> Basically anytime you could be listening to music.

That will be one of your core existential challenges, though...right? Almost everyone prefers listening to music...the average person bases a significant amount of their time acquiring and idolizing music...and so you don't have much time to work with. After my commute is over, I will be at a computer screen listening to spotify as I either work or read websites...there is no way I can be listening to written material.

I'm being overly negative here...it's not that the execution is poor, it's that I think you underestimate the immense behavioral patterns that you have to upend for this app to be as integral to a person's lifestyle as Spotify or the radio

I think we are quickly moving away from decades where people spent significant time acquiring music. My 2 terabyte music library was rendered mostly pointless after I got Spotify premium (I say mostly because some is not available on the service). The entire purpose of collecting all that music was not because I listened to many of the tracks frequently but because I wanted them playable with a click of a button if I ever desired to give them a listen. Now people can skip the collection building phase and also access their (Spotify's) entire collection anywhere and on many devices.

I don't think people that want to listen to music are going to listen to anything else. I DO believe that people who want to listen to news articles may settle for listening to music if the methods for accessing what they desire are not convienient.

But I just don't see the problem exactly...I mean, what you are describing is the exact niche that radio has filled...the reading of information aurally...something that is unique from TV and print. And of course radio, never mind podcasts and audiobooks, will be their competition. You can only consume one stream at a time and it's hard to imagine people juggling around several different audio-information apps each day.

I'll download the app for my trip tomorrow, and I appreciate the idea that some things have to be experienced rather than explained...but I almost can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, as your situation describes the kind of person who is satiated by radio and podcasts. The This American Life app, for example, completes my commute.

* OK I just downloaded the app and used it while brushing my teeth. I don't think it compares to radio...as I said, radio production is very involved and the use of ambient sound and scene transitions is integral to the audio story telling format.

Don't get me wrong, I love podcasts but they are completely different. The creators of podcasts decide what I will be listening to as well as the sequence. With this app I'm essentially queuing articles as I would songs and choosing not only the "genre" but also the order in which I listen to them. Certainly the offerings are somewhat sparse but I expect that to change. Pandora is considered a noninteractive stream so that means a podcast or radio broadcast is even less interactive. They really are not interactive in the slightest. Umano is an interactive stream like Spotify.

One way it separates itself from radio is that radio is pretty much a one-way street; you don't really choose what you listen to unless you change the station. What's nice about the app is that it is almost a cross of a high-brow Reddit with radio. You can select which stories you want read aloud after reading brief, one sentence summaries. It ends up sounding like a customized BBC news program tailored to user, though with American accents.

I'm a big fan of the app. Highly recommend to ALL not just commuter.

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