iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

The little Olympus WS-210S digital voice recorder has been around in Australia now since October 2007 and is easily our most popular digital voice recorder at Dictate Australia. So why is this little recorder so popular?

• Small and lightweight
• Very easy to use
• Excellent audio pickup and quality
• Great price point for a quality voice recorder
• Compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 Preferred
• Both Windows and Intel Mac compatible
• Fully featured with variable voice activation (VCVA) and low cut noise filtering

These are just a few of its qualities. So lets look a little closer at this recorder and what it can do.

Click image for larger view

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Well they have done it again, Olympus Australia announced on Friday (10th July 2009) that the Olympus WS-311M (512Mb) and WS-321M (1Gb) digital notetakers were now discontinued in Australia. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, not so much the WS-321M as being a middle model (sandwiched beween the WS-311M and WS-331M) they very rarely get sold, but the WS-311M was a very popular choice at Dictate Australia.

When you compare them, there were only a few minor differences between the Olympus WS-311M and the Olympus WS-210S. Apart from being different colours, the WS-311M had it’s record button on the side, mimicking the digital dictaphones, as well as an additional stop and play button on the side, the WS-210S only has buttons on the front panel.

The WS-331M and WS-321M also had noise cancellation which was available via the DSS Player software, the WS-210S does not.

There was also a very slight difference in max. record times, this was due to a slightly higher frequency response used by the WS-311M/WS-321M recorders, not enough to be noticeable.

The WS-311M/WS-321M could also direct record to a Windows PC hard drive instead of the onboard memory using the supplied software.

The WS-311M was one of my personal favourite recorders and will be sadly missed, if you can sadly miss a digital voice recorder!

Usually we have an inkling that something is likely to change. We keep a very close eye on the Olympus America and Olympus Europe websites and quite often we can see up-and-coming new models. There appears to be no replacement coming for the WS-311M and the WS-321M so I think it is safe to say we are just going to be left with the WS 210S and a very classy looking piano black Olympus WS-331M in the small digital notetaker class.

This blog post was written using MacSpeech Dictate – Voice Recognition of Intel Mac

Olympus Voice Australia have completed their revamp of the digital dictaphone voice recorder range by today announcing the launch of the new Windows and Mac compatible Olympus DS-2400. This sees the demise of the last hanger on in their digital dictaphone line, the DS-2300 which is now now longer available in Australia.

Unusually the DS-2400 is not black, like the other two digital dictaphones released earlier this year (the DS-5000 and DS-3400) but is does support the new DSS Pro digital audio format (which creates .ds2 audio files) which Olympus are going for in a big way.

The Olympus DS-2400 is the cheapest in the digital dictaphone range so you lose the snazzy cradle and the battery life needs to be monitored and maintained by the user. But the for people converting from analogue tape dictaphones or replacing an ageing DS-2300 you will be very happy with the DS-2400.

Rewind and review of your notes is simple using the metal rocker switch on the side. Audio can also be inserted and edited on the recorder itself. Please note though that the DS-2400 only records in .ds2 audio format. This is fine if your in house typist has an AS-2400 (not yet available in Australia) or AS-5000 transcription kit or if you outsource your transcription to one of Australia’s larger transcription businesses like our sister company The Transcription People. However smaller transcription services may have issues with the .ds2 audio format so check with them first. It is NOT possible to convert the DSS Pro (.ds2) audio to DSS Classic (.dss) files using the included DSS Player Standard (Windows) and DSS Player (Mac) for the DS-2400. The convert .ds2 to .dss and/or .wma feature is only available with the dictation module that comes with the DS-3300 and DS-5000 models.  To be honest the last thing you should be doing is converting your audio files before your send them away for transcription.

For people who are looking to replace an older DS-2300 digital voice recorder with a DS-2400 and who already have an AS-2300 transcription kit in the office all is not lost. The software with the DS-2400 will allow you to upgrade one AS-2300 kit to an AS-2400 kit for free, keeping your transcription kit compatible with older recorders and the new DS-2400. There are a couple of very important steps while doing this, please email us for advice if you plan to do this: sales@dictate.com.au

Click here for the Olympus FAQ page for the DS-2400

Oooh they have done it again those sneaky Americans, I woke up this morning to an inbox full of overnight alerts on a new product annoucement from MacSpeech, this time MacSpeech Dictate Legal version. Official MacSpeech Dictate Legal press release.

