The cat is finally out of the bag as Nuance, owners of the MacSpeech brand of voice recognition for Intel Mac, announced the latest version of the Dictate family. Dragon Dictate, formerly known as MacSpeech Dictate, is the new name and with it comes more enhancements and features. In this blog post we will look at:

• What’s New In Dragon Dictate 2.0 for Mac
• What Are Your Upgrade Options From MacSpeech Dictate to Dragon Dictate
• Where Can You Buy The Software In Australia

Dictate Australia has been with MacSpeech Dictate since day one, we are big fans and have loved to see this product grow from strength to strength. Now at version 2.0 the influence of Nuance is clear for all to see as the product lines of their famous NaturallySpeaking brand for Windows and Dictate for Mac merge closer and closer together. We have been beta testing the new Dragon Dictate for a few weeks and love the new look and feel, it feels polished.

I have always been honest and up-front with any customer I have spoken to over the years when asked “…just how good is  MacSpeech Dictate?”. I have lauded the accuracy of the Dragon speech recognition engine on the Mac but you could always feel that there was alot of catching up to do with the feature packed and more mature Windows equivalent. Nuance, since their takeover of MacSpeech earlier this year, are acknowledging the importance of the Mac by showing their dedication and support to the Dictate product and with Dragon Dictate 2.0 we now have a world class speech recognition software for the Apple Mac.

So what’s new in 2.0 other than the new name;

• Dragon 11 Engine – The very latest Dragon speech recognition engine used Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for Windows – very fast and accurate voice recognition
• Proof Reading Added – making full use of the Macs text-to-speech functionality Dragon Dictate will now read back to you your transcripts, helping speed up the proof reading process.
• Mouse Grid – My favourite, makes browsing the web easy by zooming into a point on the screen quickly using a mouse grid.
• Mouse Movement – Easily fly your mouse pointer around the screen using just your voice.
• Mouse Click – Again, using your voice you can click, double click and triple click.
• Multiple Audio Sources – Use more than one mic? No longer a problem you can have multiple audio source now for your trained profile.
• Easier Editing – A range of new commands to help edit documents by voice much easier.

Dragon Dictate is available to buy now from the MacSpeech Australia website and available in four configurations:

• AU$219.95 – Download only, BYO mic.
• AU$219.95 – Boxed product, BYO mic. **
• AU$249.95 – Boxed product with standard headset and mic. **
• AU$349.95 – Boxed product with wireless bluetooth headset and mic. **

** boxed products available October 2010 in Australia, pre orders being taken now.

There is also good news if you currently own MacSpeech Dictate. Dragon Dictate is available as an upgrade from any version of MacSpeech Dictate. Here are the upgrade options in Australia:

Upgrade to Dragon Dictate for Mac if you have MacSpeech Dictate v1.5 and upwards

You have two upgrade options (your v1.5+ software must be registered before you upgrade):

1. You can upgrade the software only via download (be prepared its a big download, between 1Gb – 2Gb) for only AU$69. If you prefer the boxed upgrade that will be available in October. Click here for the Dragon Dictate Australia upgrade site.
2. You can upgrade the software and pickup a new Plantronics Calisto bluetooth headset for wireless dictation for AU$179. This will be a boxed product and available from October onwards. Pre orders are being taken now. Click here for the Dragon Dictate Australia upgrade site.

Your existing MacSpeech Dictate v1.5 profile(s) can also be upgraded, make sure you back them up first before you upgrade.

Upgrade to Dragon Dictate for Mac if you have MacSpeech Dictate v1.0 to v1.3

You will need to email MacSpeech Sales with your serial number and current version and they will give you upgrade instructions.

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.