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MacSpeech Dictate (Mac/Leopard) | 
 enlarge | From: MacSpeech
Category: Software
List Price: £149.95
Buy New: £119.98
You Save: £29.97 (20%)
New (2) from £119.98
Rating:  12 reviews
Platform: Mac Os X
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.8 x 2.6
UPC: 806709380074
ASIN: B0014FHK1W
Release Date: March 21, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Poor quality software released too early April 8, 2008
Astley Cantlow (England)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought Macspeech Dictate because I was impressed with the Dragon voice recognition engine having used Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 by Nuance at work. However, Macspeech Dictate is nowhere near as good as it's Windows counterpart.
I'd like to say I was writing my review using this software, but although both my Macbook (2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo) and the Plantronics microphone are working properly -- I've checked that my Mac is working and that the microphone is recognised by my Mac -- Macspeech Dictate is not.
Neither does Macspeech Dictate learn new words. One of the great features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Windows is that you can train it to recognise words on the fly. Until Macspeech releases an update to sort this, you'll just have to hope it recognises a 'new' word every time you start up.
Towards the end of the Macspeech Dictate user's manual, someone's chosen to include a jokey paragraph advising users to get a voice coach if they're having difficulty with dictation. Rather than shifting the blame on users for annunciating incorrectly and joking about it, Macspeech should be releasing voice recognition software that actually recognises their customers' voices.
I'm not a beginner at transcription, dictation or the Dragon voice recognition engine. I've been transcribing professionally for more than six years and I've been using the Nuance version of Dragon every day at work for some months. I got it working in under an hour and early on my second day using it I was producing work astonishingly quickly. As a professional working to tight deadlines, Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 has aided my transcription productivity, helped me learn dictation from scratch and enabled me to become a better transcriber all round.
In contrast, after nearly four hours working on Macspeech basics, I'm producing text that looks like it came from a Babelfish translation and, thanks to the lack on-the-fly vocabulary training, ending these Babelfish word salad sentences with 'period', rather than 'Full stop', pronounced in the American accent that I've cultivated especially for using Macspeech Dictate.
Wait for a later version of Macspeech Dictate. Until then, if you want to dictate/transcribe, buy a Windows machine for less than half the price of a Mac and Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 for less than half the price of Macspeech Dictate and start working immediately.
 works out of the box better than I expected April 7, 2008
Badbirder (Staines, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am dictating this review using MacSpeech dictate. I have only done the basic five-minute training. I know there is more training that I can do to make myself even more accurate. However I am speaking as a normal pace if not faster, and I think that this software is quite remarkable. It has the potential to seriously improve my productivity.
I do not know why other people have given this product a bad review. They nearly put me off buying it. However after seeing other positive reviews including the very comprehensive examination and positive endorsement that David Pogue gave to dictate, I decided to take the risk. I am very pleased that I did.
As you can see there are one or two click choose back click choose errors in the sentences that I have dictated. Nevertheless I still think that this is very impressive for software that I have only been using a less than half hour.
It may interest you to know that I'm on a 2.8 GHz iMac with two gig of RAM. I am using the microphone that came in the box and I'm speaking in my study which is relatively quiet. Other than that I am using my normal speaking voice. it is also worth noting that there is a software update from MacSpeech that you have do install as soon as you have installed the software from as CD, so it will help to be on the Internet when you install Dick Tate. It seems to work better if you speak naturally rather than enunciating words to clearly.
 No problems am truly impressed April 12, 2008
S. Griffiths (England, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had an accident and damaged the ligaments in my wrist which I had to have repaired with surgery. I had hoped that this offer would help me avoid having to use a keyboard and mouse too much because that hurts my wrist. I have been using the software is the only two hours now and okay the instructions could be a lot better but I find it works fine.
Reading some of the comments below I was in two minds whether to buy this. I too had the problem of not being able to set up a profile when I first installed the software. I noticed though that the microphone issued with the software is not the one that the profile default to! This is silly but once the correct microphone is selected in the five minutes training done in the software works.
Not sure if it actually helped but I got the software to 'read' some scientific papers I had written in the past. In summary, buy the software, it works! It only gets four stars because the instructions are non-existent! And yes I am writing this with Dictate.
Honestly, just brilliant!!! May 1, 2008
R. M. Mcmeechan (UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am dictating this from MacSpeech Dictate after only training it 30 minutes. I will leave the review unedited so you can see the accuracy of this programme. It is far better than other speech recognition programs for Windows or Mac. It does have a few bugs that needs to work out, but the sheer accuracy of the programme is astounding.
I don't normally write reviews but after seeing the previous bad ones for MacSpeech Dictate, I felt I had to say how impressed I have been with it. I would thoroughly recommend it and after the updates this is going to be head and shoulders above the rest. although, I do suggest not using the inbuilt microphone as it provided me with a few problems, but if you get the noise cancelling microphone the difference is amazing.
My advice, buy it now!!!
Macspeech Dictate doesn't work! April 3, 2008
Mac user 33 (London UK)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This software does not work. You can't create a user profile so you can't get started. Checking on the web seems to show many others have the same problem which isn't being rectified promptly. Do not buy it!!!
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