http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/~moehler/synthspeech/examples.html#english

http://www.tracecenter.org/docs/speechsamples/

Time to bring back Boba Fet, he'll know what to do!!!!

Steve Jobs: Open the CD Bay Door Mac.
PowerMac: I can't do that Steve...

Yeah right. How about porting speech capabilities to languages other than English and Spanish ? French, Italian or German should be available.

>Wow -- I just gave a listen to http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos

Kinda OT here, but I liked those voices so much that I thought it would be fun to splice up a little drama out of 'em using several of the personalities. After adding some free Apple background music (and Lucas ambient sounds) here's the result... (~ 5 minutes, MP3)

http://scamper.org/audio/aud/office_dialogue.mp3

that guy sounded a lot like george takei in the beginning and at other times throughout.

Fitter, happier, more productive...

Am I the only one who thinks this is neat on the surface, but something most of use won't use at all? Sure, if you're crumpled you might use it, but for those of us who are not, this is nothing more than icing on a cake we'll never eat (unless we get crumpled up somehow).

The point of this technology is to expand Universal access. Referring to disabled people as crumpled, and suggesting that features added for them are somehow worthless, if pretty cold. You're just ripe to get your attitude adjusted.

crumpled? I take it English isn't your first language. The term (considered politically incorrect) is crippled.

Anyway, it doesn't matter if you use it. It's a good thing for the platform. Most people don't MacOS at all, but that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile.

keep 'em for old times sake. Add on any new fangled ones, sure, but I would miss Victoria. (isn't that her name? I'm using my mother's '98 Gateway so I can't check)

Hey, what would stephen hawking do if you took away his voice???

... and it has uses for disabled AND "abled" people. It's high time Apple re-established it's claim as the friendliest computer by catering to those who NEED something easy-to-use and flexible (as opposed to those of us who just find it convenient).

... the Mac voices are actually much better than the voices installed by the popular Screen Readers on Windows. They are smoother and handle unusual text and symbols better. For instance with a number such as: "$3 billion," the Mac will say "three billion dollars." The Windows machine using JAWS with the "Eloquence" engine will read "dollar three billion." This makes a huge difference when trying to actually understand what is being said.

I think I have a woody for the Audrey voice ;-)

The guy who referred to people with disabilities as "crumpled" is a moron. I don't want to give him more attention than necessary, but as a Mac owner and user I am proud that Mac products would be used to expand the information technology realm to people who might have trouble using the usual computers that most of us use. That is what I like about Apple computers and the Mac OS.

Buddy, never call disabled people "crumpled". Refer to them by their proper titles "retards" or "gimps".

Hey, wait a minute. I think r***** applies to all the language cops here on the MacNN Forums! I hope no gimps were offended by being lumped in with all the retards.