Amsterdam – 6 September 2006 – AssistiveWare today announced that
together with Acapela Group it introduced two new products for Mac OS
X: VisioVoice and Infovox iVox. There are also some very attractive
introductory offers.
VisioVoice is a product for blind and vision impaired Mac users
providing a number of speech and vision related features to enhance
access to Mac OS X. These include: (1) the conversion of Text, Word,
HTML, PDF and RTF files to audio files or iPod-ready iTunes tracks;
(2) a document and selection reader with fast forward and rewind
functions; (3) Large cross-hair and target cursors; (4) Text and
Image zoom windows; (5) Spoken interface elements as the user
navigates across the screen; (6) Multilingual support to Apple’s
excellent VoiceOver technology (initially French and Dutch).
VisioVoice is bundled with InfoVox iVox, a new product from Acapela
Group created in collaboration with AssistiveWare. InfoVox iVox
allows the naturally sounding, high quality voices of the Acapela
Group to be used by any Speech Manager compliant application on Mac
OS X, including applications such as TextEdit, Preview, Acrobat
Reader, Proloquo and AppleWorks, as well as many educational titles.
Infovox iVox, which is distributed worldwide by AssistiveWare, can
also be used with Tiger’s built-in VoiceOver screen reader, and Dutch
and French users now have the possibility to hear all the VoiceOver
menus and messages in their own language by using Infovox iVox
together with VisioVoice.
“We are extremely pleased with these new products,” said David
Niemeijer, AssistiveWare’s CTO. “Thanks to our collaboration with the
Acapela Group, Mac OS X users around the world get access to the best
voices ever on the Mac.”
Both products are Universal Binaries and can be used on PowerPC and
Intel Macs. The products include all voices available for a language
of choice. Initially, the following languages will be available: US
English, UK English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Flemish,
Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish. For most languages male
and female voices are available (certain languages include multiple
male and/or female voices). US English even includes two child
voices. All non-American English languages include one American
English female voice as a bonus.
“Acapela Group is very proud to be the partner of an innovative and
renown player such as AssistiveWare. Both companies have teamed up on
projects for several years and the ensuing solutions – such as
Proloquo- have been successfully validated by the market.” said
Antoine Kauffeisen, VP Marketing Director of Acapela.
Introductory suggested retail pricing (25% discount) excluding VAT:
Languages Infovox iVox Bundle of Infovox
iVox + VisioVoice
US English 149 US$/Eur* 185 US$/Euro
Scandinavian languages 269 US$/Eur* 289 US$/Euro
Other European languages 165 US$/Eur* 185 US$/Euro
After 31 December 2006:
Languages Infovox iVox Bundle of Infovox
iVox + VisioVoice
US English 199 US$/Eur* 249 US$/Euro
Scandinavian languages 359 US$/Eur* 389 US$/Euro
Other European languages 219 US$/Eur* 249 US$/Euro
Additional languages are half the price of Infovox iVox for that
language. Volume licenses are also available.
Additional introductory offer:
– Until 31 October 2006: any customer purchasing AssistiveWare’s
Proloquo speech and communication software will receive a free copy
of Infovox iVox (offer only valid if the selected language is
available for Infovox iVox). Proloquo and Infovox iVox form a
powerful speech team for any PowerPC and Intel Mac. Proloquo has a
suggested retail price of 249 US$/Euro excluding VAT.
Infovox iVox and VisioVoice will be demonstrated in our booth at the
Education Solutions Center at the Apple Expo in Paris (September 12
though 16). For more information see
http://www.assistiveware.com/events.php
Infovox iVox requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later, VisioVoice 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:
http://www.assistiveware.com/infovox_ivox.php
http://www.assistiveware.com/visiovoice.php
This press release is also available at:
http://www.assistiveware.com/pr.php#PR060906
AssistiveWare (http://www.assistiveware.com/) 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.
Entirely dedicated to developing and deploying natural language
interfaces, Acapela Group (http://www.acapela-group.com) is the
European leader in speech solutions. Acapela Group speech solutions
have already been deployed in many services and applications: voice
portals, unified messaging services, CRM and contact centers, talking
web, interactive games, edutainment software, e-learning tools,
public address, assistive tools for the disabled, navigation aid,
embedded systems, and much more.
AssistiveWare is a trade name and registered trademark of Niemeijer
Consult. VisioVoice, SwitchXS, KeyStrokes, TouchStrokes,
LayoutKitchen, 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.