New Shatoetry app lets William Shatner do the talking

8 Nov 2012

While William Shatner is perhaps best known for his role as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, he’s also a spoken word performer and has released three albums of his work. Now, though, he’s giving iPhone users the chance to emulate his unique way of speaking with his app, Shatoetry.

Shatoetry lets users create phrases and sentences that will then be read aloud in Shatner’s voice. These ‘Shatisms’ can then be shared via email or on various social networks, allowing users to communicate with friends in Shatner’s dramatic style.

On opening up Shatoetry, users are presented with a catalogue of words – reminiscent of the magnetic tiles used to create sentences on refrigerator doors – which they can browse through and drag into place on the main composer screen.

Each word has been recorded three different ways by Shatner, with different intonations and cadences. Users can tap a word to resize it and select one of these three versions for their sentence. Pauses can also be added and enlarged for added drama.

Shatoetry screenshot Shatoetry screenshot

When users – which Shatner calls Shatoetists – are finished composing their Shatisms, they tap ‘Shat that’ to hear them spoken aloud. Users can also collaborate for more fun by connecting with friends via Apple’s Game Center.  

At the moment, the app carries more than 400 words, but Shatner has told Boing Boing that more terms will be recorded for users to purchase via the app.

Shatoetry, developed by Blindlight Apps, was released on Friday and is available in the App Store for €2.69. To see the app in action, check out this video demonstrating how it can be used to end a relationship.

 

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com