Some excitement over the last couple of weeks with rumours abound that Nuance have done a deal with Apple and have signed some kind of agreement to use their voice recognition technology in the up coming iOS5 release for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Since Siri was gobbled up by Apple back in 2010 we have all been waiting to see what Apple will do with the voice controlled concierge and the theory is Dragon will be used to power the new Apple stamped version of Siri when it finally emerges. These are just rumours for now but rumours which are growing in substance.

Moving on to the new release of Dragon NaturallySpeaking annouced out of Nuance HQ in Burlington, Massachusetts mid June 2011, version 11.5, it promises much the same as every Dragon release: faster and more accurate. But this time they have thrown in some Apple iDevice magic via a free iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app (available now from iTunes), you will be able to use your Apple device as a remote mic to feed Dragon via your WiFi. How cool is that ! Unless you are a Home version user then you are left out in the cold, remote mic only works with Premium, Pro and Legal 11.5

Of course I instantly grabbed the app, magically delivered to all my devices thanks to the new partially released iCloud service, and then reached for my laptop to “Check For Updates” in DNS 11. To my huge dissapointment no updates available, I’m still stuck on version 11. Some closer reading of the press release dampened my excitment a little more as the free upgrade (if you are already on DNS version 11) will be rolled out in a few weeks so read mid July 2011.

Also in the bump to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 you can now get social hands free if you are a twitter user or frantic Facebook updater with voice commands such as:

“Post to Facebook [Dictate Australia is an awesome company who know digital voice for Mac and Windows inside out]”

or

“Post to Twitter [Follow @dictates on twitter, they are the digital voice people in Australia]”

Please feel free to try those exact updates when yoo get your update to version 11.5

So, like the rest of the world we wait patiently for the bump. July is going to test all our bandwidth to the limit with iOS5 coming for iPhone/iPad, OS X Lion for our Macs and 11.5 for Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Windows users, please don’t feel left out – the daily patches, bug fixes and security updates for your Windows should make you feel just as updated as the rest of us.

If you are thinking of buying Dragon NaturallySpeaking there is no need to hold back. We, like all resellers in Australia are shipping version 11, as soon as the 11.5 update becomes available it will be an electronic download for all registered version 11 users.

Read the official Nuance press release announcing Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5

Want to watch some official Nuance videos on the updates to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5? Of course you do, just a warning the American accent may induce sleep:

[Video] Post to Facebook or Twitter using voice commands

[Video] Using the Dragon Remote Mic app for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch

The surprise exclusion from the three new supported European languages (French, Italian and German) was Spanish, especially as the customer base for Spanish speakers would be huge. In their press release MacSpeech have acknowledged Spanish speakers, Andrew Taylor head of MacSpeech said “ .. we did not forget those who speak Spanish; when there is applicable news, rest assured we will announce it.” so read into that what you will, coming in the near future I would guess.

MacSpeech Dictate International is available now for purchase in the US and it is expected into Australia in a couple of weeks. It will be available as a stand alone package or for people who already own MacSpeech Dictate v1.5+ a cross grade licence will be available. For Australian English speakers you should still be looking at the standard MacSpeech Dictate v1.5+ version currently available as International will not support Australian English.

Click here for the full MacSpeech International press release.