New Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 – Screenshots

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As we sit twiddling our thumbs waiting for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 to arrive in Australia we are keen for any information on the latest and greatest version from Nuance. Here are some screen shots of DNS11 to whet your appetite.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 HOME and PREMIUM editions can be pre-ordered from Dictate Australia, will be available in Australia early September 2010.

Nuance Launch Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 – Faster, More Accurate, Easier To Use

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Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 - Home - Premium - Professional

Barely a year goes by without a major release for Dragon NaturallySpeaking, not surprising with the huge advances in technology being made especially in the voice recognition world. The latest version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the leading speech recognition software in the Windows world has now ticked over from version 10.1 to version 11. With the new release comes the usual claim of faster, more accurate and easier to use: exactly what is expected of any major upgrade. Also thrown into the mix is support for Microsoft’s latest Office 2010 along with much needed improvements to the UI which has been kicking around in its existing look and feel for some time, the UI improvements should make DNS11 even easier to navigate and use.

The product names for the NaturallySpeaking family have also had a revamp, gone are the Standard, Preferred and Professional editions, now we have Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Home (was Standard), Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium (was Preferred) and Professional which remains as is. These new versions will appear in Australia towards the end of August or early September, pre-orders are being taken now by most certified Dragon resellers, including us, Dictate Australia.

I currently own an older version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, can I upgrade to Version 11?

This depends on the version of Dragon you currently own. If you currently run Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard then you are out of luck. But, if you own version 9, 9.5, 10 or 10.1 Preferred or Professional then yes, you can get an upgrade package to version 11.

  • You can upgrade from Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred version 9, 9.5, 10, 10.1 to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium
  • You can upgrade from Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional version 9, 9.5, 10, 10.1 to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Professional
  • You can upgrade from Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred version 9, 9.5, 10, 10.1 to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Professional

What digital voice recorder comes with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium Mobile edition?

Packaged in the Premium Mobile edition is the Philips Digital Voice Tracer (DVT) 662. This is a good little recorder which is both Mac and Windows compatible. It records in either .mp3 or .wav (PCM) audio formats and has 2Gb of built in memory. The 2Gb gives you 23 hours of .mp3 recording in the highest quality recording mode and just over 6 hours of recording in the high quality PCM .wav recording mode. This recorder is excellent for recording your voice notes for Dragon NaturallySpeaking but will also be good for recording interviews and small meetings.

What is the bluetooth headset in with the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium Wireless edition?

The wireless edition comes with the Plantronics Calisto bluetooth headset. This is the over-the-ear typical bluetooth style headpiece and gives you freedom from wires whilst dictating to your PC. Plantronics are leaders in the headset world.

I use a couple of PCs, one in the office and one at home is there a multi install licence for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11?

Yes, with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium you have the choice of a standard single install licence, two install licence and five install licence packs.

How much does the new Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 cost?

To celebrate the launch of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 in Australia, Nuance have a promotion which lasts until the end of September. I will write a new post with the pricing post-September when the information becomes available. The initial pricing is as follows:

And the cost of the upgrade packages:

  • Upgrade from DNS Preferred 9/9.5/10/10.1 to DNS11 PREMIUM – $99.00 incl. GST
  • Upgrade from DNS Preferred 9/9.5/10/10.1 to DNS11 PROFESSIONAL – $369.00 incl. GST
  • Upgrade from DNS Professional 9/9.5/10/10.1 to DNS11 PROFESSIONAL – $269.00 incl. GST

At Dictate Australia we plan to list all versions of Naturally Speaking version 11 as it becomes available in Australia.

Official Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 press release.

Bonjour, Guten Tag, Ciao – MacSpeech Dictate Goes Euro With French, German and Italian Language Support

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MacSpeech Inc, the creators of MacSpeech Dictate voice recognition software for Mac powered by the Dragon speech recognition engine, today announced out of their headquarters in the US a new product in the MacSpeech Dictate range: MacSpeech Dictate International. The International version will ship with voice support for four languages, English (UK and US), French, Italian and German.

MacSpeech Dictate International - Mac Voice Recognition Software with French, German and Italian Language Support

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 twitter_icon 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.

Review: Dragon NaturallySpeaking Digital Voice Recorder Edition – Philips 660/10

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## UPDATE 2012 ## Should you buy the Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR Edition? Blog looks at the functionality of DVR compared to other Dragon NaturallySpeaking versions. Have a read if you are considering buying the Dragon Voice Recorder Edition.

