14 DAY TRIAL // I guess almost everybody either has pets or has dreamt of having one at a certain time, whether in childhood (as most do) or even in the adult life. From ants to snakes and from birds to dogs and fish, each person who owns a pet feels closely-related to it: it's a moral support and most of the pet-owners place themselves in either a parental or "brotherly" relationship with their animals. People speak to animals and in often-met cases some animals get to even understand what's their master speaking about and what is to do or not to do.
There are pets who get bored very easily and there are pets who can hardly feel bored even after long periods of time. And even if we weren't exactly talking about boredom, pets you had for a long time are now quite used to seeing you and also hearing your voice, as this gives them a good feeling (provided you are in good relations and they also can react) and it also strengthens the bond between you.
Unfortunately, (or not :) ) people go to work every day and, in some cases, pets are left alone at home, with food and water, but with no one to play with or at least speak to them from time to time. And believe it or not, some software developers thought of this issue and managed to put up a dedicated software to replace your vocal presence. Auto-Talk lets you maintain a connection with your pets even when you're not at home, by playing preset or recorded phrases at a given time.
The Looks & The Works
As I already said in today's first article I wrote, this is the simple software day, but the GUI for Auto-Talk is almost dumb :) It is a small window, in native XP-theme colors and with fixed size and displaying three values: the Play Interval (which I assume it's obvious for everyone that regulates the time between the phrases), the Next Play Time and the Next File which clearly indicates the name of the forthcoming played file.
Generally speaking, Auto-Talk resembles more an alarm clock with a never-ending and highly-configurable snooze function, but - instead of the ringing sounds - it will play either preset or track of your own choice. Personally, I could not find any use for the preset phrases present in the Auto-Talk, except that of demonstrative purposes: after all, what's the use of your pet hearing all day another person's voice??
The nice thing in Auto-Talk is that you can both record the sound of your voice directly from the program (just one microphone needed) or load some pre-recorded material in the handy playlist. Either way, as long as it's your voice, things are supposed to work OK. Even more, the developers state that this software can be used to train certain pet animals (such as parrots) to memorize, replicate and finally "speak" some words or phrases.
After you decided what will the Auto-Talk be repeating (or even set up a convenient playlist) you have to choose the interval between the plays; since it can range between a few seconds and 4 hours, you should better think well about your pets...I assume you don't want to come home and see some pets gone crazy because your too-often repeated voice. The Auto-Talk can run in the windowed mode or in the minimized-to-system-tray mode, but no matter how you use it, the amount of system resources it requires is insignificant.
I can't really tell you what does my cat think of such a software, because she's not alone at home that much time and cats are less likely to get bored than dogs or other pets. Needless to say I will soon record my voice while saying some "key" words and phrases and watch what's happening :)
The Good
Since I couldn't prove the direct effect of using the Auto-Talk - be that an un-bored pet or a talking one - I will limit myself to saying that the software has worked pretty well as far as I have tested it. Should it work and the pets be really responsive to this, then it's more than worth its money. Nevertheless, as a software product, the Auto-Talk is a good one.
The Bad
I just have to suggest a slight correction in the Auto-Talk's code...I really laughed as I noticed that, when in the system tray mode, for shutting down the program you have to click on "QIUT" and not the usual "Quit". I know it's a typo but, still, it was funny. No bad things, rather another suggestion: the software definitely deserves a fancier GUI.
The Truth
Truth is that Auto-Talk may be a very handy program, should the pets respond to what it does. Overall, without the effectiveness part, I must say I liked the Auto-Talk, even without a more alluring interface. Hopefully I'll hear about nice results obtained with it!
Get a glimpse at the Auto-Talk in the snapshots below:
