I've read that the Nokia 5500 will come with built-in text-to-speech software. Is this just for the 5500, or will other phones (for example the N93) have it as well? Does anybody know?

The N70 has partial TTS software... but you can't change the accent or speed.

The 5500 is the only handset to have a fuller implementation. Theoretically it can be added to any part of the OS, but most S60 phones just use it in the voice recognition functions to repeat back waht you've just said. The 5500 using it more extensively - e.g. in messaging.

So the text-to-speech software is there in all (recent, at least) S60 phones, even if it isn't used much on most phones? If so, is there an API available to application programmers? I have an idea for a very interesting application in which it would be very useful if I could make the phone speak (somewhat) arbitrary sentences.

:) There is one, go to :

http://www.sakrament-speech.com

and browse products for developers.

Hmm, that's interesting. Thanks for the link. But I'd really prefer to use the built-in software if that's possible. So, does anybody know if there's an API available?