## UPDATE 2011 ## This review was initially for the LFH0660/10 – this has been replaced in Australia in 2010 by the new model LFH0617/00. The software is the same, the recorder included in the pack is different. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) Edition now contains the LFH0612 Philips digital voice tracer. The below review is still relevant, the software is setup and trained the same way with the new pack.

Released mid 2009 in Australia in a joint venture between Philips Dictation and Nuance was the Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition (LFH0660/10) at an incredibly cheap price of RRP AU$259.00 incl. GST. At that price it certainly makes you sit up and pay attention, after all the package contains Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 and a very competent Philips Digital VoiceTracer 660.

Not much to say about the Philips DVT 660, a great little recorder, perfect for single speaker audio. The 660 records in MP3 format and like all recorders has multiple recording modes (tip: always use the highest quality recording mode, SHQ on the DVT 660). This is a note taker not a dictaphone so you are not able to rewind/review your audio just simply record and stop, although you can pause during recordings. The recorder has 1Gb of in-built flash memory, can be powered by two AAA batteries or by USB and can record on the highest quality audio setting for 17.5 hours. More

MacSpeech Today Announce Dictate Upgrade v1.5 – Paid Upgrade For Some In Australia

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So there I was, on my early morning commute down to Sydney on the train, checking my email in between games of FlightControl when BAM! this graphic jumped out at me from an email:

MacSpeech Dictate Upgrade to Version 1.5 Announced

MacSpeech Dictate Upgrade to Version 1.5 Announced

Being a reseller for MacSpeech Dictate since its release back in February 2008 I thought I might have, you know, been told it was coming. So as a reseller and user of MacSpeech Dictate I was just a little surprised. MacSpeech Dictate is the worlds leading voice recognition software for Mac OS X. Launched at MacWorld in 2008 it won Best In Show that year.

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Dragon NaturallySpeaking Service Pack 1 – SP1 – Available For Download

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Users of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 Standard, Preferred, Professional and Legal editions should upgrade their software to the new Service Pack 1 recently announced by Nuance. The SP1 includes the usual bug fixes along with a whole host of new features and improvements.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Service Pack 1

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Service Pack 1

Download the service pack here.

Here is the detail from their SP1 release notes:

Issues resolved in Service Pack 1:

New Features:

* New options are now available for enabling/disabling the following quick formatting commands:
o Delete/Cut [XYZ]
o Copy [XYZ]
* New formatting option “Caps Lock key overrides No Caps/All Caps/Cap commands”. When this option is enabled, text case will be formatted based on the keyboard Caps Lock key.
* When starting Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 in Tray Icon Only mode, a balloon pop-up will appear above the microphone alerting the user that the DragonBar is hidden.
* When prompted for the Windows Username and Password to schedule Accuracy Tuning or Data Collection, it is now possible to turn off Accuracy Tuning or Data Collection by selecting “Do not display again” on the “Windows Username and Password” dialog.
* If the microphone was on or asleep when starting audio file transcription, the microphone will be in sleep mode when transcription finishes.

Accuracy Tuning and Scheduler:

* Scheduled tasks for Accuracy Tuning or Data Collection cannot be run when Dragon is running. The Accuracy Center no longer states the task completed successfully if it could not be started.
* The message “You need to increase the size of the acoustic archives” is no longer displayed when saving a user profile that does not have a full acoustic archive.
* When upgrading user profiles from a previous version that contain large amounts of training data, some training data may not be used, resulting in decreased accuracy in version 10. Upgrading the user profile after installing Service Pack 1 will use all training data available.
* Improved correction handling so actual corrections will not be discarded. The result is faster improvements to dictation accuracy when making corrections.
* Automatic adaptation of user profiles created without training will no longer appear when transcribing a sound file.

Application Support:

* Improved interaction with HTML based windows when running as a Windows Restricted User. This includes Internet Explorer as well editing/creating HTML messages in Microsoft Outlook.
* The “Page Down” command now functions properly in Microsoft Outlook 2007.

Commands:

* When using Mozilla Firefox with the “Require click to select HTML hyperlinks” option turned on, it is now possible to say the “(number)” as well as the original “Choose (number)” command to select a specific link.
* It is now possible to create commands that use abbreviations and expanded form without causing recognition as text (i.e. Mr. or Mister, Dr. or Doctor).
* “Clear delimiting characters” command properly removes fields entered into a table in Microsoft Word.
* In the Spanish version, the commands “ditar selección” and “ditar todos” have been fixed. They are now “editar selección” and “editar todos”.
* In the German version, using the command “verbinde das” to compound two words will no longer remove the capitalization.

