AAC Speech software

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My son does PECS at the moment since he is non-verbal, and we are looking at moving to some software. Its just going to be easier long term.
We have an iPad and a plan and I've had a play with Proloquotogo..my question before we spend a couple of hundred bucks is, has anyone used it or used alternatives and have an opinion? My first impression was I found the choice hierarchy not that straightforward to navigate..but then I'm not going to be using it.

I hear (firsthand, from friends) that Proloquo2go is the best PECS-based system... I happen to use Assistive Chat. It's text-to-speech based.

Thats the impression I get. There is also TaptoTalk that I have been looking at. I think it would be a good starter, but once sentence building is required Proloquo2go would be a better choice, but then I imagine thats a long way off and our current requirements are very basic.
Also Taptotalk is free for the player and runs on different platforms (the software to design albums is what you pay for), whereas Proloquo2go is Apple only at the moment it seems. I have an Android phone and there are a whole swag of cheap Android tablets coming out in different sizes that might be more suitable for specific purposes.
Hmm, just found this right now..its cheap and customisable which is critical for us, think I'll give this a go to start with
http://www.autismpluggedin.com/2011/06/ ... -talk.html

Thanks for your reply SuperTrouper.

http://www.freevideosforautistickids.co ... Links.html

I don't know much about the iPad thing, but I have some links to some additional speech resources above.

Of course there are also my free speech and reading channels on YouTube and links to other channels in the "friends" and "subscriptions" sections. The Reading Channel (www.youtube.com/user/vids4autistickids) alphabet playlists contain lots of vocabulary words and wre extremely popular with my younger son. (I didn't make the videos--copied them from other channels and put them into organized playlists.)

I think that I was working with my 7-year-old with classic autism on speech at the same time that a lot of the software was being developed. We mainly used video, commercial flashcards, picture dictionaries, and homemade flashcards and books. We also have always used closed captioning on videos.

My son's speech was already somewhat developed and he was almost ready to use a regular computer by the time that all the iPad stuff came out and I found out about it. (I think that both of my kids first used PCs at age 3).

My older son has an entire library of speech, reading, math, social skills, science, and other materials. I think that having a lot of stuff--seing the same words and concepts presented in different ways--has helped to keep his and my interest and helped him to learn more effectively.

Also, here links to a couple of free youtube channels regarding apps for kids with special needs:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SNApps4Kids#p/u

http://www.youtube.com/user/a4cwsn

I have links to a lot of other free educational channels in the "friends" and "subscriptions" sections on my various YouTube channels. The above two channels are listed in these sections on my Autistic Kids Channel ( www.youtube.com/user/vids4autkids1 ).

Anyway, that's my input, for what it is work and for anyone else that might be reading the post because they want to know about speech stuff.