Hi Buddy, and all,
Yes, I stand corrected, Alex was first brought to the Mac with Leopard.
I remember that because a buddy of mine and I downloaded an ISO of a developer
copy of Leopard, just to experience Alex, and we were blown away by his ability
to breathe.
As to voices I used. Back in the Spoken Interface Preview days, and in
Tiger, I mainly used Fred. Pre-OS X, (OS 8.1 thru 9.2.2), I either used Fred
or Bruce. Since Leopard, I’ve primarily used Alex. Honestly, I’m surprised
Apple hasn’t considered licensing the Alex voice to set-top box manufacturers,
etc. I’d be thrilled, for example, if my Hopper 3 used the Alex voice! The
voice it uses now isn’t great, and IMHO, the voice the Roku uses is even worse!
Finally, I want to address a comment I saw earlier, regarding the
initial voice Ventura now uses.
For quite a long while now, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS have been
using Samantha, I believe, as their default voice. When I first installed the
Ventura Beta, I was a bit taken aback when I heard Samantha instead of Alex.
There’s a reason for this.
Apple is attempting to “unify” all their OSes. They will still have
their respective names, but there’ll be a unified experience across all Apple
devices. For example, in Ventura, you’ll notice “System Preferences” has been
replaced by “System Settings”. On all the other OSes, Settings has always been
what it was called. Also, if you notice, “System Settings” is laid out just as
settings is on iPhone/iPad? As a consequence of this “unification”, all Apple
devices will share a common interface experience, and use the Samantha voice as
their default voice, but rest-assured, the voices we’ve come to know and love
didn’t go anywhere - we’ll just have to re-enable them.
HTH?
Ron
On Dec 20, 2022, at 07:50, Buddy Brannan <buddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Actually, I don’t think Alex was introduced to us until Leopard. Perhaps Snow
Leopard, but he definitely wasn’t available in Tiger.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV, WRVB670 - Erie, PA
Email: buddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Mobile: (814) 431-0962
On Dec 20, 2022, at 1:44 AM, Ron Johnson <ganahee@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,
OK, you must be kidding, right? I’m sitting here in front of my 2018
MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, typing you this message, and Alex is doing his
job, faithfully, as he’s done, ever since Mac OS 10.4 Tiger.
It’s true, the initial voice in Ventura is Samantha, but trust me, Alex is
there. You’ll have to go into the VO Utility, Speech and the voices tab,
and re-download him from the Customize Languages table, but he’s there,
ready, willing and able to faithfully execute his assigned duties, as he
always has. :)
Take care,
Ron
P.S.
For those who may not know, not only is Alex still present in Ventura, but
you can use him on your Apple Watch if you can put in watchOS 9, and he’s
also available on Apple TV 4K and beyond.
On Dec 20, 2022, at 00:04, Kelvin Falconer <tusciafalconer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
To someone who has guided me through many difficult adventures, I give
Thanks.
To someone who has worked tirelessly day and night, always available, never
reluctant or irritated with any request I have given.
To Alex, much loved by many a VoiceOver user, frustrating to others and
completely bewildering to some.
rest In Peace as Ventura retires your service.
With no warning or jolly sendoff, Apple has sent you to that big Bin in the
Clouds to enjoy the remainder of your utterings Peacefully.
Me, your nameless alter-ego.
I float through Time and Space like a treeless leaf.
Click on the link below to go to our homepage.
http://www.icanworkthisthing.com
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