called "Speakable Items", simply by speaking their name (while the system is in listening mode). Apple shipped a number of AppleScripts in this folder, but aliases, documents and folders can be opened in the same way. Additional functionality is provided by individual applications. An application programming interface lets programs define and modify an available vocabulary. For example, the Finder provides a vocabulary for manipulating files and windows. In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple introduced "Dictation," intended for general text. Originally, it required the sending of audio data to Apple servers for processing. In OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple added the option to download support for dictation without an Internet connection. As of OS X 10.9.3, eight languages (19 dialects) are supported. Hardware Apple produced two microphones under the product name "Apple PlainTalk Microphone". The first shipped inclusive with Macintosh LC and early Performa models, and was circular in appearance. It was designed to sit in a holder attached to the side of a CRT display, and be lifted out and held by the mouth when talking. The second model was introduced alongside the AV models in the Macintosh Quadra series in 1993 but was also sold separately. It was designed to be positioned on top of the screen and to be sensitive to sound from the front. Both models had a longer connector, the tip of which was used to provide the microphone with bias voltage. References External links Folklore.org: The Original Macintosh, about the Macintosh introduction API Documentation: 10.14+ frameworks: Speech (Recognition), Speech Synthesis (Part of AVFoundation) Cocoa API: NSSpeechSynthesizer and NSSpeechRecognizer Carbon API (ApplicationServices): Speech Synthesis Manager (the old diphone-based system with pitch control used by ) Technote TN 22 - MacinTalk - The Final Chapter Classic Mac OS-only software made by Apple Inc. Speech synthesis software Computer-related introductions in 1984