Zeus
09-27-2006, 05:12 AM
I love ArsTechnica - one of the best cross-platform tech-related websites IMHO. They just reviewed every quad's favourite program:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/speaking.ars
So is the new version worth the list price? The answer is an absolute, unequivocal yes. Voodoo hasn't changed, but voice recognition has come so far in the past decade that it is now more accurate than typing for all but the best keyboarders. If you have a reasonably powerful machine (and at least 1GB of memory; don't try it with less), a quiet office or cubicle, and no fear of speaking your every thought aloud, the software can be an enormous help.
But should you upgrade? Users who already have version 8 of NaturallySpeaking can probably get by using what they have already. The new version does claim higher accuracy rates, but if you have trained the older installation for some time, you're probably getting good recognition already.
If you do need the new features (and especially welcome is support for Firefox) and do a significant amount of dictation, then the upgrade price is a small one to pay for a tool that provides this much value, speed, and convenience. If you don't have it, go buy it.
I can't say I'm happy with iListen on my Mac, but I really need to play with it some more. An Intel MacBook could be in my future just to run Dragon in Windows when I need to type large slabs of text.
Chris.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/speaking.ars
So is the new version worth the list price? The answer is an absolute, unequivocal yes. Voodoo hasn't changed, but voice recognition has come so far in the past decade that it is now more accurate than typing for all but the best keyboarders. If you have a reasonably powerful machine (and at least 1GB of memory; don't try it with less), a quiet office or cubicle, and no fear of speaking your every thought aloud, the software can be an enormous help.
But should you upgrade? Users who already have version 8 of NaturallySpeaking can probably get by using what they have already. The new version does claim higher accuracy rates, but if you have trained the older installation for some time, you're probably getting good recognition already.
If you do need the new features (and especially welcome is support for Firefox) and do a significant amount of dictation, then the upgrade price is a small one to pay for a tool that provides this much value, speed, and convenience. If you don't have it, go buy it.
I can't say I'm happy with iListen on my Mac, but I really need to play with it some more. An Intel MacBook could be in my future just to run Dragon in Windows when I need to type large slabs of text.
Chris.