DragonDictate
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Tell Gmail what to do with the latest Dragon Dictate for Mac
Let's face it: not everyone uses Nuance's Dragon Dictate software to power a ridiculously automated dorm room, the less creative among us have had to get by using it to take notes or write term papers. No matter what you do with it, however, you might appreciate that the latest Mac version of the app lets you use your mouth instead of your fingers to write emails and navigate your inbox -- so long as you're using Firefox or Safari to access Gmail. You can tell Mac's word processor, Pages, what to do too. Beyond that, Dictate will also transcribe single-speaker recordings either from a smartphone or digital voice recorder now (including .mp3 and .wav files), and, what's more, it apparently boasts improved voice recognition accuracy. The suite is $200 directly from the developer should you want to give your hands a rest, or perhaps you just really like hearing the sound of your own voice.
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.
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.
