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| From: MacSpeech, Inc.
List Price: $199.99
Buy New: $165.04
You Save: $34.95 (17%)
New (13) Used (1) from $165.04
Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 52
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Mac Os X Intel
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
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 2-3 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Best Speech Recognition To Date! April 19, 2008
Steve Alcorn (Orlando, FL USA)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful
I'm puzzled by the negative reviews of this product. I've had the best possible experience with it. Previously I've used Dragon Naturally Speaking since version 6, and have watched the product gradually improve in accuracy, eventually reaching about 99%. Unfortunately, although that sounds good, it's wrong just enough to make an extremely careful scrutinizing of everything it does necessary. Since I teach online writing classes, I need to post hundreds of messages some days, and I really would like to rely on my speech recognition software for near perfection, as long as I dictate clearly.
As a recent convert to the Mac, I was delighted to hear about MacSpeech Dictate, and I pre-ordered it expecting it to be a lot like Naturally Speaking (since that's the engine it uses). Well, either they've improved it, or the Mac's superior hardware performance makes a huge difference, because after the initial five minute training, I could dictate rapid-fire speech with nearly 100% accuracy. MacSpeech Dictate's installation and performance have been completely flawless, and I find myself using it more every day. It's easily the biggest productivity leap of any software I've ever purchased.
For the record, I use a 2.4Ghz aluminum iMac with 2GB of RAM. I routinely dictate into Pages, Firefox and Notes, and am sure it works with everything else. I don't use it for command navigation, but that's just personal preference. I use the supplied USB microphone plugged into my keyboard. The mic seems a bit plasticky, but works great.
Because of the streamlined Mac interface, there aren't really many settings you can change on this program. The thing I miss is the ability to retrain an often misunderstood word. There's one specialized word I use a lot that it always gets wrong. Other than that, I have no complaints or wish list items, and would buy MacSpeech Dictate again in a heartbeat.
 Horrible Problems/No support March 18, 2008
Honest Joe
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
This is a horrible product. After buying it at Macworld and waiting until March to finally get it I attempted to install. It quits before you can make a profile. Tried it on 2 other compuers at work and the same thing happens. Tried to get help but have waited 2 weeks for someone to call me back and no body has. Their support system on their website is now unavailable. What gives with these guys. It is completely useless to me and they want a 15% restocking fee to return the product. Beware.
MacSpeech Dictate April 1, 2008
Michael Zyda (Carmel, CA USA)
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
I purchased MacSpeech Dictate and too had the "crash on creating a new profile" problem. Basically it turned out the company was issuing defective, encrypted data disks. Once I got through to the company by their phone line (emails to support went unanswered), they promised me a replacement disk by FedEX. Well, a week later I got the replacement disk!
So I fired up Dictate today and started "training" it on my voice. It came to the end of training and said it was ready to go. I then tried saying a few simple things into Microsoft Word. It got the first few words and then really couldn't recognize anything after that. It seems less-capable than iListen of two years ago. The software, in fact, cannot recognize me saying COMMA at all! Software seems like an ALPHA rather than a 1.0 version of anything. My recommendation is don't buy until there is a 2.0 release, if then.
Oh and yes, I am using a "certified" headset. Would have been real nice for them to have a page listing certified headsets rather than just me having to go through press releases to find headset-certification announcements! mz
believe the reviews April 1, 2008
B. Naas (Belmont, CA United States)
15 out of 20 found this review helpful
This is just another "me too" story. When I read these review, I was thinking that they were a fluke, or that there was some kind of mistake. There isn't a mistake. The company, essentially, produced many discs which were faulty, causing the program to crash during installation.
The company response has been infuriating, and absolutely pathetic. I won't even go into the details. Just be warned.
My particular report of disaster March 25, 2008
Richard Leonard (Encino (L.A), CA)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
After reading all the great press, I ran out and bought Macspeech Dictate...installed it on my 2Ghz iMac, and then tried to run it...again, and again, and again. Without any luck! So I went to their website, hoping that there would be some troubleshooting concepts...but NOOOO. Just a buried mention of a disc production problem. A quick Search Engine check under "MacSpeech Dictate install problems" revealed several sites that echoed my experience. MY SUGGESTION: WAIT UNTIL VERSION 1.1 OR 1.2 is released.
Caveat emptor!
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