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Use speakable items to control Exposé
Authored by: ibroughton on Aug 18, '04 07:04:21AM

I find that Apple Speakable Items is totally unusable. I'm British (as you know) and have NEVER got it to recognise a single command. I don't have an accent (Even though I'm a Manc lad) and it just does not work. Please Apple, save the disk space and REMOVE this USELESS feature! Yes I agree that there is a place for this sort of thing, but only if it works!!!!

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The server is up but the site is down and I don't know which direction you are trying to go



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Use speakable items to control Exposé
Authored by: EddEdmondson on Aug 18, '04 11:13:39AM

I've got it to work a few times, and can just about manage to play a game of chess (with plenty of 'take back moves') but I can't get it to tell me 'Who's there' if I ask it to tell me a joke.

It isn't anywhere near useable for me either (also British).



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Use speakable items to control Exposé
Authored by: mastige on Aug 18, '04 07:00:05PM

Well lad, it works perfectly for me as described, and I'm a Mancunian. Now, if only I could feel a bit less daft talking to this computer!



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Use speakable items to control Exposé
Authored by: osxpounder on Aug 18, '04 07:27:20PM

Everyone has an accent. There is no such thing as unaccented speech, period. People who say "He doesn't have an accent" really mean "his accent matches the one widely regarded as the most acceptable accent". Acceptable accents are fads that change with time.

BBC announcers have an accent [all of them, even the ones from 30-50 years ago]. The Queen has an accent. I have an accent, and you have one.

Now, it IS fair to say "my accent is fairly standard" or "there's nothing unusual about my accent".

Any British accent is likely to be remarkably different, for some words, than any American accent, and Mac OSX, I strongly suspect, was made with only, or chiefly, American pronunciations in mind. So it's reasonable to expect that Apple, or someone, might offer an adaptation of Speakable Items that suits a certain accent, or at least, in your case, a "posh" accent, so that at least you could make the thing work without having to imitate an American.

I wonder if Hank Hill's iMac would recognize his accent? [Of course, Hank would never really own an iMac -- that must have been his wife's. Hank would have a Dell.]

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osxpounder



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