Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
German Speak & Spell - Word Buddy
By bohus
I've spoken before about how amazing the Speak & Spell line of toys still are today. That Texas Instruments was able to put high quality speech synthesis into a toy was simply unheard of. Today countless toys feature digital speech and elaborate sound effects, but back in the 70's TI had something pretty special.
Almost every kid I knew had a Speak & Spell (it even had a featured role in the film E.T.), and many similar devices followed; Speak & Math, Speak & Read, and even units destined for other countries like the Word Buddy.
Not content to croak robotically in English, Speak & Spell technology appeared in units outside the US. I've got both La Dictee Magique (French) and Word Buddy (German, and insanely rare for some reason). Both do a great job enunciating in their respective languages, more testimony to the greatness of that TI speech chip. I've seen photos online of an Italian unit called "Grillo", and I imagine that there must have been a Spanish unit but I've never seen it. I hope that any Hispanohablantes out there with a spare one drop me a line in the comments section.
More details, including pictures of the innards of a Word Buddy
