curmi
Senior User

Joined: Apr 2001

0

03/16, 08:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
voices

This is great, but it looks like we are still stuck with the old voices. Would be nice if Apple put some work in to improving the voice quality.

pdot
Senior User

Joined: Aug 2000

0

03/16, 08:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
nice to see...um, hear

It's nice to see Apple reinvesting their time into the technologies they pushed aside a few years back. Now that Apple is more stable, the time is, um, ripe to dabble is areas like this.

macimmortal
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/16, 08:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
GO APPLE!!!

Dear Steve,
You rock. Keep up the awesome job.

JoshFofer
Junior Member

Joined: Nov 1999

0

03/16, 09:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Macintalk Pro

It's about time... I've been looking forward to Apple embracing text-to-speech technology for years! (Think about it: they could easily sell any old book online, and have your Mac automatically turn them into audiobooks. This would be a boon to the early education market and the handicapped. Even sync the audio to the iPod! No more need to hire narrators, and the download would be tiny. Call the new app "iBrary" and usher in a new era of publishing. )

Now I really hope Apple retires those voices from 1988 already. They're downright embarrassing and barely recognizable.

Just check out AT&T Labs' demo to see a sampling of how far speech synthesis has come in the last 10 years:
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos

I really hope Apple overhauls this area of our OS. The available voices haven't changed since OS 7.x days!

Nostromo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2001

0

03/16, 10:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Holy c***...

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

...and I'm amazed. Those voices make the Apple "voices" sound like a bad sci fi flick with crappy production values. I really hope Apple is cooking up some new voices to go with this new technology.

I think the "Mike" voice sounds better than the "Crystal" one -- it's less choppy and flows more naturally. For the first sentence or two I almost forgot it was a computer generated voice.

Buran
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2000

0

03/16, 11:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
Computer...

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

QualleyIV
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/16, 11:19pm | report spam | close Reply |
Don't Knock the voices

Hey now, let's knock the voices... You know, they have made alot of cameo appearences in songs like Benny Benassi's - Satisfaction. "Push me, and then just touch me...

Just kidding, let's bring on the AT&T voices!

pdot
Senior User

Joined: Aug 2000

0

03/16, 11:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Holy c***...

After trying a few random sentences, I found the Crystal voice to be more natural most of the time. The U.K. English version was really bad. It must be harder for programmers to get the british accent right. The female voice was also better than the male one in this case.

In Apple's defense, the text-to-speech capabilities is roughly a decade old and I doubt there was many resources to further its development since then.

zachs
Mac Elite

Joined: May 2002

0

03/17, 12:42am | report spam | close Reply |
Now To...

Finally overhaul the Speech Recognition engine. C'MON APPLE! :-)

JoshFofer
Junior Member

Joined: Nov 1999

0

03/17, 01:08am | report spam | close Reply |
Here's more

http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html

JoshFofer
Junior Member

Joined: Nov 1999

0

03/17, 01:10am | report spam | close Reply |
Even more

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

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

Lyra
Forum Regular

Joined: Jul 2000

0

03/17, 01:17am | report spam | close Reply |
Uh...

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

Ganesha
Senior User

Joined: Jul 2002

0

03/17, 01:55am | report spam | close Reply |
The Next Thing You Know..

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

HeatherEcsedi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2001

0

03/17, 02:25am | report spam | close Reply |
Languages

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

scamper
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2002

0

03/17, 03:29am | report spam | close Reply |
naturalvoices.att

>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

pdot
Senior User

Joined: Aug 2000

0

03/17, 04:10am | report spam | close Reply |
re: naturalvoices.att

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

m@
Junior Member

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/17, 07:50am | report spam | close Reply |
Radiohead

Fitter, happier, more productive...

PoisonTooth
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Oct 2002

0

03/17, 08:11am | report spam | close Reply |
Wait one second...

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).

njfuzzy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2001

0

03/17, 09:35am | report spam | close Reply |
Nasty thing to say

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.

hayesk
Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

0

03/17, 09:38am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Wait one second?

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.

hart
Senior User

Joined: Sep 2002

0

03/17, 10:11am | report spam | close Reply |
hey, I like the old voice

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)

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/17, 10:39am | report spam | close Reply |
Old voices

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

chas_m
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

03/17, 11:58am | report spam | close Reply |
A great technology

... 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).

ADeweyan
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

03/17, 01:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
Don't knock the voices..

... 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.

z10n
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2003

0

03/17, 01:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
Whoa

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

Artsy type
Registered User

Joined: Sep 2003

0

03/17, 04:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
crumpled?

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.

sosumi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 1999

0

03/17, 11:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
right, right

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.

Show More Comments

Login Here

toggle

Network Headlines

02/13	AAPL closes above $500, sets new all...
02/13	Apple to audio webcast Cook's speech...
02/13	Apple launches 2012 back-to-school...
02/13	Apple looking to 'quadruple' India...
02/13	Apple takes top spot from Google in...

Show All

02/13	Apple takes top spot from Google in...
02/13	EU clears Google buyout of Motorola
02/13	VLC 2.0 to get Blu-ray support in OS...
02/13	Sony Music caught inflating price for...
02/13	ITV denies warning Apple not to try...

Show All

02/13	Apple launches 2012 back-to-school...
02/13	Sony Music caught inflating price for...
02/09	Apple explores environment-sensitive...
02/08	Paul McCartney to perform live concert...
02/06	Microsoft prepping Dynamics CRM apps...

Show All

02/13	Refurb. Flip UltraHD Pocket Digital...
02/10	$380 off refurbished 2.8GHz Mac Pro...
02/09	iHome Dual Alarm Clock for Apple iPod...
02/08	Save 69% on SanDisk Cruzer 32GB USB...
02/07	Refurb. Olympus 14MP Digital Camera...

Show All

toggle

Apple announces new "Spoken Interface" technology

updated 07:15 pm EST, Tue March 16, 2004

Apple\'s \"Spoken Interface\"

voices

nice to see...um, hear

GO APPLE!!!

Macintalk Pro

Holy c***...

Computer...

Don't Knock the voices

Re: Holy c***...

Now To...

Here's more

Even more

Uh...

The Next Thing You Know..

Languages

naturalvoices.att

re: naturalvoices.att

Radiohead

Wait one second...

Nasty thing to say

Re: Wait one second?

hey, I like the old voice

Old voices

A great technology

Don't knock the voices..

Whoa

crumpled?

right, right

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace

Apple announces new "Spoken Interface" technology

updated 07:15 pm EST, Tue March 16, 2004

Apple\'s \"Spoken Interface\"

Related Articles

Recent Articles

voices

nice to see...um, hear

GO APPLE!!!

Macintalk Pro

Holy c***...

Computer...

Don't Knock the voices

Re: Holy c***...

Now To...

Here's more

Even more

Uh...

The Next Thing You Know..

Languages

naturalvoices.att

re: naturalvoices.att

Radiohead

Wait one second...

Nasty thing to say

Re: Wait one second?

hey, I like the old voice

Old voices

A great technology

Don't knock the voices..

Whoa

crumpled?

right, right

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

Subscribe

to our RSS

Follow us

on Twitter

10 Most Read

10 Most Discussed

MacNN Marketplace