dragon-dictate
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Mountain Lion's dictate software compared to Dragon Dictation
Macworld has done an interesting comparison of two different dictation offerings available on your Mac: They've looked at the core dictation service available in the latest version of OS X, Mountain Lion, and compared it to Nuance's classic Dragon Dictation service, comparing the two in terms of ease of use and accuracy. And the results are basically what you might expect: Mountain Lion's dictation offering isn't bad, but if you really want to try depending on dictation for longer and more regular tasks, it's probably worth buying into Nuance's dedicated solution. Mountain Lion's dictation is fairly easy to try: Just hit the Function key (Fn) on your keyboard twice and start talking. As Macworld notes, it will work with your Mac's built-in mic, but if you really want to use it accurately, it's probably worth investing in a close-up mic that will pick up your voice more clearly and catch certain speech inflections. Unfortunately, the core dictation functionality will only work for about 30 seconds, so it's probably better to grab Dragon if you want to pull off longer texts. Though the sample size is relatively small, Macworld found that Dragon had fewer misses in accuracy, and was more able to pick up on special pronunciations and words than the core Mountain Lion software. Which makes sense -- Nuance has been doing this for years, and the Dragon software is designed to follow this focus. Plus, the Mountain Lion dictation app is built-in for free, and the Dragon software starts out at $149. You can pick it up on the company's website.
Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac adds audio transcription
Dragon Dictate 3 for OS X is on the way, with a lot of improvements and one standout feature -- the ability to transcribe a recorded digital file. According to the company, Dragon Dictate lets you transcribe recorded audio files so you can capture your thoughts while they're still fresh in your mind using a digital voice recorder, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Simply establish a user profile for a digital voice recorder, and Dragon Dictate quickly and easily transcribes the recorded audio files. Dragon Dictate for Mac supports .wav, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4, .aif, and .aiff audio file formats, as well as any recorded notes using the free Dragon Recorder app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch (fourth gen). Dragon Dictate 3 also supports a wide variety of Bluetooth headsets for input. Other features include a claimed 15 percent improvement in accuracy and the app has beefed up its correction methodology. As before, Dragon Dictate allows you to control your Mac by voice and it supports commands for dictating into the Mountain Lion Notes and Reminder applications. The application is available for pre-order now at US$199.00. Owners of previous products like MacSpeech Dictate or Dragon Dictate can upgrade for $149.99. Downloads will be available on September 13, and boxed orders begin shipping on September 24. This is a welcome update for people who like to use speech recognition software. I've dictated large parts of a book I wrote using Dragon Dictate and I use it frequently for emails and reports. Of course Mountain Lion has built-in speech recognition with a feature called Dictation, but I find it a hit-and-miss proposition. Sometimes it works pretty well, sometimes it is completely unresponsive. The Dragon Dictate product, unlike the Apple Dictation feature, does not require an internet connection to work. We'll get a review copy of this latest Dragon Dictate soon, and will have a detailed review once we've given it a thorough test drive. Screenshots are below. %Gallery-164418%
UC Berkeley freshman shows us his ridiculously automated dorm (video)
Besides beer pong, the whole point of going away to college is to blossom into an independent, motivated, self-sufficient adult. That is, of course, unless your dorm's name is BRAD (Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm), where freshman Derek Low controls devices all around his room without even getting out of bed. An app on his phone can adjust ambient lighting and curtain position depending on the situation. His laptop uses Dragon Dictate to turn shouts into tasks his pile of servos and motors can accomplish. Just saying "Romantic mode" makes a disco ball pop out of the ceiling and plays the epically passionate Elton John song, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight." As if that wasn't enough, the emergency "party mode" button located next to the bed activates a bunch of lasers and strobes, as well as fog and blacklights while a bumpin' stereo system cranks out dance music. This dorm is clearly every college freshman's dream. I mean, who wouldn't want to wake up with Justin Bieber every morning? Check out the video after the break.
Nuance reportedly buying Swype for $100 million
It's only been about a year since Nuance traced Swype's finger gliding input method with QuickType, but it seems like the firm is ready for the real deal: Michael Arrington says it's nabbing the Seattle-based startup to the tune of $100 million. With competition heating up in the voice command space after Apple's Siri assisted iPhone upgrade, Nuance could be stocking up on more traditional input methods, or at the very least edging out the potential for more competition. There's no word just yet if Swype will replace or fade away in lieu of the firm's own traceable input brand, but we'll be sure to let you know if we hear something official.
