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Oct. 28th, 2022 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzyjjHi everybody. I hope you're all doing well and as always welcome back to Friday. To those in the midst of Samhain, happy Harvest.
This week saw the release of Mac OS 13--named Ventura--to the masses and as has been the case ever since I started using a Mac I've been playing around. I'm happy to report that for me at least, Apple once again did not disappoint. I'm not going through all the new stuff because there's a lot of it and time is rather short. Additionally, the good folks at AppleVis have once again cranked out a well-rounded summary of all that is new and changed for screen reader and screen magnification users. Their post may be accessed at this link: https://applevis.com/blog/new-features-changes-improvements-bugs-macos-13-ventura-blind-low-vision-users . But I would like to comment on one of the more prominent features, which I briefly mentioned in a prior entry on here. That is, the inclusion of new voices. Specifically, the Eloquence text-to-speech engine which is not new to me but might be for other screen reader users. Content warning: technical rambling ahead. If you are not among the technically-inclined, you may wish to skip over this part of the entry or the entry in its entirety. With that out of the way...I used Eloquence in the past on the JAWS for Windows screen reader. One of the thrills for me back then--as a lover of all things audio--was to switch between the different voices and play around with the various parameters. Well, this is still the case to this very day. I'm happy to report that while not perfect, Apple's implementation of the Eloquence text-to-speech engine is indeed a welcome addition at least for yours truly and I'm very excited to see what comes next. I'm unsure of all the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting regarding Eloquence on Apple products, but this is a big leap forward for the company where those with hearing impairments and/or other personal preferences are concerned. As mentioned there are a lot of other fixes and new things in Mac OS Ventura, but at this time I shall close the discussion.
Well...it seems that you've managed to make it to the end of yet another entry from me. Until next week, please be safe and take care.
This week saw the release of Mac OS 13--named Ventura--to the masses and as has been the case ever since I started using a Mac I've been playing around. I'm happy to report that for me at least, Apple once again did not disappoint. I'm not going through all the new stuff because there's a lot of it and time is rather short. Additionally, the good folks at AppleVis have once again cranked out a well-rounded summary of all that is new and changed for screen reader and screen magnification users. Their post may be accessed at this link: https://applevis.com/blog/new-features-changes-improvements-bugs-macos-13-ventura-blind-low-vision-users . But I would like to comment on one of the more prominent features, which I briefly mentioned in a prior entry on here. That is, the inclusion of new voices. Specifically, the Eloquence text-to-speech engine which is not new to me but might be for other screen reader users. Content warning: technical rambling ahead. If you are not among the technically-inclined, you may wish to skip over this part of the entry or the entry in its entirety. With that out of the way...I used Eloquence in the past on the JAWS for Windows screen reader. One of the thrills for me back then--as a lover of all things audio--was to switch between the different voices and play around with the various parameters. Well, this is still the case to this very day. I'm happy to report that while not perfect, Apple's implementation of the Eloquence text-to-speech engine is indeed a welcome addition at least for yours truly and I'm very excited to see what comes next. I'm unsure of all the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting regarding Eloquence on Apple products, but this is a big leap forward for the company where those with hearing impairments and/or other personal preferences are concerned. As mentioned there are a lot of other fixes and new things in Mac OS Ventura, but at this time I shall close the discussion.
Well...it seems that you've managed to make it to the end of yet another entry from me. Until next week, please be safe and take care.
