9. The voice-command driven method of claim 8 , wherein the text-based headlines are received from one or more news feeds.
8. A voice-command driven method for controlling a news reader device, comprising: receiving, using at least one processor, text-based news articles and text-based headlines associated with the news articles over a network from a remote server; storing, using the at least one processor, an identification of a single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input for use to select text-based news articles for output by the speech-to-text engine, to select menu options, and to modify output settings, storing, using the at least one processor, a list of the received news articles correlated with a list of the received headlines in at least one database coupled to the at least one processor in the device, and without utilizing a connection to the network, retrieving, using the at least one processor, the list of headlines from the at least one database, entering a first list-pause cycle comprising: a list-pause that comprises: outputting, via the text-to-speech engine, a headline from the list of received headlines; and a pause of a predetermined length of time; repeating the list-pause, each repetition of the list-pause outputting a different next headline from the list of received headlines, until determining that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of a most recent list-pause; and responsive to determining that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of the most recent list-pause, outputting, via the text-to-speech engine, at least a portion of the news article from the sequence of news articles correlated with the headline output during that most recent list-pause; entering a second list-pause cycle comprising: a list-pause comprising: outputting, via the text-to-speech engine, an identifier of a menu option; and a pause of a predetermined length of time; repeating the list-pause, each repetition of the list-pause outputting a different next identifier of a menu option, until that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of a most recent list-pause; and responsive to determining that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of the most recent list-pause, navigating to a different menu or mode of the news reader associated with the identifier output during that list-pause; and enter a third list-pause cycle comprising: a list-pause comprising: outputting, via the text-to-speech engine, an identifier of an output setting; and a pause of a predetermined length of time; repeating the list-pause, each repetition of the list-pause outputting a different next identifier of an output setting, until determining that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of a most recent list-pause; and responsive to determining that the single, unique, system-wide, and context-independent voice command input has been spoken during the pause of the most recent list-pause, modifying an output setting of the text-to-speech engine to match a setting associated with the identifier output during that list-pause.