Voice Recognition


Dear Apple and Nuance, You’ve Been Dating Long Enough… Time To Get Hitched

I’ve never had much luck as a matchmaker. In fact I am perfectly horrible at it. Still, this is one time when I am pretty sure that a marriage ought to take place. That’s right, I think it is time for Apple and Nuance to start getting serious about one another. Sure, Nuance now owns MacSpeech Dictate and Scribe which run on OS X. And yes, Nuance’s Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search work beautifully on the iPhone and iPad. But that’s just dating. I want to see them take the next step. And what is that next step? I want…


MacSpeech Scribe Review

I use a number of different voice to text transcription methods in my daily life. When I’m on my iMac or my MacBook Pro I use MacSpeech Dictate. It works quite well. When I’m on my iPhone I will either use Nuance’s Dragon Dictation application or Jott. Both of them work well and there are advantages and disadvantages to both. (Like the 30 second limits on speech before it needs to be transcribed.) Today a new method of transcription came online– MacSpeech Scribe– and I’ve begun to use it. What do I think? I am impressed by the accuracy of…


Samson Go Mic Compact USB Microphone – Review

For quite a while I used MacSpeech Dictate with the built-in microphones and both my iMac and my MacBook Pro. Recently, however, I began using a microphone whenever I dictate. While I find it a bit inconvenient to set up and use a microphone every time I want to dictate something, especially when using my MacBook Pro, the increased accuracy of the transcription more than makes up for the few seconds it takes to get ready. I have been using a number of different microphones but one of my current favorites is the Go Mic from Sampson. The microphone is…


Blue Microphones Yeti Review

While at CES this year I had the opportunity to spend some time at the Blue Microphones booth.  One of the products which really “wowed” me during demo time was their “Yeti” microphone. The Yeti is being touted as the world’s first THX certified Microphone.  The USB powered microphone is the perfect tool for for a wide range of projects including podcasts, vocals, live or event recording, interviews, broadcasts, instruments, bands and more. Blue Microphones was kind enough to send both myself and Joel a Yeti for review and the following dual review contains both of our observations.


Getting Started With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10

In this, the second edition of “Look Ma No Hands, Voice Recognition Technology Today” we’ll take a look at getting started with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 Professional. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard has an MSRP of $99. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred has an MSRP of $199.


Voice Control with Vlingo 3.0 Plus Review

Vlingo provides voice-control for BlackBerry devices, iPhones, and is currently beta-testing a version for Nokia smartphones (N95, N95 8GB, E51 and E71). I have been using free versions of Vlingo on both a BlackBerry and an iPhone, and have been very impressed. When Vlingo released version 3.0 for the BlackBerry, I immediately wanted to put the update through it’s paces.


Revolabs xTag Wireless Microphone Review

I’ve been using voice recognition software for a number of years. Back in my Windows days I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speaking. I started with Version 8 and the accuracy improved through my use of Version 9.5. (Version 10 has just been released and it promises to be even better!) When I made the move to Mac a little bit over a year ago I went searching for voice recognition software. I found and purchased iListen from MacSpeech. It worked well enough but was a far cry from the power and accuracy of Dragon. A few months ago MacSpeech updated iListen,…