Hi All,
I am so pleased with the new voice options that I already purchased my own copy and even purchased a second copy for a friend as a Christmas Present! Yes it costs extra for some of the voices but, think about only $39 bucks! In the olden days I purchased an Accent Ready hardware voice synthesizer for $1000 plus! That was only one voice and not near as good as these voices are. At the time I was extremely grateful for it! Much better then my old Echo GP! Wow! We get progress and competition and $39 gets me not one but, three voices in English. I take any good off the shelf sound card for around or under $100 and now I have speech in one sound card and windows sounds / every thing else in another sound card. So, $139 or less gets me optional voices on top of the already free options provided with Window Eyes! What more could I ask for? I personally think the latest voices with the Vocalizer using Samantha compact voice is the best! It’s wicked fast in response time and sounds fantastic! Yes I can quickly change to the premium most human sounding version for free! So, when you get the three voices we are talking about with the different options provided … really it’s 15 options. I can decide based on what I like and what hard drive space I have and I can even decide if I like the digital sound or the human speech sounding voices best. With the cool scripts available I can even change voices / details of a voice in seconds. Move to the electronic crazy fast voices for day to day work and then change to the best human sounding for reading a book. Just my thoughts, worth what I am charging! Thanks for listening, Merry Christmas to every one! Sam Bushman From: Erik Burggraaf [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 4:16 PM To: Bryan Peterson Cc: Evelyn Weckerly; [email protected] Subject: Re: Users getting screwed - Was Re: Voices Ah, but isn't that the beauty of the corporate model? Cost is no object. It costs what it costs and any one who wants it will pay. :) Best, Bryan Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: Loquendo probably won't happen since those voices are fearfully expensive. On 12/10/2012 1:53 PM, Erik Burggraaf wrote: I agree. It's better than putting the base price of window-eyes up and including the voices. Since I and probably others dislike vocalizer and abhour the idea of paying for it. Myself, i'm more and more in favour of not paying commercial prices for any access technology solutions, but I don't mind the a la cart model for high-end voices. In fact, i'd like to see gw go 5 or 6 steps further and start offering acapela, loquendo, cepstril, and anything else they can incorporate into window-eyes in a stable manner. Best, Evelyn Weckerly <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, again, If I understand correctly, if you buy everything that comes with Jaws and that comes with WE automatically, you'll spend somearound $1400. In addition, their basic price is higher. Maybe it's about time they provided something with extra charge. Evelyn At 03:10 PM 12/10/2012, you wrote: That doesn't surprise me. Greedom isn't very supportive of its vic---ahem, customers. On 12/10/2012 1:04 PM, Evelyn Weckerly wrote: Hi, I heard about someone calling FS to ask for that kind of plan. The person was told to see his rehab counsellor. Evelyn At 01:21 PM 12/10/2012, you wrote: Not only that but the price GW is charging for the voices is, in my view at least, more than reasonable. You can bet Greedom Science Fiction wouldn't be so reasonable if they'd chosen to charge for Vocalizer. Their SMA upgrades are far more expensive and if you asked them for a JAWS payment plan like what GW offers for Window-Eyes I bet you'd be lucky if you weren't laughed off the phone. On 12/10/2012 11:14 AM, Raul A. Gallegos wrote: Hello Robert, Brice, and Mike, and anyone else who feels shafted as long time WE users and the new voices. Let's take a moment and talk about something different. Let's say that Window-Eyes is a car. Yes yes, blind people don't drive, but humor me for a bit. Pretend that Window-Eyes is a car and pretend that the DEC voice is a feature of that car. Now pretend that Vocalizer is another feature of the car. When you look at in these terms you will see that you are not getting screwed over as a so-called long time WE user. If a person purchases a car which is a 2000 model and it comes with certain features, it's bound to happen that by the time the car changes enough, and advancements are made, the 2012 model will have newer and advanced features. Let's say the DEC voice and the Vocalizer voice are two of these features. Users who never had the 2000 model of the car will purchase the 2012 model and get Vocalizer with it. Does that mean that the users of the 2000 model are getting screwed over because the purchasers of the 2012 model get a newer feature? No, it means that technology advances and changes happen. The nice thing though, is that GW is allowing an upgrade and older WE users can still use the new features, but it does cost money. That's just life. One could easily turn it all the way around and say that new WE 8 users who have never owned WE are getting screwed because it doesn't come with DEC and if they want it, they have to pay for it. If you don't like my car story, then substitute it with something else. How about a Dell or HP computer. If I have a computer from several years ago it might have a serial port. Newer computers will not have a serial port because newer technologies might make it not necessary. However if I buy a new computer and still want to use a serial port, I will have to pay extra money to get that feature which a new user might otherwise not want or pay for. So in essence, no one is forcing you to purchase these new voices to use with WE 8. However if you want to use them with WE 8 and you are a former than WE 8 user, you do have to pay a license fee. Despite what the JFW lovers might say, voices are not free. I suppose that if you don't want to pay for the Vocalizer voices, you could always purchase yourself a new copy of WE8 and it will come with them. That way you are spending money on WE, not the voices directly. <smile>. -- Raul A. Gallegos In comic strips, the person on the left always speaks first. - George Carlin Home Page: http://raulgallegos.com <http://raulgallegos.com/> Twitter: https://twitter.com/rau47 Facebook: http://facebook.com/rau47 If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv. ERIK burggraafEbony ConsultingI am currently on the road and staying in touch on my handheld. ERIK burggraafEbony ConsultingI am currently on the road and staying in touch on my handheld. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. 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