Abstract: The invention relates to, inter alia, an unit arrangement containing a network personal computer and a portable unit which are both used to provide the same data transfer service. By dividing the functional units between two units, a constantly high speech quality is guaranteed during the transfer of speech data.

Abstract: A method and a system which acoustically outputs any written machine-readable text messages, such as e-mails or fax messages, on the basis of a previously generated voice profile via a suitable acoustic reproduction system; for example, via a mobile phone. For the automatic conversion of text messages into voice messages, voice sample data of a user are analyzed and a voice profile is created on the basis of this analysis. The voice output which is possible as a result, with a voice which is natural and, in particular, familiar, avoids alienation when listening to the output voice.

Abstract: A distributed communication system consisting of at least one communication device, preferably a private communication installation, and at least one central data processing device which are connected to one another via a network, preferably an IP-oriented network, wherein the central data processing device executes at least one communication application, and a central database for storing overlapping data, which are accessed by at least one communication device and/or at least one communication application, is arranged in the communication system.