Almost a year ago I did an epic review of MacSpeech Dictate, the speech to text application for the Mac. My conclusion from last year:
MacSpeech cannot be used in situations where you need total control of the computer using just your voice. However, I am extremely impressed by the applications ability to translate speech. That is what this is all about, isn’t it? If you need to regularly shoot out long e-mails, or write out long articles for your newspaper columns, or if you find yourself regularly typing out your notes from a notebook, MacSpeech Dictate is where it ends. The superior dictation capabilities off this application really amaze me. I thought my Indian accent would get in the way of transcribing, but that was not the case. Perhaps, we just speak a lot more clearly!
As is the case with a lot of software, a lot of the times it ends up being a toy which often begins collecting virtual dust in a few weeks time. I got a couple of inquiries as to whether I’m still using Dictate. After all, it doesn’t have a trial version for download, and $160 is a lot of money for something that one may or may not use over extended periods of time. It’s no iPhone app that’s for sure.
I’m pleased to report, I am still an active user.
My usage isn’t exactly intensive, in that I don’t have the headset always plugged nor the app forever loaded. I don’t speak out emails, attempt to tweet, nor have any real need to fill in web urls by speaking into a microphone. Most articles on SA are typed out with a real physical keyboard. There are times however when I know I’m working on a fairly large article, which requires less back and forth and more dictation, so I consciously plug in the headset, launch the app, and speak away. If I can remember correctly, these are some of the reviews dictated using MacSpeech (including this one of course).
- TouchPad for iPhone review
- AudioEngine speakers review
- Reasons to Jailbreak
- Wacom Bamboo Touch review
As you can see, they’re more wordy reviews rather than a technical one which would involve words that MacSpeech wouldn’t understand. I don’t bother myself with correcting a lot of mistakes while speaking out, since it breaks the flow of thought. I do end up with a bunch of mistakes which I later go through with a keyboard. Moreover, word accuracy and performance has improved a lot since v1.5 so there’s hardly anything to correct anyway. One last point I’d like to mention, is that MacSpeech’s learning capabilities have to be taken into consideration. Just to see what it’s like, I created a new profile, completed the training, and the results were nowhere as accurate as my year old trained profile.
I still do find it uncomfortable to speak out loud, so I make sure no one’s around. I find it very weird speaking to my computer, more so since I sound like a goof when trying to speak clearly (and otherwise as well I suppose). In my review I mentioned my dad had a hard time getting Dictate to behave. It still doesn’t play nice with his voice—version 1.5 included—so there’s still a chance it might not work well with your voice. Even though it works for me, there is still room for improvement. I still do have to speak in a robotic voice, rather than freely speak my mind. I’d like to see a tie-in with a web service, like how Dragon’s iPhone app does it. It doesn’t use much bandwidth on the user end, and the results would be far superior to anything we’ve seen so far.
So think about the kind of matter you’re going to dictate, whether you’re okay with dictating to your computer, and make a judgement call as to whether or not it’s worth it for you. MacSpeech costs $200 off the shelf, but Amazon still sells it for $160 [affiliate link]. It comes with a DVD and a Plaintronics headset (which comes in handy while doing podcasts!).
I’ve embedded the video demo I had made a year ago.
