MacSpeech Dictate | 
| From: MacSpeech, Inc.
List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $159.99
You Save: $40.00 (20%)
New (17) Used (1) from $159.99
Rating:  77 reviews
Sales Rank: 64
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Mac Os X Intel
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.9 x 2.5
MPN: MSDICTATE
Model: MACSPEECH DICTATE
UPC: 806709380876
EAN: 0806709380876
ASIN: B0014KJ6EQ
Release Date: February 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Amazing Accuracy | | • | Dictate anywhere you can type | | • | Minimal Training Required | | • | Works With The Apps You Already Have | | • | Comes With Everything You Need, Including Headphones |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
You'll feel like you have your very own typist with MacSpeech Dictate. It's extremely accurate and it adapts to your voice. It only takes five minutes or less of training, so you can get started fast. You can dictate text into any application that supports text entry from the keyboard, even Windows apps running in a virtual environment such as Parallels or Fusion, and also applications like Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, iChat, Mail, iPhoto, Keynote, etc. You can even use it to surf the web, or use it for basic menu commands like print, cut, copy, paste, etc.
Internet Ready - Surf the web with your voice Built especially for the Mac Uses the renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition engine Requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher, including Mac OS X 10.5, and requires Intel-based Macintosh hardware
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| Customer Reviews: Read 72 more reviews...
 I think that it's pretty good, it could and will get better. March 31, 2008
Charles Bittner (Seacoast New Hampshire)
105 out of 109 found this review helpful
I have been a dragon date the user (DragonDictate user) on and off for years. And Dragon dictate was very good, and I think that MacSpeech picks up there. This review will be unedited so any words that are wrong or words that MacSpeech has gotten wrong.
I use a desktop microphone since I am disabled facing the hassle up putting on a headset is daunting. I think the principle reason many people fail with speech recognition is that you need to speak in Word clumps, and pronounce each word clearly.
With this in mind I sit about 6-8 inches away from my microphone and get almost perfect recognition. I also make it a habit to do all the training that is available, this way the program understands what I sound.
So as you can see from this review, MacSpeech did a rather well job of capturing everything that I want to say.
The only real complaint I have, is where is the health (help) section. Hopefully they improve this in future releases, not having a PDF manual to look at is kind of annoying. And also I have not found a way to train specific words as I save them (say them) this needs to be remedied ASAP.
Thanks for reading and I hope that this review helps you.
Charles Bittner
www.AskACapper.com
 Problems with installation AND little support from the company (Amended review) March 29, 2008
John Kitchens (Lexington, KY)
101 out of 104 found this review helpful
I hate to echo the sentiments of other posts, but it is important to get the point across that this software IS NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME. As with other posts, when I got to the "establish a profile" area, the software crashes. I tried it on 2 other machines (all Intel Macs) with similar results. After multiple attempts at contacting product support (no returned e-mails and hour long waits on hold), I was able to speak to an unhelpful support person. He said that they were having "tons of problems with installation profiles" and that they still did not understand what was causing the crash. He then sent me an e-mail with various "logs" to be sent back to them.
Do not buy this product until they have released version 1.1 or 1.2 to fix these problems. Even then, I would seriously consider not purchasing from a company that does not release the fact that they are having an epidemic of problems with this software, does not return e-mails, and has excessive wait times for customer service.
Amended review:
I was finally able to obtain a new data disk from MacSpeech. Although their customer service was terrible, I must say that they are pretty good as far as their dictation software is concerned. Having used Dragon since version 7.0, MacSpeech Dictate is by far the best voice recognition software I've ever used. The recognition is well above 99% in my experience. Probably the best aspect of this software is the ability to import terminology and have it recognized without having to actually train the terms into the program.
MacSpeech certainly needs to improve their customer support (shorter wait times on hold, better communication with customers, and support forums), their product is certainly quite good and worth the wait (and the tremendous hassle to obtain a functional data disk).
I must amend my review from one star to four stars. The only reason I withhold a five star review is because of the aforementioned customer support issues.
*Please note that I have dictated his entire review using MacSpeech dictate.
 The Best Speech Recognition Software I Have Ever Used April 14, 2008
R. Hudson Peralta (Detroit, MI)
73 out of 76 found this review helpful
I am a disabled web developer. I was born without hands, and my arms are about 8 inches long. I have tried many different speech recognition programs over the past 15 years. In fact I was one of the first students in Michigan to have a wheelchair mounted voice-recognition laptop. It was horrible and recognize nothing. Then a few years later I tried a few other pieces of speech recognition software, nothing was very good at all. I kind of gave up on speech recognition until last year I tried a program called iListen even that wasn't really up to par, but a month ago I received MacSpeech Dictate as a gift and after installing and setting up my voice profile I was in love with how accurate this software is. I am not sure software can get more accurate than this.
