iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

With all the hoo-haa surrounding the Julia Gillard vs Kevin Rudd showdown in Parliament recently I have found myself glued to the TV and twitterstream (in particular the fantastic work by @latikambourke) for news and updates on the goings on in Canberra. One thing I find myself doing when a press conference is on or a politician is hijacked as they leave Canberra Airport is watching the press pack thrust various microphones and digital voice recorders in the face of said pollies.

More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Dragon Voice Recorder Edition or DVR Edition as it is more commonly known is often the keyword of many a Google search that ends up on my blog. I have referred to this product a couple of times over the life of iDictate but now feels like the right time to dedicate a post to this often overlooked Nuance family member.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition is a Windows only product and comes, depending on which country you are in, with either an Olympus, Philips or Sony digital voice recorder. Now the recorders included are not particularly flash – they are generally the lower end of the range recorders, but they are good enough for digitally recorded voice to text. The DVR edition is generally priced very low and for those unaware when bundled with a voice recorder looks to be a bit of a bargain. But buyer beware there are a few things you need to know about this little bundle. More

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I had the pleasure of taking a phone call the other day from someone who works for an organisation thats uses digital voice recorders in their day to day business life. Nothing remarkable about that, there are a huge number of businesses that do the same this one however caught my attention. It was a call from Eastern Palliative Care who are located in Victoria, Australia and their service is one that I thought needed some recognition and support.

I don’t know much about nursing or the health system, I am rarely at my doctors and the closest I come to anything medical is on a Saturday night when Greys Anatomy is on the TV. Recently though I was briefly exposed to Palliative care and the remarkable people who work in this area of nursing as a very close relative passed away from cancer. Palliative care is given to terminally ill patients to help relieve and prevent their suffering in their last days or weeks. Not a subject most like to discuss but all of us are affected at some point in time.

One of the many services provided by Eastern Palliative Care is called a client biography. This service allows the patient to tell their life story in their own words all of which are recorded on a digital voice recorder. A trained volunteer biographer records the interviews which is later transcribed and given to the family of the patient. The patient often gets great satisfaction from talking about their life, their adventures, maybe some family secrets and often tributes to relatives and friends.

For me and my family we did not have enough time to record our close relative’s thoughts and stories as they passed away too quickly, we did have a voice recorder on hand however we never got the chance to use it. Recording a voice we could have treasured for years to come.

We help to support Eastern Palliative care with free recording and transcription advice as well as at cost Olympus digital voice recorders. Great work Eastern and others like you.

The voice recorders we have suggested and have provided to Eastern Palliative are the Olympus WS series digital voice recorders. We have already shipped some WS-750M recorders and hope to supply some of the newer WS-812 recorders when they are released in Australia March/April 2012.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Want a simple way to record your office meeting, podcast, audio book, interview or round table focus group in high quality audio with a shockingly good looking non-intrusive, high quality array mic? Of course you do. Add to that the fact that this little beauty was conceived in Australia, has won an Australian design award and picked up a MacWorld 2012 best in show award earlier this year in San Francisco on its first outing then you not only have a simple to use voice recorder but also a talking point and lets face it something to show off about.

Dev-Audio based on the Gold Coast, Queensland have been developing the Microcone for the last couple of years. Going through numerous design and build phases until it evolved to the stage it is at now, ready for the world. Using the worldwide distribution of the Mac App Store that is exactly where it is headed. With its recent MacWorld 2012 exposure this innovative yet simple voice recording system has caught the eye of the US, UK and Australian press and the momentum is now starting to build with global users enjoying the latest multi person, multi track recording via this solid little award winning array mic. Aimed at the small meeting market of up-to six people this device will be at home in any sized business. More

In my last blog post I talked about some new innovative technology that Olympus have built into to their new range of WS series digital voice recorders which was announced in early January 2012 and on display on the Olympus stand at CES 2012 in San Francisco.

In this post we will look a little closer at the new three digital voice recorders (WS-811, WS-812 and WS-813), see how they are different from the models they will replace (WS-650S/WS-750M/WS-760M) and speculate on when we might see these in Australia. Gone finally is the trailing letter on the model of the recorders that we have seen for so many years where S used to denote Stereo and M was for music, now simply the series, WS, and the model number.

New Olympus WS Series Digital Voice Recorders

• Olympus WS-811 – 2Gb
• Olympus WS-812 – 4Gb
• Olympus WS-813 - 8Gb

More

January is not only the time of year where you and I make resolutions doomed to fail in the first week but more importantly the time of the year where the worlds gadget companies and technology press converge at CES to show the world their latest and greatest for the future and the upcoming year. Olympus is just another name in the crowd at CES showcasing new digital voice recorders and some interesting additions to the feature set of a digital voice recorder.

More