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In a very smart move Nuance have released Dragon Express onto the Mac app store. Smart because it gives a very affordable look at how speech recognition technology using Dragon on the Mac works at a fraction of the cost of the fully blown Dragon Dictate.

Often I am asked for a free trial of Dragon Dictate for Mac, there is no trial version, but with Dragon Express users can get the feel of voice recognition without a huge capital outlay to see if it really is for them and to see the magic of speech recognition in action.

More on Dragon Express in our main blog - click here - and for some things to look out for when using Dragon Express to make your experience a good one.

This is definitely one of the top FAQs we receive here at Dictate Australia. As Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Premium & Pro versions only, not Home edition) on Windows and MacSpeech Scribe on Mac can take a digital recording of your voice and transcribe that from voice to text the assumption is often made that a recording of an interview or a meeting can also be transcribed in the same way. Unfortunately this is not the case, why? Well Dragon is speech recognition technology and that technology relies on the software being trained to you and your voice alone.

Using a digital voice recorder with Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Premium and Preferred version) is becoming more and more popular, this is often referred to as deferred transcription. Using a digital voice recorder allows the user to capture thoughts, letters, notes etc will away from their computer which can later be loaded into Dragon Naturally Speaking and transcribed.

If you plan to use a digital voice recorder for this then it is well worth checking the Nuance Hardware Compatibility guide first to see how the recorder you have your eye has been rated. The hardware compatibility guide rates the recorders with upto six dragons, the more dragons the better.

For details on the Nuance Hardware Compatibility website then please head to our main blog for the link and more details on the dragon rating system - click here.

Olympus Australia recently announced the latest generation of digital handheld dictation microphones known as the DirectRec Series II which consists of the DR-2100, DR-2200 and DS-2300 mics.

These USB connected hand held mics are often used instead of a digital voice recorder and allows the user to dictate digital dictation direct to a PC. In conjunction with the Olympus DSS Player Pro R5 software makes this a popular digital voice recorder alternative for those dictating letters and notes.

A side effect of these high quality Olympus direct record microphones is their popularity with those who are embracing voice recognition software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance. The complete DR range for Olympus DirectRec Series II mics have been Nuance certified for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking because of their high quality audio input which makes for highly accurate speech recognition.

All models come with a slide switch for easy stop/play/rewind/record functionality. The DR-2200 and DR-2300 models also include a track ball. 

All are now available from Dictate Australia and we offer these bundled with either Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium or Olympus DSS Player Pro software. 

For those of us who have switched over to the latest and greatest from Apple, OS X 10.7 better known as Lion, it has come with a few issues for users of the legacy transcription from audio recording product by Nuance called MacSpeech Scribe.

Soon after the Lion release Nuance posted on their website that Scribe was not currently supported. This was until a few days ago when version 1.1.1 was released (grab yours via check for update) which should make Scribe finally stable and usable again on Lion.

Registered MacSpeech Scribe users would have/should have received an email earlier this week which read:

Dear MacSpeech Scribe User -

While testing our products with the new Mac OS X (Lion), we learned that MacSpeech Scribe customers experienced limited or incomplete product functionality when running the product on the new OS. Our engineering team quickly discovered the core issue and addressed compatibility concerns within the release of the new MacSpeech Scribe 1.1.1. This new version of the product (available as a free update to existing customers) installs and runs on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and OS X 10.7 (Lion). 

Version 1.1.1 English is now available, and Scribe Medical, Legal, German, French, Italian and International versions will follow shortly. After opening Scribe, users will be presented with a dialog prompting them to update when they next launch the product. (If you are not prompted to download the update, you can access the update manually by selecting "Check for Updates" under the Scribe menu. 

Thank you for your patience while our engineering team worked to resolve this product issue. Please feel free to provide feedback regarding your product experience using our Product Feedback form. Our product management team relies on feedback from customers (including feedback and suggestions received through this form) to continually improve our products.  

Regards,
MacSpeech Scribe Product Management

I am willing to bet at least a couple of dollars that MacSpeech Scribe is close to end of life and we will see deferred transcription from an audio file in their Dragon Dictate for Mac voice recognition software in the very near future.

Olympus have recently updated the DSS Player Plus v7 software for Mac to version 7.2.8.

The release includes only minor changes, notably OS X 10.7 (Lion) compatibility, support for the Mac 64bit kernel and an update to the list of recognised digital voice recorders. Rumour has it that the software also starts a little quicker than previous versions although I have not personally noticed this.

Download the DSS Player Plus v7.2.8 Upgrade guide.

Get the latest update for your Mac from the Olympus Australia Voice Software page.