I have seen some negative reviews on Amazon and I'm not sure how anyone could give this software a bad review. Like I said I have tested and use a lot of software in the past and nothing has compared to this. I recommend this software to anyone with a disability, or anyone that is a slow typer.
I even typed this review with MacSpeech Dictate and it only took a few seconds. Because it allows me to speak in my natural voice and at my natural pace.
If no stars were an option, this would rate it April 5, 2008
Obiburner (Bend, OR United States)
39 out of 48 found this review helpful
Warning, the company selling this product is aware they have problems, major problems, which they've hidden on a web page of course, away from all of their positive accolades: "Our disc duplicator recently notified us that Data Discs may demonstrate a higher than normal failure rate for discs produced prior to March 20, 2008. The cause of this issue has been corrected. However, anyone experiencing difficulty mounting or using the data disc, or if the disc when mounted is not named "MacSpeech English Data," should contact MacSpeech, Inc. technical support for a replacement. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."
Now, this is a problem that could be easily corrected by one: Marking boxes made after that date, and informing Apple store representatives that a problem exists, and if your box doesn't have an updated sticker, chances are it won't work. Of course, that would be considerate and would drive down sales. So no, that won't happen.
Next, they could offer a download of the disk as an image accessible only by entering your serial number so as to reduce piracy. Cheap, easy, no long delays, no frustrated users, no over worked "service" reps, (hey, service, that is what they hire these poor folks for right, solving your problem within minutes of placing your call? Or is that just a TV advertising myth? ) no long waits in a phone que, just low easy problem solving.
Is this an option?
Stop laughing.
Instead, you have to contact them, wait until they decide to get back to you, and then wait for them to determine that your disk is bad, than wait some more for them to get around to shipping you a new disk and of course, they will use the cheapest manner of shipping to get it to you.
Hooray for expensive Beta programs!!!
But wait, what if it isn't just your disk is bad? Since you can't get past the poor install to see if the program works,you might have other problems.
What could they be?
Let's start with the extremely cheaply made in China "Platronics" head set. I don't know if mine are good or bad, since they don't light up when I turn them on after plugging them in. Of course, that could be because they are only recognized by the program. Seems odd, but maybe. Of course, if you go to the Macspeech website, try to find trouble shooting or FAQ's forget about it.
So, if and or when you get your new disk, your problems may just be beginning.
For two hundred dollars, I save it to I'll buy VMware for bucks after rebate, load my old Winxp, and use my old $49.00 Naturally speaking 9, and take the remaining $150 for something that is tried and true, maybe a new Ipod Nano.
Macspeech, SHAME ON YOU!!!!
MacSpeech Dictate 1.0 NOT A Real Release March 15, 2008
M. Kirsch (Santa Clara, CA USA)
34 out of 39 found this review helpful
MacSpeech Dicate is a product that replaces the company's "long-in-the-tooth" iListen software.
I owned iListen for years and paid for many updates, but the software never worked well enough to actually use it.
The promise of MacSpeech Dicate is that it will actually recognize speech because it has a completely new recognition engine licensed from the Dragon Dictate people.
Upon installing the software and going through a short training session, I found that Dictate did a pretty good job of recognizing my speech--even when using my MacBook Pro's built-in microphone, which NOT an officially supported device.
There were, however, some problems that I encountered using Dictate, including one that crashed the software. The way the software handles crashes is quite a kludge: the software puts up a warning message, opens a web browser that has instructions to follow, and opens up the Mac OS X console log so that the user can (or is expected to) copy the log, paste it into a mail message, and send the message off to MacSpeech.
Other products I've used have more automated and elegant ways of handling crash reporting.
The 1.0 version of Dictate does not handle learning specific mis-recognized words in a user-friendly fashion; this functionality is promised "later this year." Likewise, Dictate ships without any document or help system whatsoever.
Based on the amateurish manner in which crash reporting is handled, coupled with the complete absence of documentation/online help, I must rate this software as early Beta rather than general release 1.0 quality.
In its current incarnation, I could not recommend buying this product at the $190 price point. MacSpeech's web site has all kinds of fancy words stating why the product isn't available for purchase (yet) because they are (supposedly) taking care of their cross-grade customers; however, I believe they are actually charging their cross-grade customers $80 to do their Beta testing for them. Generally a bad move!
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