Press releases
Speechissimo discontinued - cross-grade offers to GhostReader and Infovox iVox
Fast-forward to 2008. Acapela Group and AssistiveWare's partnership has resulted in two products with even higher quality voices, a greater range of languages and more features: Infovox iVox voices that can be used by any speech-using Mac OS X application in the same way as Apple's built-in voices; GhostReader, which can read documents and selected text in many languages and even convert text to iPod and iPhone-ready audiobooks.
Registered Speechissimo users can cross-grade with a discount of 20% for a limited time to GhostReader (normal price 39.95 euro/USD excluding VAT) or, outside North America only, to an Infovox iVox plus GhostReader bundle (normal price starting at 109 euro/USD excluding VAT). These offers run until 4th August 2008 and are only available for direct purchase through AssistiveWare's online store.
To apply for a discount coupon registered users of Speechissimo should fill out this web form.
For more information, fully-functional downloadable demos and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product pages for Infovox iVox and GhostReader.
AssistiveWare is a worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes(R) and TouchStrokes(R) virtual keyboards, SwitchXS(R) scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen(R) panel editor, and Proloquo(R) multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
Acapela Group gives a voice to all your products and services. We invent voice solutions to give the say to content and enrich user interfaces in a natural and intuitive way based on our comprehensive technologies. Navigation, Interactive Voice Response, Accessibility solutions, E-learning, Talking Web, Audio-books, are amongst the first applications that learned how to benefit from the advantages of text to speech. Acapela, a key player in voice technologies with 25 years of experience, offers substantial and proven solutions adapted to your activity, and presents a complete range of products, services and expertise. In 25 languages and over 50 voices.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Press release: GhostReader 1.5.1 provides key fixes and enhancements
GhostReader 1.5.1 includes the following enhances:
- Export to iTunes now: (1) Sets album, album artist, and year to default values; (2) Puts the date and time of audio creation in the iTunes comments field; (3) Uses the GhostReader logo as default album art.
- Fixes spinning cursor issue with Pages 2008.
- Acapela Group provided fixes to the following voice issues: (1) Activation problem with American Spanish; (2) Occasional crash with the Italian Chiara voice; (3) Text encoding problems with Czech and Polish voices.
GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.
GhostReader 1.5.1 is a free update for existing users. It is a Universal Binary requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later and provides full Leopard compatibility. Voices are currently available for the following languages: American English, British English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German.
Pricing for GhostReader starts at 39.95 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single-user monolingual version (includes all voices for a language of choice). Multilingual licenses, household licenses, classroom licenses and school licenses are also available. GhostReader is also available as a bundle with Infovox iVox for system-wide high quality voices that can be used with practically all Speech Manager compatible Mac OS X applications. Pricing for this bundle starts at 109 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single user license.
A boxed edition of GhostReader is distributed in Europe through Application Systems Heidelberg and available in selected European countries from Apple Stores, FNAC, Amazon and many Apple Resellers throughout the continent.
For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page or listen to the voices.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes® and TouchStrokes® virtual keyboards, SwitchXS® scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen® panel editor, and Proloquo® multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Press release: GhostReader 1.5 takes Mac text-to-speech to the next level
GhostReader 1.5 is a major update with the following new features and enhancements:
- Adds new natural sounding voices for Czech, Polish, Swedish and Finnish while existing voices have been enhanced.
- Adds a pronunciation editor, which can be used to modify the way a word is pronounced or to add new abbreviations.
- Adds direct export to iTunes of documents and selected text for playback on iPhone or iPod.
- Adds user-selectable encoding for export to iTunes (AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless).
- In Leopard now also reads DOCX and ODT documents.
- Export to iTunes now runs in the background.
- Enhanced responsiveness when speaking selected text or text below the cursor.
- Speaking selected text now also works in floating windows such as those of the Leopard Help Viewer.
