Category: accessible Devices
I just got a new Language Master. I got it to help me play word games on my phone and also to play the games that it comes with that I used to play when I was in high school. The one I used to have had a male voice and if you go to the Maxi Aids website and click on the link where it says hear this product it has a male voice. I'm not sure what kind of speech system it uses but the one I got has a female voice and its not as clear as the male voice was. Also, the Word Train game doesn't have the train sound anymore. I talked to three different people at Maxi Aids and they say its the same Language Master. I will post if I find anything else different about it. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't know... This is just weird...
http://www.maxiaids.com/products/83/Speaking-Language-Master-Special-Edition.html
This is correct. I can confirm that HumanWare Australia sell the product identical to what you have described. I would wager that there is not a device that ships with a male voice or a train sound anymore.
Hello, stil have one of those. It has a male voice, and the train whistle sound I heard it uses the key note gold synthesizer. At least mine does, not sure about the newer ones.
Thanks. Well it would have been nice if they had kept the same voice when they updated the dictionaries or maybe had both and let us be able to select which one we want to use in the menus or something. I think Maxi Aids should update their webpage to show what the new speech on the LM sounds like just so people know exactly what they're buying. I told one of the people from Maxi Aids and she said I needed to change the batteries. I'm just like no.
Ah so the old one did have a train sound. I thought so. I liked it. Silly I know. Also now when you turn it on it says "resuming" instead of "ready" and doesn't say "goodbye" when you turn it off. Not all that important but just something else I noticed.
I also like the train sound. The ready, goodbye, did give it a character, lol.
I still have my old language master, complete with train sound. It sits on my desk beside my computer, and I still, believe it or not, use it. The screen is cracked, and it's battered, but it still works as good as the day I got in in the early 90s.
I got rid of my first one because of a cracked screen. Now I wish I would have kept it because the rest of it worked fine.
I remember those things. we had them at my school as well. it was the language master special addition, or, the tape called it, s e, for short. it did use keynote gold for it's sinthetic speach. I was a player of keyboard wizard back in the day. when the batterys were low it did some funny stuff, let me tell ya.
Yes. They switched it to learnout and hauspie Michelle. I think it's unclear. That's one reason I kept my old keynote gold one. No if only they had a more powerful one that had many languages...
So what did you do with those? I've heard about them now being on here. But were they a dictionary? Sounds like you also had games on them. Seems like if you couldn't live update it from an online dictionary you might not want it anymore but I don't know.
Glad you all have fond memoryis of those things.
Perhaps I'll look it up on Wikipedia.
Here's a link to the Franklin Speaking Language Master they want $130 for it, in other words save up enough to buy two and you could probably get an iPod. But looks like it has lots of language stuff, for what? an ESL type program or something? Hmm well there's a niche for anything. So there ya go, they still make them.
I don't think that's the one that speaks everything. The one at Maxi Aids is $399 and at Independent Living Aids $495.
To the person who was looking for one with different languages, I found this one. Language Translator has English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish for $121.
http://www.maxiaids.com/products/3498/Merriam-Websters-Speaking-Collegiate-Dictionary.html
to LeoGuardian, yes their hideously overpriced now for the zero changes made except for the at best lateral voice change. However, I recieved one ten years ago and it is quite handy to have an easy dictionary right next to the computer in such a case as I need it.
ya the ones that had the keynote voice was the best one I think. they were pritty much all over my school when I was at the school for the blidn in jackson
Ah yes, the Language Master. I loved those things.
wow me too! I had one of those way back in grade school. I didn't know they were still around...
Still have mine. Got it in late 1993, still works fine despite having, I kid you not, a child's heel shaped crack in the screen.
yeah. I don't remember how I cracked the screen on mine, but I think I might have sat or stepped on it. What a great little device that thing was.
I dug mine out, and the damn thing doesn't work. I am not happy. It's not even that I left old batteries in it or anything, but it does nothing when I turn it on.
Never mind, I guess the batteries weren't in all the way or something, but I got it to work now. I played Word Train for shits and giggles, but maybe it's just me, but playing against a dictionary all but guarantees that your ass will get kicked into next week, lol.
lol yeah your ass will be taken to school, pritty much. lol
I got mine in the mid-'90's, and it still works. I don't use it as much as I used to, though. I used to play anagrams on it all the time, but the anagram games on this site are more fun.
