Hi all, For one thing, the voices on the mac will be of a higher quality than on iOS. Apple insider has samples of the voices. I didn't think much of Jill, but samantha sounded better than she has on any previous platform, and tom was just fabulous. I think Tom has a good chance of replacing alex for me. For those having trouble finding the samples, I think having click to flash installed makes this kind of thing much easier. Here's the link to the article. HTTP://Dlvr.it/J1fXf
Also, I would think that everyone waiting for Alex on iOS will be slightly disappointed. He will be pleasant to hear for sure, but not up to the standards we expect of that voice on the mac. I would guess it would be a marginal improvement over samantha at best. Remember, quality is somewhat limited by the lower specifications of the device. This is why, for example, Samantha sounds so terrible on the Victer reader stream and so good on the iPhone. Nobody need worry about Alex going anywhere. Apple knows Alex is the most popular voice. Justin On Mar 2, 2011, at 9:27 AM, Alex Hall wrote: I am not a mac user, but I, too, emailed apple about porting Alex over to the iOS platform since he sounds so much better than Karen or Samantha. I hope they do not get rid of him, and I doubt they will. I heard a rumor (a tweet, actually) that he has been improved in the newest 10.7 beta; not quite as choppy on some syllables and overall smoother. Remember, everyone, to email accessibil...@apple.com to express your desire that Alex not be retired, just to be on the safe side! On 3/2/11, carolyn Haas <chaas0...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Mary: > I recently wrote to Apple Accessibility regarding voicing. I inquired about > the possibility of the Alex voice being made available for the iPad. The > response I got was encouraging in that Accessibility indicated they had > gotten a lot of good feedback about Alex, and they couldn't comment as to > whether he'd be brought over there. Nothing in their response seemed to > point toward his being retired, but instead, they , mentioned his > popularity.:) > > So, there's a bit of hope for us Alex fans. > > > > Carolyn > On Mar 2, 2011, at 9:46 AM, Mary Otten wrote: > >> According to the article found at >> http://www.tuaw.com/ >> Mac OS 10 offers high quality multi-lingual voices, >> There are going to be a whole lot of high quality voices, in a variety of >> languages, available for download in the next iteration of Apple's os. For >> me, the one possible sour note was the reference to Samantha and Tom as an >> improvement over Alex that we have now. I hope this will not mean that >> Apple will decide to retire Alex in favor of what are, for me at least, >> vastly inferior voices in Samantha and Tom. There will be other English >> voices, the ones we know on the IPhone. Indeed, it sounds like the voices >> that are coming to Lion are those we now have on the I-devices. Great for >> speakers of languages other than English. Great for folks who prefer a >> non-U.S. English reading voice. But a definite leap backwards if they can >> Alex in favor of what's on the IPhone now, even if they include the male >> voice. >> >> Mary >> >> Mary Otten >> motte...@gmail.com >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > -- Have a great day, Alex (msg sent from GMail website) mehg...@gmail.com; http://www.facebook.com/mehgcap -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