- Speak Text Below the Cursor now speaks the alt. tags for images and buttons in web pages, Mail and widgets.
- Speak Text Below the Cursor now also speaks just the paragraph below the cursor in Mail, TextEdit and Pages 2008.
- Many other enhancements and fixes.
GhostReader can be used by anyone who prefers to listen to text rather then read it. Many professionals, writers, educators and students use it on a daily basis to save time, to proof read their own writing or to learn the pronunciation of foreign languages or to improve their reading and listening comprehension.
GhostReader 1.5 is a free update for existing users. It is a Universal Binary requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later and provides full Leopard compatibility. Voices are currently available for the following languages: American English, British English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German.
Pricing for GhostReader starts at 39.95 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single-user monolingual version (includes all voices for a language of choice). Multilingual licenses, household licenses, classroom licenses and school licenses are also available. GhostReader is also available as a bundle with Infovox iVox for system-wide high quality voices that can be used with practically all Speech Manager compatible Mac OS X applications. Pricing for this bundle starts at 109 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single user license.
A boxed edition of GhostReader is distributed in Europe through Application Systems Heidelberg and available in selected European countries from Apple Stores, FNAC, Amazon and many Apple Resellers throughout the continent.
For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page or listen to the voices.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes® and TouchStrokes® virtual keyboards, SwitchXS® scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen® panel editor, and Proloquo® multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Press release: GhostReader special Christmas offer: Free extra voices
GhostReader trilingual license (74.95 Euro/US$ excluding VAT) is available at:
Worldwide:
ConvenienceWare
Europe:
Application Systems Heidelberg, Application Systems Paris
GhostReader boxed edition (54.95 Euro including VAT) is available at:
UK
Retail Stores: UK Apple Stores, Wyvern Business Systems
Germany, Austria and German speaking Switzerland
Retail Stores Germany: Compustore PC GmbH, M&M Trading, Mac House GmbH, Macconnect, MacFoyer, MACSYSTEMS GmbH, M-Shop Göttingen and many other Apple Resellers
Retail stores Austria: McShark Multimedia AG, Mac office, m-store Grafoprint GmbH and many other Apple Resellers
Online: Arktis, Amazon.de, Application Systems Heidelberg
France and French-speaking Switzerland
Retail Stores: FNAC, iConcept, BeMac, ordiTiCE and other Apple Resellers
Online: FNAC online, Amazon.fr, Application Systems Paris
Belgium
Retail Stores: Mac Line
GhostReader is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their Word, PDF, RTF and text documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audiobooks by exporting to iPhone and iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use GhostReader to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward, rewind, skip sentence/paragraph and re-listen to sentence/paragraph functionality. In some applications, such as Safari, GhostReader enables users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text. Sit back and relax while GhostReader reads for you!
Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German. These voices only work with GhostReader. For system-wide voices a bundle is available with Infovox iVox.
For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes(R) and TouchStrokes(R) virtual keyboards, SwitchXS(R) scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen(R) panel editor, and Proloquo(R) multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Press release: GhostReader 1.1.1 offers Leopard-ready text-to-speech for Mac OS X with iPhone and iPod export
Amsterdam - 18 September 2007 - ConvenienceWare™ / AssistiveWare® today announced the release of GhostReader™ 1.1.1 text-to-speech software for Mac OS X. GhostReader 1.1.1 is Leopard-ready, now creates true bookmarkable audiobook files from text, offers better PDF import and enhanced performance on large documents. Through a partnership with Application Systems Heidelberg a boxed version of GhostReader will be introduced next week at the Apple Expo in Paris and will be available shortly throughout Europe in Apple Stores and other retail channels.
GhostReader 1.1.1 new and improved features:
* Now Leopard-ready
* Now creates a true, bookmarkable audiobook file when exporting to iTunes 7 AAC format, ready to load onto an iPhone or iPod
* Improved PDF import with smart-stripping of end-of-line hyphens
* Improved performance when speaking long texts
* Various other improvements and fixes
Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German.