Correction:

* Improved correction suggestions based on the context of the word or phrase being selected.
* Correction menu and spell dialog now include non-formatted suggestions.
* Extra spacing is no longer left after cutting or deleting a word or phrase.
* Corrections will no longer be marked with a green asterisk in the vocabulary editor.

Dictation:

* When dictating large amounts of text into an application a message will appear stating that “Dragon has reached the maximum amount of speech data that can be saved.” This message will no longer appear multiple times per application session.
* When dictating in Spell Mode, spaces are no longer entered.
* Dictating any punctuation in the middle of a line of text will no longer delete existing text before or after the insertion point.

Automatic Text Formatting:

* When dictating a custom phrase at the beginning of a paragraph, the entire phrase will no longer be capitalized.
* Improved number formatting.
* Word Properties will now preserve the number of spaces specified in the written form or alternate written form.
* Dictating a comma into existing text will no longer insert a space.
* Improved formatting of the word degree(s).
* Improved formatting of “Mister” and “Doctor”, including the appropriate abbreviations.
* Improved formatting of dates when “dates as spoken” option is selected.
* When dictating times in the Spanish version, “las/la” will no longer be removed during formatting.
* When dictating a number after a comma in the German or Dutch versions, the comma will no longer be shifted to the right, connecting to the number.
* Improved handling of Dutch Zip Codes in the Dutch version.
* Using a colon in the Dutch version no longer inserts a space before or capitalizes the word after.

Miscellaneous:

* It is now possible to change word properties for words with special properties.
* The product’s serial number is now displayed in the Help > About Dragon…
* A warning message will now be displayed indicating that dictation in EMR applications is not supported in non-Medical editions.
* Improved handling of Results box tracking and anchoring.
* Improved handling of speech data when changing dictated words using the keyboard.
* It is now possible to upgrade version 9 user profile with an Austrian Legal Vocabulary to version 10.

Data Distribution Tool (nsadmin):

* Customized word properties are no longer lost when distributing vocabularies using the Data Distribution tool.
* Distributing commands that use list variables to systems that already have the same command, will now overwrite the existing command. A duplicate command will not be created.
* It is not possible to distribute a version 10.0 vocabulary using the Data Distribution Tool after installing Service Pack 1. An error that the vocabulary is corrupted will be displayed. The vocabulary must be exported from a Service Pack 1 installation before distributing.

I Dictate, Do You?

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Welcome to the start of what I hope will be a long and interesting voyage through the world of digital voice, be it recorded on a dictaphone or notetaker or recognised by your PC or Mac.

The digital voice recorder world in Australia has long been dominated by Olympus Voice and closely shadowed by Philips Dictation with the likes of Sony and Panasonic tagging along for the ride. Currently there is a resurgence in sales of digital voice recorders and dictaphones as die hard analogue users find they can no longer replace their antiquated tape recorders with something that whirs and clicks and the younger generation are finding out that they no longer need to stay awake during lectures, they can just record it for later reference.

We are also seeing digital voice recorders appearing in the non traditional work place environments. We recently sent a trial recorder over to the rescue crew at Perth airport where they plan to have recorders around the neck of rescuers during an emergency so they can analyse what happens during a rescue situation. Financial advisers use them to record client adviser meetings to cover themselves for compliance and for a record of what was actually recommended to clients in case a review needs to be made some years down the track. Lecturers place them on the lecturn and make the audio available via websites and podcasts to people who missed or couldn’t make their lecture. There is a wide and varied reason for using a digital voice recorder or dictaphone in your life or business.

Voice recognition has also advanced in recent years. Now we have speech recognition software for Windows (Dragon NaturallySpeaking) and also for Mac (MacSpeech Dictate). They both share the same highly successful Dragon voice recognition engine from Nuance whose accuracy is astounding. Again appealing to a wide and varied audience from the home student talking their essays, professionals dictating letters, notes and emails and also the physically disabled who can now control their entire PC using the power of voice.

In this blog we plan to bring you the latest news from the digital voice world, reviews and demos of products and handy hints and tips to help you get the most out of whatever digital voice product you use.