Now I figured out the problem with my language master. The volume knob must have a short in it, because if you turn it even a little bit, it crackles, then the sound drops out entirely until you jiggle it around some more. I'm about to play some hangman now on it.
lol. I wouldn't do that. i'd hang on to that thing for as long as I could if I were you. lol. that shoudl happen to one a them watches that wont shut up if the time button gets pressed in. lol
Maybe you're right, but I can't exactly sell it with that particular fault in it, so the alternative would be to stick it back in storage for another 10 years, lol.
yeah you could do that and find it again and I bet it would still work
Lol now I need to find mine just to see if it still works. I used to love it back in the mid-90's!
I used to use it in elementary school, and, in my free time, would play anagrams on it. I never had one of my own, but this topic was calling my name, since those were some good times.
Got mine in 1998 and it still works despite my dropping it on floors a few times by accident. Something's rattling inside it now, but it still works fine. Warning. The. Batteries ... arhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhr!
Language masters...good times. I won word train all of once and I gloried in my success for ages. lol
Anyone ever found all 97 anagrams in the word parameter?
Nope, but you've given me a project for the next time (2018) I have free time...
I think I beat Hangman once.
To message 26, that crackling is just dirt. If you get some good old fashioned contact cleaner from Radio Shack, you can spray in the opening near the volume control and make it stop crackling.
I was one of the beta testers for the Franklin and met the creator. Nice guy. The speech may sound like Keynote Gold, but it was actually Berkley Speech. After I was done testing the unit and gave it back, I was thrilled when a brand new one arrived in the mail at no charge. this was in 1992. I couldn't afford one, so it was great. I've now lost the AC adapter, but it still works great. I wish there was a way to update the dictionary.
I like Anagrams the best. I set minimum word size to four for more challenge. I had no idea so many folks had one.
That thing had an AC adapter? I never had one. I always used 4 double A batteries. Good to know that the crackling has an easy fix. I just might do that. I was worried that something might have gone screwy in the wiring itself.
Its possible to have something broken in the speaker that causes that as well, but I'm not sure. Yes, they did come with an AC adaptor. Quite useful.
Well, considering how many times I dropped it when I was a kid, I wouldn't be at all surprised if some wiring got knocked loose. either way, it's a resilient little device.
yes, the AC adapter was usefull for if you changed your batterys, and if you wanted to save your word list or something like that you could plug that in while you were changing yoru batterys and it would save it. and yes, they said it's berkley speech, but I think berkely speech was taken over soon after that by polce dayta
Electronics were certainly made better back in those days.
Oh now don't say that. You'll attract Tiffanitsa.
It's true though.
I too still have my Language master. I've had it for over 10 years and it still works as well as it did the day I got it.
Oh man, reading this board is making me nostalgic for my braille lite 2000, perkins brailler, my old daisy player...good times.
I still use my Braille L.
I played games on mine last week, when my internet was down and I had nothing to read. It's amazing that it still works.
I wish my Braille Lite 40 still worked. Even if it did, which I seriously doubt since it hasn't been charged in at least 5 years, I wouldn't be able to get the games back on it. I had a disk drive for it, but it died. I still remember when that happened about 8 years ago. It wouldn't run on its battery, so it always had to be plugged in whenever I needed to use it. Well, one day I plugged it in and powered it on. it made this horrible buzzing sound, and then smelled smoky. I took the plug out right away, and when I picked up the disk drive, the back was pretty hot. Needless to say, I got rid of it after that. I could probably use HyperTerminal, if I wanted the games that bad, but I'm not even sure if I have the right cable anymore.
I used to play Blackjack on mine LOL.
Oh wow, join the club on the blackjack one, and was addicted to most of the games on the language master as well. I still have mine, and it's still working extremely well even after having a set of batteries in it for several years and not having used it lol.
I've turned it on once in a blue moon, and that's about it sense I mostly use the dictionary app on my mac, and don't have much time to play games anymore, and am now trying to sell the language master, but have had to have several buyers pull out on me. I used to love to play around with the word/message lists, and just type random stuff into them from song titles to my X's names, then decided 1 day to attempt to type the 10 commandments into the thing, then my batteries decided to run low, and it eraced everything I typed lol.
My ancient braille lite has about had it. Keeps turning itself on and off when I'm typing, even after the battery has been fully charged.
Wow! You guys are real lucky! I got one in 2007. It was quite useful. The games on that thing was effective in keeping boredom away when I had nothing to do. Sadly, in 2010, its screen cracked. I couldn't turn it on after that. Not sure how the screen cracked. May have been pressed too hard against something in my bag. They say some circuit board or something like that was damaged. It couldn't be repaired. It was the one with female voice synthesiser.