Pricing for GhostReader starts at 39.95 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single-user monolingual version (includes all voices for a language of choice). Multilingual licenses, household licenses, classroom licenses and school licenses are also available. GhostReader is also available as a bundle with Infovox iVox for system-wide high quality voices that can be used with practically all Speech Manager compatible Mac OS X applications. Pricing for this bundle starts at 109 Euro/USD excluding VAT for a single user license.
For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes(R) and TouchStrokes(R) virtual keyboards, SwitchXS(R) scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen(R) panel editor, and Proloquo(R) multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Press release: Introducing GhostReader Text-to-Speech for Mac OS X
Amsterdam - 5 July 2007 - AssistiveWare(R) / ConvenienceWare(tm) today announced the release of GhostReader(tm) text-to-speech software for Mac OS X. GhostReader 1.1 replaces TextParrot 1.0 and introduces a number of new features with an enhanced user interface. Just as ghostwriters write for other people, GhostReader can read for you!
GhostReader is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. In some applications, such as Safari, GhostReader enables users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text. Now users can sit back and relax while GhostReader reads the text under the cursor.
Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, Czech, Finnish, French, Canadian French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, American Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Turkish and Swedish. GhostReader itself is localized in English, French and German.
GhostReader 1.1 offers the following new features:
- New languages with high quality female voices: American Spanish (Rosa) and Canadian French (Louise)
- New languages with medium quality voices: Turkish, Icelandic and Czech
- New high quality voices for Dutch (Max) and British English (Peter)
- Adds a German localization (English and French were already available)
- Enhanced listening experience with buttons to re-listen the current paragraph or sentence or to skip to the next one
- For school use preferences can now be locked and the content of the reader window can be exported to an RTF document
- Many other interface and usability enhancements
- Expanded Help facility
GhostReader is a free and recommended update for registered TextParrot users (users can simply enter their TextParrot activation codes).
Suggested retail pricing for GhostReader, available for download and excluding VAT , is as follows:
Monolingual licenses:
Single User: US$/Euro 39.95
Household (3 Macs): US$/Euro 79.90
Bilingual licenses:
Single User: US$/Euro 59.95
Household (3 Macs): US$/Euro 119.90
Trilingual licenses:
Single User: US$/Euro 74.95
Household (3 Macs): US$/Euro 149.90
GhostReader educational licenses start at US$/euro 599 for a classroom (up to 50 computers) and US$/euro 999 for a school (up to 150 computers).
GhostReader is also available as a bundle with Infovox iVox. Infovox iVox provides naturally sounding voices in multiple languages for use with almost any Mac OS X application that uses speech. The GhostReader and Infovox iVox bundle pricing starts at US$/euro 109.
GhostReader can be purchased online.
A packaged, CD version of GhostReader will be available later this summer in European Apple Stores and at other European Mac stores at a slightly higher price.
GhostReader requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes(R) and TouchStrokes(R) virtual keyboards, SwitchXS(R) scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen(R) panel editor, and Proloquo(R) multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, GhostReader and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
New version of TextParrot, new value bundles and educational licenses
Amsterdam - 30 January 2007 - AssistiveWare / ConvenienceWare today announced the release of TextParrot® 1.0.1 for Mac OS X as well as a number of new value bundles and new educational licenses.TextParrot is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. It even allows users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text and sit back and relax while TextParrot reads the text under the cursor.
Starting today, TextParrot is now available with naturally sounding voices of up to three different languages. Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. TextParrot itself is localized in English and French, other localizations are in preparation.
Version 1.0.1 contains the following enhancements:
- Now also available in a trilingual version
- Now also available as a bundle with Infovox iVox for even better voices (less compression) that can be used in any application. The standard TextParrot voices can only be used with TextParrot.
- Now also available with special educational licenses.
