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HughMan
Member
Some people have mentioned that DNS is a more solid product. With disgruntlement of the Dictate 1.5 upgrade cost I would like to ask if anyone has used DNS under Bootcamp or Parallels or Fusion and with what results or downside.
With a coupon I can get Dragon 10 preferred for only $70 more than the upgrade cost of Dictate. I'm thinking it is time to give up on the lack of customer concern here at Macspeech.
Appreciate your feedback.
James
Calistoga
Member
I am using Apple's Boot Camp with the DNS 10 Pro. Absolutely zero downside with this setup because it is bare to the metal. I also have DNS 10 on my Vista machine and on my laptop running Windows XP Media Center, and Dragon reforms equally as well on my Intel iMac.
I just learned about Sun VirtualBox (free program) and Leo Laporte stated that it is a strong competitor to Parallels or VMware.
makimesser
Member
I have the misfortune to have to run at work on a Windows based system. I use DNS 10 while at work, and switch over to MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 when I'm at home. Although I must admit I'm using a better microphone at home (Sennheiser M3) and whatever microphone came with DNS 10 at work, I find it MacSpeech Dictate is at least as accurate as DNS 10 and the automatic display of choices for recognition make MacSpeech Dictate better. My only complaint at this time is that Dictate 1.5 no longer works with Parallels. With version 1.3, although all capitalization was lost, I could use it to dictate search terms when searching the ICD-9 database. Since Dictate 1.5 only generates a string of "a" I have lost that functionality. Hopefully, whatever is causing the glitch will be cleared up in a future (hopefully very soon) bug fix. As noted above, if someone is already working on a Macintosh I think they would have very little difficulty at all using Dictate 1.5 in a medical environment.
tfk
Member
I currently use DNS 10 PRO with Knowbrainer commands and vocabularies. The setup that I find works best is with Bootcamp set up as a barebones XP OS with only the speech programs and a simple word processing program. This set up allows the DNS to run extremely well. DNS is so easy to correct and teach that I cannot stop using it in favor of MacSpeech. There is simply no comparison if you have complex medical vocabulary, or if you want rapid corrections to be made. I can complete a document is 1/10 the time due to the problems with MacSpeech. I hope that MacSpeech picks up the support and improves the program, because I would love to switch to MacSpeech completely. However, it is really an experimental program right now. We are Beta testers and MacSpeech should allow us to help them improve it. In exchange we should get continuous free upgrades until it is at the DNS level of usability.
iNetSynch
Member
I use DNS 9.5 on my native Vista machine but prefer to use the free Vista Speech application. It does an excellent job and I would suggest you try that before buying DNS if you run Vista on your Mac.
I have tried both the free Vista Speech and 1.3 MacSpeech on my Mac and Vista Speech wins hands down.
WhoseYourMacDaddy?
Member
Despite all the criticisms posted by early adopters, who feel used and abused, no one seems to have noticed what may be the biggest KICK IN THE PANTS.
Those who decide to bend over, assume the position and pay MacSpeech $54.95 for upgrading to Version 1.5 are first required to check a box acknowledging the following MacSpeech policy:
I UNDERSTAND THAT I MAY ONLY UPGRADE OR CROSSGRADE ONCE PER LICENSE CODE.
Unless I am misinterpreting this statement, it seems to indicate that when the next substantial upgrade is made available, all those customers who bit the bullet, and ponied up $54.95 for Ver.1.5, will not be entitled to submit to yet another fifty-five dollar resentment inducing upgrade. No sir, they will once again have to pay the FULL RETAIL PRICE.
If this is not the case, I would appreciate being corrected ASAP, as my moral needs a lift.
Sincerely,
WhoseYourMacDaddy?
jayg
Administrator
Sorry for the confusion.
Unless I am misinterpreting this statement,
Well...yes you are (fortunately). MacSpeech Dictate upgrade comes with a new registration code, anyway.
But we see why it was unclear to a few. And the wording has been changed.
It now reads: "Each upgrade or crossgrade purchase requires a separate registration code."
SirDuke
Member
I am quite curious about the difference between MSD and DNS. To be honest, I'm not having great fun with MSD and I recently 'upgraded' to the latest version.I'm finding that it's becoming quite frustrating to encounter so many missteps by the software.
I'm clear now why I abandoned this software a while ago. It works for a while and then I left frustrated with the lack of responsiveness from the program and from tech support. It would be an easy matter to clear up some of the simple issues with this package.
Please don't get me wrong there are many things I love about the software package however, it is a problem when you're in the flow of work and you suddenly have to deal with interruptions caused by glitches. I've heard better things about DNS and am considering making the switch.
CWJ
Member
It's interesting to read these comments. Although I'm having much better success with MSD this time around, there still are a number of improvements that would help me do a better job.
Much of this discussion reminds me of post about Snag-it, the Windows software that takes screenshots and performs very clever graphic editing on the captured images. Recently a beta version was issued for the Mac. While it does do more than the basic Mac capture options, it does not do the editing that is available in Windows. It seems that instead of offering a comparable software product to the Mac community, the beta has been dumbed down with the promise of future improvements. Well shucks, it seems that software should offer similar capabilities regardless of the platform.
Too bad ........ both MSD and Snag-it have significant potential to become / continue being a great productivity tool for the Mac.
pdbecht
Member
In my book,The biggest difference between the two products is editing capabilities. Editing in Dragon is a breeze. In Dictate,it is nearly impossible. I use DNS9 in Vista on a Dell and transfer files to Mac via flash drive. I use Dictate only when forced to. Meanwhile I wait for Nuance to fix Dictate so I can use only one computer. Maybe I will partition my Mac and run Dragon on it as a compromise. It sounds as if people are having success with that method. All of this is so cumbersome. I wish Dictate worked as well as Dragon. I have enough challenges in dealing with my disability.
Yakker
Member
Hello pdbecht:
I do hope you're wrong about Nuance having no interest in working with Macspeech Dictate beyond using it for iPhone and iPad. I'd love to see it continue to improve. I wonder: do you have some information you could share with us about Nuance's plans for Dictate? I've been intensely curious about that.
As for editing in Dictate being "nearly impossible," I have to say that my experience is quite different. I'm very pleased with Dictate and with its editing capability, and the longer I use it, the "smarter" it gets. I can certainly agree that there is significant room for improvement, but I would still be lost without it.
FWIF
Ray
pdbecht
Member
I mess with Dictate about once a month and the frustration sends me back to Dragon each time. I concentrate my training with Dragon. I'm using 10.1 now. It has a feature for regional accents -I am a Southerner. I'm thinking of setting up a virtual machine so I can use only my Mac. I do not like PCs. But I love Dragon. One day maybe I will devote the necessary time to train Dictate but why? With Dragon I can use mouse,type a little,talk a lot. No golden rule to break.
jayg
Administrator
@pdbecht - Which version do you have? MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 supports many North American regional accents and defined dialects, including Southern.
It may help to consider the process of how MacSpeech Dictate recognizes your voice as separate from the process of how the software interacts with Mac applications. The former is based on how you speak and train recognition, and using the Southern accent option may help. The latter is dependent on using the Commands and, to a certain extent, which applications you use.
MacSpeech Dictate 1.5 has some extended capabilities for "Auto Cache" in TextEdit. This means automatically tracking non-dictated (i.e. typed) changes within TextEdit documents. Just as an informal experiment, please try breaking the Golden Rule in TextEdit, and post the results and your impressions here.
Thanks!
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