Items of interest may include, web surfing through the telephone without a
computer and a recourding studio for recording audio files into HTML
documents.
You can learn more about Prodworks and P Webspeak at
www.prodworks.com
Jim.
From: Ray Ingram <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Update on pwWebSpeak and General Items
Hello,
It is well beyond the time when we should have provided you all with an
update on what is going on with pwWebSpeak and other activities at The
Productivity Works. Although we have been very quiet, we have been very
busy with all sorts of new developments.
The status of the new release of pwWebSpeak and the status of our other new
products are noted in the sections below. If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact us at any time.
best regards,
Ray Ingram
Executive Vice President
The Productivity Works, Inc.
www.prodworks.com
1. pwWebSpeak - Update Information
The new version of pwWebSpeak, which will be known as pwWebSpeak Release 2,
is for Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT is currently in another round of
testing. We are completing internal testing on the next beta release and
we plan to make available this next beta release the week of May 25. This
is planned to be the last beta release and the are then planning to bring
the release to full production status in June.
All customers who have purchased the commercial version of pwWebSpeak and
who are current on their subscription for support, maintenance and upgrade
services, are eligible to receive this release at no charge. All users who
participate in the pwWebSpeak/NC program and have paid their subscription
for support, maintenance and upgrade services, are also eligible to
receive this release at no charge.
The commercial cost of pwWebSpeak will remain at $150 with this release,
and this will include a copy of the SoftVoice software synthesizer and a
copy of pwEMail when it becomes generally available.
An overview of pwWebSpeak Release 2 will be posted on our Web site in the
next day or two.
2. pwEMail
This is a simple e-mail product that we plan to have in beta testing
shortly and in production in June or July. pwEMail works effectively with
visual browsers, such as Netscape, and non-visual browsers such as pwWebSpeak.
pwEMail will be available as a stand-alone product for $125 per copy, and
will be included in the commercial versions of pwWebSpeak Release 2 which
remains priced at $150.
3. pwSpeech
pwSpeech is a new product which allows developers to incorporate speech
into their applications or Web pages. pwSpeech is an Active X control that
may be incorporated in general applications written in such things as
Visual Basic, Visual C++, Java scripts or applets, or any language that
supports use of Active X controls.
pwSpeech is a Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT product and requires that the
developer has a speech synthesizer that supports the Microsoft Speech API
(SAPI).
pwSpeech is available now and costs $1,250 per development copy. There are
no run time licenses associated with pwSpeech.
4. pwTelephone
pwTelephone provides the ability to access information from a PC or server
via the telephone. This allows the telephone to be used to provide such
things as radio reading services where the recordings are broadcast live in
Real Audio or archived.
pwTelephone will be available for general release in June and will cost
$550 per copy. One copy of pwTelephone will service one incoming telephone
line. Details and requirements for pwTelephone will be posted on the Web
site this week.
5. LpStudio
LpStudio provides simple capabilities for recording synchronized audio,
text, and images and for creating digital audio from existing recorded
materials. LpStudio uses industry standard protocols so that the results
may be played locally, from CD, over an Intranet, or over the Web itself.
Recordings are done using teleprompting technique which makes the recording
and synchronization processes extremely simple.
LpStudio will be generally available in June and will cost $125 per copy.
Details and requirements will be posted on the Web site this week.
6. pwMedia
pwMedia is a new product which acts as a player for digital audio documents
and materials created using the new Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language (SMIL). SMIL is a language which allows the definition and
controlling of multi-media activities within the Web environment.
pwMedia will be available generally for use as an add-on component with
pwWebSpeak in August, and available as a stand-alone player on August. The
cost of pwMedia as an add-on to pwWebSpeak or as the stand-alone player,
will be $45 per copy.
7. SoftVoice/SSIL
As many of you know, we have been working to create a general interface for
the SoftVoice speech synthesizer so that it can be used by screen readers
and other programs that utilize the standard Arkenstone SSIL interface to
speech synthesizers.
We have been working on this for an extended period of time, but have found
that the underlying functions within the synthesizer do not support the
functions required by screen readers through the SSIL interface. This has
caused the SoftVoice/SSIL interface to consistently fail our internal
testing with screen readers.
Currently we are waiting to see if the manufacturer of the SoftVoice
synthesizer is in a position to make the changes needed to support the SSIL
interface as used by Screen Readers.
The end result is that this project is on hold until we get feedback from
the manufacturer.
*** end of update.
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