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February 2001, Week 1

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From:
LLTI-Editor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 5 Feb 2001 08:16:28 EST
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--- Forwarded Message from Kirk Anderson <[log in to unmask]> ---

>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
>References: <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 11:09:29 -0500
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum               <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Kirk Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #5910.10 an all-digital Mac LL ? (!)

------------------
Thank you Mr Delcloque.  When you say that Apple is partly to
blame, you are probably right. (And look at what they've
done with HyperCard -- it's unforgivable).

However, my suspicion is that if these three competing companies
did an earnest market study, based not on the needs of the worldwide
business and home markets, but on the educational market that
buys this product, they would conclude that it doesn't make
sense to ignore the Macintosh platform.  Or at least one of
them would reach that conclusion, and pretty much run
without competition in educational institutions favoring
Macintosh.  It's not 1997 anymore!

We are probably going to end up with a couple dozen
Windows machines in our revamped lab, and I'm not
very pleased about that.

Kirk Anderson
Dept of French Studies
Wheaton College



>--- Forwarded Message from Philippe Delcloque 
><[log in to unmask]> ---
>
>>From: Philippe Delcloque <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: "'Language Learning and Technology International Information 
>>Forum'"     <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject: RE: #5910.7 an all-digital Mac LL ? (!)
>>Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 09:47:13 -0000
>
>------------------
>This is obviously something which has changed relatively recently, as I
>said, in Europe in 1994, the UK Tandberg rep. told me that the company had
>been forced to integrate the Mac in labs due to (world-wide) demand (I
>presume mostly in the USA and Australasia).
>
>You can't blame developers and hardware manufacturers like Tandberg/Teleste
>or Sony, Can8, etc...  They have to consider the size of the market.  It is
>a vicious circle because it means Macs are used less and less in labs.
>
>It seems to me though that the biggest mistake lies with Apple who has NOT
>plowed enough effort in the speech interface (speech recognition in
>particular).  It has to be ironic that the company who brought out the first
>widely available talking computer in 1984, who then produced half decent
>speech synthesis with MacinTalk has not been able to push the envelope with
>SR, ironic indeed because if you type the expression "Speech Technology" in
>a good search engine such as google.com, the topmost site is Apple's speech
>section!
>
>Plaintalk has been developed for 2 languages, American English and Mexican
>Spanish and its functionalities are basic compared to the best speaker
>independent tools available from SR companies.  This will matter in the
>Language Lab. interface of the present and future.  We just have to
>collectively lobby Apple.
>
>Philippe

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