It works by taking text from RSS feeds and converts them into spoken word MP3 files. The audio is then spoken on the desktop or can be archived to a news databank to listen to later on an iPod, PDA or cell phone.

"iNewsCaster liberates users from the drudgery of browsing multiple sites to keep up with their news – be that technology, world, sport or even celebrity gossip", says Shane McAllister, Executive VP with MagneticTime. "iNewsCaster lets you listen to your news feeds without interrupting your work."

The company says that the program saves users time. It sources the relevant RSS feeds, pulls them into the software, converts them to audio and exports it to the portable device of your choosing.

"Time is scarce." adds McAllister, " Listening to news as it happens on your desktop makes keeping up to date simple and incredibly efficient. In fact, it quickly becomes quite addictive, and users are keen to hear what Heather (the voice of MagneticTime) has to say next!"

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Companies like MagneticTime, whose web-based technology transfers text-to-speech, may have found themselves a very important niche.

As a writer, the idea that nobody has time to read hurt a little. But maybe MagneticTime will give back the concept of pleasure reading, as email, memos, or any other document is transformed into audio and downloaded to an iPod, mobile phone, or PDA.

They are based in Ireland after all, where great writers abound.

Shane McAllister, business development manager at MagneticTime, assures us that the voice is natural sounding, not robotic, and that the technology was developed in about a year.

The concept that information overload can be reduced through audio meshes with Shel Holtz’, of Holtz Communication + Technology, assertion that an employee podcast can help reduce email, intranet wandering, and reading irrelevancy.

“Something you’ll never an employee tell his spouse is ‘no breakfast for me, gotta go read the intranet at work,’” said Holtz.

So MagneticTime’s service catches that same audio wave. If email is bogging you down, if you’ve got a book’s worth of reports to read, if your boss has handed you a bundle of articles to get caught up on, you can transfer them to an mp3, plug in, and get back to the essentials.

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