Nuance Dragon Dictate 2.5 for Mac review
Voice recognition. Or, more specifically, speech recognition. It's one of those technological wonders that we all seem to take for granted, while simultaneously throwing laughter its way for not being nearly sophisticated enough. Anyone that's used an early generation Ford SYNC system -- or pretty much any vehicular voice command system -- knows exactly what we're getting at. While processing speeds and user interfaces have made great strides in the past handful of years, voice recognition has managed to continually disappoint. It's not that things aren't improving, it's just that they aren't improving at the same rate as the hardware and software surrounding them. Even today, most new automobiles have to be spoken to loudly, pointedly and directly, and even then it's a crapshoot as to whether or not your command will be recognized and acted upon. For as much as we complain, we totally get it. Teaching a computer program how to recognize, understand and act upon the movement of human vocal chords is a Herculean task. Throw in nearly unlimited amounts of dialect and regional variation with even a single language, and it's a wonder that programs such as Nuance's Dragon Dictate even exist. Teaching a vehicle how to route calls, adjust volume and tweak a radio station is one thing, but having a program that turns actual speech into presentable documents requires a heightened level of accuracy. The newest build of Dragon Dictate for Mac (v2.5) allows users to seamlessly combine dictation with mouse and keyboard input in Microsoft Word 2011; it also gives yappers the ability to more finely control how Dragon formats text such as dates, times, numbers and addresses, while a free iOS app turns your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into a wireless microphone. We recently pushed our preconceived notions about this stuff aside in order to spend a solid week relying on our voice instead of our fingertips -- read on to see how it turned on. %Gallery-132799%
Dragon Dictate for Mac now available
That didn't take long. Earlier this year, Nuance Communications took over the MacSpeech product, with the intention of improving what was already a good application. That has now been accomplished, and today Dragon Dictate is available for the Macintosh platform -- a reasonably priced upgrade for MacSpeech users. The new version offers easier editing, the ability to switch between different microphones, and it uses a computer voice to proofread your dictated documents. The speech engine has been updated to new state-of-the-art technology. It's nice to see speech recognition on the Mac that finally has feature parity with the PC versions. There are some nice new and unexpected features like saying 'search Google for Greek restaurants', and you can do a Spotlight search by voice.
Encouraged by iPhone market, Nuance announces new medical apps
Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search from Nuance Communications were definite crowd-pleasers, so today the company is announcing specialized medical versions of the apps for physicians and medical professionals. The first app is Dragon Medical Mobile Dictation. It is designed to allow clinicians to dictate patient notes, emails and text messages instead of typing them on a mobile device. The idea is to let medical professionals dictate and capture information in real time with a smartphone, without having to return to a desktop or laptop computer. The product is expected to be available before the end of the year. Nuance is also announcing Dragon Medical Mobile Search, a variation of Dragon Search that will allow medical staff to search a variety of medical websites completely by voice using an iPhone. The app is expected to be released by April 30. Finally, Nuance is unveiling Dragon Medical Mobile Recorder, a voice capture app that will allow clinicians to conduct on-the-go dictation using a smartphone. Once the sound is recorded, the file is forwarded through Nuance's background speech recognition technology and into a transcription where a high quality draft is created, then returned for review and sign off. The Dragon Medical Recorder is due before the end of this year. Nuance estimates that by the end of next year, 81% of physicians will be using smartphones. More interesting is that the company research shows the iPhone breaking away from the pack of other smartphones to be the preferred device in the medical enterprise. According to the Nuance research, the Blackberry is still the leading smartphone among physicians, but the iPhone growth is explosive and almost doubled in use by physicians between 2008 and 2009. In a July survey of Medical Students it was found that 45% owned an iPhone or an iPod touch. Of those who did not own a smartphone, 60% planned to buy an iPhone or iPod touch within a year. That has to be good news for Apple, and I would expect Steve Jobs and colleagues to continue to push the iPhone into the enterprise in the coming months. For Nuance Communications, it's a further endorsement of Apple products. Earlier this month Nuance bought MacSpeech, the company that produces MacSpeech Dictate. The application uses the Dragon speech recognition engine. Nuance also provided the voice recognition that powers the popular Siri app for the iPhone, that lets users do searches with natural language queries. Peter Durlach, the Senior V.P. of marketing and Strategy for Nuance, told me the company is also taking a close look at the Apple iPad for use by medical professionals. The company will see if the form factor works for doctors and nurses, and Durlach says he expects the iPad to be an important part of future Nuance solutions.
Dragon Dictation and Search now updated, supports iPod touch
If you lust after Dragon Dictation [iTunes link] and Dragon Search [iTunes link] and own an iPod touch, your prayers have been answered. Nuance, the creator of both apps, now has updated versions of the free apps that allow 2nd and 3rd generation iPod touch devices to dictate and search all they want. Of course, you'll need a microphone if you don't use the Apple-included headset/mic. iPod touch users were sorely disappointed when the Dragon apps came out last month, but they should be happy now. In addition to the iPod touch support, the new version of Dragon Dictation has an enhanced UI, and now the app can figure out that you are done dictating when there is silence. This is configured on the iPhone settings menu, rather than in the Dictation app itself. There is also an opt-out button if you don't want the app to send your list of contacts to the Nuance server for enhanced recognition. Dragon Search also has an updated UI and sports some bug fixes. I think the major complaint against the Dictation app is the 20-second limit on length of the audio clip that will be processed into text. That may be to keep the bandwidth to the Nuance servers low, but I think it is the only real weakness the app has. I think it's likely we'll see more updates of these apps with extended features. The apps are free for now, but Nuance has said they may not be free forever, so if you crave an app to send a quick email or text, or search the web using only your voice, best to get off the dime and download these puppies.