MacSpeech Dictate Legal Version Announced

Just a week or so since the launch of MacSpeech Dictate Medical, the legal version comes packed with a dictionary full of legal jargon, 30,000 legal words and terms, the kind of chit chat lawyers use every day and the kind of words their typists struggle with, unless of course they outsource their legal transcription to our sister company The Transcription People (shameless plug, sorry).

MacSpeech Dictate Legal is built on the very latest Dragon speech recognition software from the people at Nuance, in fact from what I understand the recognition engine in MacSpeech Dictate version 1.5 is more advanced than that currently in use by the Windows folk running Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1, so state of the art voice recognition combined with a comprehensive legal dictionary.

As always, no news yet of Australian packages or pricing as the US announcement is just a few hours old. However, in the US the price of MacSpeech Dictate Legal is the same as MacSpeech Dictate Medical so it would be fair to assume the same packages and same pricing as Medical (Australian MacSpeech Dictate Medical pricing and packages). As soon as we receive confirmation from the Australian distributor on price and availability I will post.

With the announcement just over a week ago of the release of the MacSpeech Dictate Medical version, we now have the bundle packages that will be available in Australia and their pricing.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical v1.5 available from Dictate Australia

The medical version of MacSpeech Dictate has not yet landed in Australia but is expected any day ready for shipping nationally within the next week or so. Here at Dictate Australia we have already sold the first Australian copy of MacSpeech Dictate Medical to a doctor in Victoria.

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At 1am on Friday 19th June, 2009 Sydney time I set my alarm clock for an announcement coming out of the MacSpeech tower of power in the USA. I heard through twitter (@macspeech) that an announcement was coming and so close to the release of version 1.5 it could only be something else new, I was hanging in there for digital voice recorder support but alas it was something bigger, the MacSpeech Dictate Medical version. Official MacSpeech Press Release

MacSpeech Dictate Medical Version

Based on the very new 1.5 version (so the latest greatest Dragon voice recognition engine from Nuance), MacSpeech Dictate Medical version will be available as a stand alone product or if you have MacSpeech Dictate already a reduced price cross grade will be available. We have no info on avialability or pricing for Australia as yet, as soon as we do we will post.

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As we discussed in our last post the Olympus DS-40 is on its way to being discontinued in Australia, to help things along Olympus Voice Australia have announced an immediate price cut for the DS-40 from RRP $695 incl. GST to RRP $595 incl. GST, in effect cutting its price to the same as the recently discontinued Olympus DS-30 model.

If you are looking for a bargain digital voice recorder which is ideal for large boardroom meetings, focus group, interviews, team meetings or even just your own notes then now would be a good time to jump in and grab one at this new low price. This model will be discontinued shortly but will still be covered by the Australia Australia 1 year warranty (just make sure you buy one from an authorised Olympus Voice Australia reseller).

It is with deep sadness that I bring to you the news of the demise of the Olympus DS-30 digital voice recorder. Here we go again, yet another recorder dumped by Olympus Australia this year. This model discontinued will very soon also be followed by the DS-40, Olympus are running out their remaining stock, so two excellent and very popular large meeting/focus group recorders bow out in favour of a new, sleeker, younger, fitter, better looking model, the Olympus DS-55 (release date yet to be announced in Australia).

New Olympus DS-55 Stereo Mic

Only two weeks ago we reported on the end of life for the DS-50 which has been superseded by the new Olympus DS-65. The DS-30 and DS-40 are going the same way with a new Olympus DS-55 model due to arrive in Australia we hope in the next few weeks. We hope because the DS-30 is a very popular recorder and to be left hanging with just a pricey DS-65 could cause some consumer pain. In usual Olympus style, they are starting to become the Apple of the voice recorder world with no leaks and just suprise announcements, we found out when we tried to restock some DS-30s and found out they were no more. No news yet either on the DS-55, we have no idea of its RRP or release date we just assume that it is coming soon. More on the Olympus DS-55 when we have more news on, as a teaser check out the beatiful image to the left of the sleek silver stereo mic topping off the soon to arrive DS-55.