The Multilingual Speaking Clock is a freeware program that turns your expensive multimedia computer into a $9.95 speaking alarm clock! It has a nice graphical frontend that mimics a LC-display, it can speak in different languages and it has an alarm for reminding you at a preset time.
The time is presented in a graphical way that mimics a usual
liquid crystal display. In other words, it looks like any digital gadget should look like!
This graphical display requires that your display driver is capable of showing more
than 256 colors, but nowadays most computers have no problems with that. Should your
computer only have 256 colors or less, you have the option to show the time in a simpler
text mode.
Since it's a speaking clock, it can announce the time in different languages. On this site, only English is supported. English is included in your initial download. If you want some other language, you may be able to download that language from the authors home page at http://www.abc.se/~m8501/spclock/ . Currently, 12 languages are supported.
The following are the system requirements for this program:
- Windows 95
- Sound card and MS-ADPCM compression installed (if you want to hear it) The MS-ADPCM compression is included in the Windows 95 distribution, but not
always installed as default. There is more information on how to install it in the
program's help file
- Video driver with more than 256 colors (if you want the fancy look)
To Install:
1. Create a subdirectory named C:\PROGRAM FILES\SPClock.
2. Download the program by clicking on the link below. The program is in ZIP format so you will have to unzip it before you can use it. Unzip it into the C:\PROGRAM FILES\SPClock\ directory. Once unzipped, you may delete the zip file if you want to save the disk space.
3. Then simply launch the BigBen program by double clicking on SPClock.exe, or selecting Start/Run and specifying C:\PROGRAM FILES\SPClock\SPClock.exe. Once activated, the help files will explain in detail how to run the program. If you like the program, you will want to place a shortcut somewhere so you can start it easily when you wish. You might also want to place a shortcut to it in your startup folder if you want to run it all the time.
4. When this program is running, it will place an icon (clock dial) in the system tray at the lower right of your screen. The main window can be minimized so the program will run in the background announcing the time and maintaining the alarm.
5. The author is Leif Porsklev (Leif.Porsklev@abc.se).
The URL of the author's page is http://www.abc.se/~m8501/spclock/.