Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147 in Software
• Brand: MacSpeech
• Released on: 2008-03-21
• Platform: Mac OS X

Customer Reviews

works out of the box better than I expected
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.

Putting the other reviews in perspective
The many mixed reviews of this product may have confused potential buyers, so what I want to try and do with this review is put them in perspective so that you will have the necessary facts to buy (or not buy) with total confidence.

First of all, many of the negative reviews have come from people who either didn't know that they needed an Intel-based Mac or who had a very slow older system. You need an Intel Mac running at 2.0Ghz or above with 2Gb of RAM. Without this, the program will struggle.

Second, voice recognition is still in its infancy, because all such programs are incredibly processor intensive. What the software is trying to do is to interpret speech by making educated guess on what you're saying based on phonetics and vocabulary context. In other words, your computer is making a massive amount of calculations every second as you speak using complex algorithms. We're still two or three chip generations from perfect speech recognition hardware, let alone software. So when you buy software like this you are inevitably running up against the limits of computer hardware. If you're prepared to accept the lack of perfection as a natural consequence of all such products being at the bleeding edge of technology, you can judge it for it is, rather than what it cannot yet be.

Thirdly, many people just aren't used to speech recognition as a means of date input. Some people think better when they type, others as think better as they speak. Dictation doesn't work for some people. If you are one of them, don't criticize Dictate for your own shortcomings!

In many ways, Dragon Naturally Speaking is better than Dictate. (Dragon has just released version 10 which is now more efficient and reliable rather than changing the interface etc.) but you have to put up with the limitations of Windows and Vista. Frankly, as a recent PC to Mac convert, I would prefer to use MacSpeech Dictate with OSX than Dragon on Windows Xp or Vista. This is because the Mac interface is so good and Dictate integrates VERY WELL into it.

If you use MacSpeech Dictate on a new iMac or MacBook Pro, you should encounter no problems either with installation or use. Yes, the Company's support is not great. For this reason, it loses a star. But overall, it does do what it says on the tin:

1. Easy to install - on a system with right technical specifications
2. Easy and quick to train - while some British regional accents will cause it problems, speaking the Queen's English won't.
3. Easy to use - once you're up and running, you'll forget about it and simply focus on the task at hand

Of course, what you dictate using Dictate will not be 100% right nor as accurate as Dragon 10 on Windows, (which is why professional writers may prefer the Dragon/ Windows option). But, for whatever reason you use this software, with MacSpeech Dictate, even when you've corrected whatever you've input, you will still be faster than if you had typed the whole document.

So, I do recommend this product and hope these comments help you decide whether it is right for you.

Honestly, just brilliant!!!
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!!!