Olympus Release DSS Player Pro version R5.0.12

Olympus have just bumped DSS Player Pro for Windows from version R5.0.11 to R.5.0.12 – grab your copy now by selecting Help -> Check For Updates -> Dictation Module from your DSS Player Pro software (or transcription module if you are using that).

This seems to be a minor bug fix release with the following issues addressed:

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Be Strong Japan 強い日本をください

Like everyone around the world I watched in dismay as the events in Japan started to unfold. For me it started with twitter, a sudden surge of tweets about an earthquake. With recent events in New Zealand with their destructive earthquake in and around Christchurch still fresh the Japan earthquake tweets caught my attention more … read more

Olympus DS-5000 Digital Dictaphone – Spare Parts List

Lets face it, it happens – you lose a thingy or misplace a what-do-ya-ma-call-it and suddenly you can’t do what you always do with your Olympus DS-5000 digital dictaphone. After all the box does come jam packed with cables, a CD, licence keys, docking station, batteries the list goes on. So what happens when you can’t find the thing you need?

Well, all official Olympus resellers will also sell spare parts, the trick is knowing what that spare part is called. In this post I will go through everything that is in the box and show you the part numbers and their RRP (in Australia) to give you an idea if you really should have looked after that part a bit more carefully. When you open the Olympus branded shoe box that contains your new DS-5000 or DS-5000iD everything inside can be replaced except for the recorder itself. So apart from the recorder what you will find inside are:

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Olympus Revise Down Pricing On Some Of Their Most Popular Digital Notetakers

Olympus Imaging yesterday revised the price on a number of their hugely popular digital notetakers (used mainly for voice notes, interviews, meetings, conferences, lectures etc.) in a downward direction. Last year we had a flood of downward price movements after the middle man, Nationwide Dictating, was removed and Olympus Imaging took over Australian distribution of the voice products.

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Olympus DS-5000 Tip: How To Auto Send Audio Files Using Dropbox On A Mac

When you buy your shiny new Olympus DS-5000, DS-5000iD (and also the DS-3400) digital dictaphone it comes with software for both Mac and Windows, in fact you get one licence for each operating system. Windows users get to install DSS Player Pro v5 Dictation Module and Mac users get DSS Player Version 7 Plus (at release 7.2.4 at the time of writing this). Both the Windows and the Mac software are similar in that they both let you play the audio files recorded on your digital dictaphone, both let you edit your audio and both let you convert your DSS Pro audio files (.ds2) to other formats.

On the Mac however, unlike the Windows software, the ability to automatically send your dictation somewhere (email to your typist, drop onto a network drive for your typing pool etc) is missing. On the Mac audio files need to be manually sent to your typist or transcription service, unless you use Dropbox.

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Olympus DM-5 Short Overview Review

A couple of months ago the new DM series digital voice recorder from Olympus landed in Australia, the Olympus DM-5.  This is the is the first big colour screen recorder from Olympus so I was keen to see how it looks and performs.

The DM-5 is your average size digital voice recorder, it is about the size of a Mars bar just half as thin. The casing is mainly aluminium with the battery cover and front screen as the only exception, they are both plastic. The sides and bottom of the unit are made of a single silver aluminium band, most of the back plate is matt black aluminium and on top  is the professional looking silver aluminium mesh that covers the high sensitivity mics.

With the lithium-ion battery in and charged I slid the typical DM series slider switch to boot up the DM-5 and was very pleasently surprised to see the Apple style spinning pin wheel appear as the unit started.

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Review: Olympus DM-450 & DM-550 Digital Voice Recorder Note Taker

Olympus DM-450 Digital Voice Recorder - Available in Australia from Dictate Australia - www.dictate.com.au

You may want to go make a cup of tea before you start reading, this is going to be a long post. Why so long? The DM-450 and DM-550 are just amazing digital recorders and are packed to the brim with features while at the same time being extremely easy to use out of the box. So, if you have your tea made then lets begin….

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Which Digital Dictaphone Is Best For Me? – Lawyer, Doctor, Assessor, Real Estate

The legal and medical industries have to be one of the biggest demographics for the use of voice recording technology and they have been for years. Doctors and consultants use dictaphones to dictate medical patient notes and letters. Lawyers use voice recorders to dictate legal case notes.

Traditionally your standard medical or legal practice would consist of an analogue tape dictaphone used by the person dictating. They would record their dictation on tapes which are then handed to the typing pool for the transcriptionists to transcribe using a tape transcription machine, foot pedal and headset. Not much has changed now that things are digital. The dictator still requires a device to dictate into, the typist still requires audio to listen to and transcribe. The fundamental difference is we now use digital recordings instead of taped recordings for dictation and transcription and our computers to act as the transcription kit.

How are digital dictaphones better than tape dictaphones?

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