8:54PM
Initial Impression: Dragon Dictate for Mac
I just spent the day working with Dragon Dictate for Mac, the successor to MacSpeech Dictate. My initial impressions are all positive.
- Implementation of the Dragon engine version 11 is fantastic. This thing is fast, really fast.
- The commands are much more intuitive. They are also are consistent with Dragon Dictate on the PC.
- You can now use multiple microphones on the same profile. While this isn’t a big deal for everyone, it is for me.
Dragon Dictate for Mac still trails behind the PC version but the gap is narrowing. It makes no sense anymore to load a Windows virtual machine to run Dragon Dictate for Windows. If you need to dictate to a Mac, just get Dragon Dictate for Mac. I’ll do an in depth review later but for now, if you already use MacSpeech Dictate, the $50 upgrade is a no brainer.
Reader Comments (8)
I have long been planning on interviewing my father to get his life story down on "paper". I was planning on getting one of those little digital recorders and hadn't considered something like this.
Is this something you'd recommend instead of a physical recorder? And if so, is there an affordable microphone that would work with this setup?
thanks!
Dave, I TOTALLY agree. I have been toying with MacSpeech Dictate but never quite got the functionality I needed. I was expecting this to be a typical 'upgrade,' and was stunned at how much more powerful this program is. In fact, to me, to me it's not the same program. Dragon Dictate for Mac is the speech recognition program that I was always hoping for. I haven't used Dragon on Windows so I don't know what I'm missing by way of comparison. But I know what I'm gaining by comparison to MacSpeech Dictate and it's a LOT. I'm pleased beyond belief. $50 for the upgrade is indeed a no brainer.
can the dictionaries be exchanged with the windows version?
i need a netherlands dictation program, for pc there is a dutch version
can this be used in the mac version?
greetings David
My partner has just bought macspeech dictate on my recommendation - oops!!
Thanks, David for the review.
@paullu - You have a choice of solutions. MacSpeech Scribe will transcribe recorded dictation. It must be saved in certain supported formats (.wav, .aif, .aiff, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4). By the way, an iPhone or latest iPod touch make a very good "little digital recorder". MacSparky reviewed MacSpeech Scribe a few month ago in the Mac Power Users Podcast on speech recognition.
http://www.macspeech.com/scribe
@David van Deinse - The vocabularies and profiles are not interchangeable with Dragon NaturallySpeaking for PC. It's best to still consider them as different products. There is not a Dutch version of Dragon Dictate at this time.
@Andy - please contact Nuance sales/service about your recent purchase, and the upgrade:
http://www.macspeech.com/extensions/faq/kb.php?article=296
Jay Gonzales
Dragon speech recognition @ Nuance
http://www.nuance.com/dragon/mac
Re: "Is this something you'd recommend instead of a physical recorder? And if so, is there an affordable microphone that would work with this setup?"
Paullu,
I've been using Dragon for PC for years and the microphone does make a difference. Get a good USB headset and you won't be sorry. I use a Plantronics set that cost me about $100 (Canadian).
This is an amazing program and I am so glad their is an improved Mac program because I have really missed using it since switching to a Mac.
Can you do the indepth review of the Dragon for Mac OS X ? Is my 78 year old, never used a computer before, husband going to be able to go and purchase a Mac and learn this software easy enough. I really want him to be able to tell his life story. The comments coming from the Windows side of the leger were frightful upon installing and trying to train the software. Customer support was a shocker like non existant.
I have an older version of Dragon Professional for Windows but don't use it anymore since changing over to Mac. Can one buy the Dragon Dictate upgrade using my Windows serial no or do I have to buy a new version?