Show HN: Orate – On-device neural text-to-speech queue for Mac

Hacker News is featuring Orate, a new Mac application for turning your backlog into audio. The app is from Brad Herms, a founder with a track record at Coinbase and other startups. He built Orate to tackle his own problem: too many unread articles, emails, and browser tabs stacking up while working. Users select text from anywhere on their screen and queue it for playback, where Orate reads it aloud using neural text-to-speech models—entirely on-device and offline, so your data stays private. The app offers tagging, standard playback controls, and adjustable speed. There's also an optional paid tier with higher-quality voice synthesis. Rather than pursue another subscription model, Herms is pricing Orate as a one-time purchase of four point nine nine dollars—or one point nine nine dollars with a Hacker News discount code.

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