MacSpeech Dictate
by MacSpeech
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List Price: Category: Software See more product details and other editions |
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Software Reviews of MacSpeech Dictate
Customer Review: It has helped a lot
Summary: 4 Stars
I am being treated for tendinitis. In order to use my computer I had to find a way without using the keyboard, my right hand, and only a little bit of my left hand. MacSpeech enabled me to do this. It is very accurate with my dictation and though I am still learning to switch between a dictation mode and command mode I find it has made a tremendous difference. I am, of course, writing this review using MacSpeech.Customer Review: A Far Cry from the Promises
Summary: 1 Stars
Am I the only to be thoroughly disappointed and disgusted with this product? It is in no way comparable to Nuance for Windows. The problems are endless. It crashes constantly. Has poor recognition-- even though I have purchased several expensive and highly recommended microphones to maximize recognition. Word training is very poor. Customer support is non-existent. I honestly find this perhaps the most frustrating piece of software I have ever purchased. Frustrating because I know the value of good voice recognition software from Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking. No matter what they say to you-- if you are lucky enough to get them to say anything at all-- this product is not compatible with 10.6- Snow Leopard. It is just plain awful and more than a waste-- it is a shame. A terrible shame.
I keep wondering if it is only me. I have done everything they have told me and more. Bought new microphones, expanded internal iMac RAM memory; upgraded versions and still the program is utterly non-functional
Customer Review: Compatibility with new IMACs with I7
Summary: 2 Stars
I eagerly installed MacSpeech Dictate on my brand new IMAC (I-7 chip) but cannot progress beyond the initial set-up screen. There is no audio input. The supplied microphone appears to be working in sound preferences but not in MacSpeech. They're working on a fix but no news yet. Customer Review: Day One - Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars
I just installed this today, and I have to say, I'm impressed with how far voice recognition software for the Mac has come.
I've been playing with it for several years--IBM ViaVoice and iListen--and while the potential has been intriguing, the reality was always that voice recognition fell short. I understood, however, through reading David Pogue's column, that Dragon's software engine was much better in the Windows world, and was waiting for something to be ported. When I heard that MacSpeech Dictate came out, I wanted to try it, but the high price and the bad early reviews kept me from doing so. Now I'm glad I finally bought it.
The training is short and easy, and the result, once you get used to speaking your punctuation, is pretty good. I'm a good speller and a decent typist, but in my job I frequently have to transcribe handwritten notes or yellowed newspaper copy, or smudged faxes that can't be OCR'ed. So I'm looking forward to simply reading the copy in, rather than having to retype it all. And after just one hour of playing with it, I am confident this software is going to save me some time. Dictation already is at least 95 percent accurate, and it promises to rise as my MacSpeech and I get to know each other better.
The downsides? There are two: it's still way overpriced, compared to Naturally Speaking, and the single license is a pain in the neck. I would have dictated this review, for instance, but I'm not going to pay for another license, so the software is staying on my work computer. It seems to me there ought to be more flexibility than that; a single user owning two computers, home and work, is probably the standard today.
But, that said, I'm pretty happy with it. It seems that the Jetsons' version of the future has come one step closer. (Now I'm just waiting for my robot maid.)
Customer Review: pretty frustrating
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this software for transcribing handwritten documents and interviews (I listened to the interviews and repeated the words into the microphone). Unfortunately, it was almost always faster for me to type because the program makes a LOT of mistakes. My interviews and documents have tons of proper names and uncommon older words in them though, so I think MacSpeech might work better for other kinds of dictations or transcriptions. I also find this program to be extremely buggy. It usually crashes at least once per day, even after I installed the updated version. I used MacSpeech quite a bit because my wrists were getting strain injuries from typing, but I usually just ended up getting really frustrated. Maybe with a lot of effort, I could train MacSpeech to better recognize my voice, but I'm not willing to invest more time than it would take me just to type the transcription in the first place. I admire what this program can do, but I don't think I would buy it again.