Hi Josh, I think your estimate of the price of InfoVox/iVox voices for three different languages is too high. There's a different sale price for additional language packs once you've already purchased one InfoVox/iVox or VisioVoice language pack. These prices are $74.50 for each additional (non-Scandinavian) language pack (normally $109) and $49.50 if the additional language pack is English. This would still cost $248 (before October 31; $367 after October 31). But an alternative, if you're just using the other languages to read web pages, pdf files, and documents (and not control your operating system) might be to get the InfoVox/iVox and GhostReader bundle for $109 (sale price before October 31) and add two extra language licenses for GhostReader (single user license cost of $24.95 each until October 31). That appears to give you one language set of InfoVox/iVox voices for general VoiceOver use (in English), and a total of 3 language voices to use in GhostReader for text-to-speech reading of documents, web pages, and conversions -- so you can switch to voices in three different languages when reading documents or web pages.
I admit, I'd like to figure this out myself and decide whether I just want to get a bilingual or trilingual single user license for GhostReader ($59.95 and $74.95 respectively, regular price), or add an InfoVox/iVox language pack for $74.95 (before October 31) to VisioVoice. I don't really need to boot up my Mac in French (smile). I also hadn't realized that when you buy VisioVoice in another language, you get one English InfoVox/iVox voice free. I'm going to cc this to David Niemeijer at assistiveware in hopes that he can explain the restrictions on using InfoVox/iVox multi-lingual voices with GhostReader, as opposed to general InfoVox/iVox voices with VoiceOver (or with their VisioVoice product that works with VoiceOver). Cheers, Esther On Thursday, August 09, 2007, "Josh de Lioncourt" wrote: > >Just some musings on their pricing schemes. > >If I'm understanding the web site correctly, it seems that the >Infovox voices are purchased on a language-by-language basis. In the >US it seems to be about $149 per language, on sale through October >for $99. Each language comes with three or four voices, from what I >can tell, and the samples are very impressive on a lot of them. > >There are, typically, one voice per language that I would use, and a >few different languages that I'd like to have. The disappointing >thing is I can't justify spending $100 on a language of voices of >which I'll only ever use one, especially when there are other >languages I'd like to have as well. > >I think a voice-by-voice option would be more advantageous for them >and us. If I could buy just the voices I wanted, they'd have my >money. As it is, to get the three voices I'm interested in, it'd >cost me $297 if I buy before October 31, and $447 after October. >That's insanity and I'll never do it. > >Cepstral, if memory serves, does sell their voices on a voice-by- >voice basis. It's a pity that Assistiveware hasn't taken the same >approach. > >For reference, the web site for Assistiveware is: > >http://www.assistiveware.com > >Josh de Lioncourt >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >...my other mail provider is an owl... > > > > >