- Some fixes in the voices that affected a small number of users
- Removed an annoying trial reminder
Suggested retail pricing for TextParrot excluding VAT (for download only):
Monolingual licenses:
Single User US$/Euro 39.95
Household (3 Macs) US$/Euro 79.90
Bilingual licenses:
Single User US$/Euro 59.95
Household (3 Macs) US$/Euro 119.90
Trilingual licenses:
Single User US$/Euro 74.95
Household (3 Macs) US$/Euro 149.90
A CD version is expected later at a slightly higher price.
Suggested retail pricing for classroom licenses (excluding VAT):
Monolingual: US$/Euro 599
Bilingual: US$/Euro 899
Trilingual: US$/Euro 1125
Suggested retail pricing for school licenses (excluding VAT):
Monolingual: US$/Euro 999
Bilingual: US$/Euro 1499
Trilingual: US$/Euro 1875
* The School and Classroom licenses permit educational use in the school (all children and teachers in the school) or classroom (use in one specific classroom or computer lab), but do not allow publication of audio files outside the classroom or school (not even for free).
Suggested retail pricing for the Infovox iVox and TextParrot bundle excluding VAT:
US English: 159 US$/Euro
Scandinavian languages: 369 US$/Euro
Other European: 229 US$/Euro
Additional languages are half the price of Infovox iVox for that language. Volume licenses are also available.
Infovox iVox requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, TextParrot requires 10.4 or later. For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product pages: Infovox iVox and TextParrot.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes® and TouchStrokes® virtual keyboards, SwitchXS® scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen® panel editor, and Proloquo® multi-purpose speech solution. The ConvenienceWare product line makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes, LayoutKitchen, TextParrot and Proloquo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. Infovox iVox is a trademark of Acapela Group. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
AssistiveWare introduces new product family for Mac OS X
Amsterdam - 12 December 2006 - AssistiveWare, the world leader in accessibility solutions for Mac OS X, today announced "ConvenienceWare", a new family of innovative and affordable products. The new product family makes the advanced technologies developed by AssistiveWare available in cool and convenient applications that can make the life of Mac users easier.The first product, released today, is TextParrot® 1.0. TextParrot is a Universal Binary, multilingual speech solution for Mac OS X that allows users to listen to their documents with naturally sounding voices in a language of choice. It also allows users to create their own personal podcasts or audio books by exporting to iPod-ready iTunes tracks. Or, users can just use it to speak selected text in a handy reader window with play, fast forward and rewind functionality. It even allows users to listen to text by just pointing the cursor at the text and sit back and relax while TextParrot reads the text under the cursor.
TextParrot was developed in collaboration with the Acapela Group and includes their naturally sounding, high quality voices in one or two languages of choice. Voices are currently available for the following languages: US English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. Other languages will be made available in the coming months. Note that these special ConvenienceWare voices will not work in other applications.
Suggested retail pricing excluding VAT (for download only):
Monolingual licenses:
Single User US$/Euro 39.95
Household (3 Macs) US$/Euro 79.90
Bilingual licenses:
Single User US$/Euro 59.95
Household (3 Macs) US$/Euro 119.90
Initially the software will be available for download only. A CD version is expected later at a slightly higher price.
TextParrot is a universal binary and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. TextParrot is localized in English and French and other localizations are expected in January. For more information, a fully-functional downloadable demo and to listen to samples of the voices please consult the product page.
Teachers visiting the AssistiveWare booth (SN17) at BETT 2007 in January can get a 10% discount.
AssistiveWare is the worldwide leader in innovative assistive technology software for Mac OS X that gives people back their lives. This includes award-winning KeyStrokes® and TouchStrokes® virtual keyboards, SwitchXS® scanning on-screen keyboard, LayoutKitchen® panel editor, Proloquo® multi-purpose speech solution, and VisioVoice®, the award-winning solution for vision impaired Mac users.
AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare are trade names and registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. TextParrot is a registered trademarks of Niemeijer Consult. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.