Appletell | Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod | News, Rumors, Reviews, How-Tos

Provides: Speech to text conversion
Format: DVD with Headset
Developer: MacSpeech
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS Xv 10.5.2 or greater (or 10.4.11) and certified noise-cancelling microphone
Processor Compatibility: Intel
Price: $199
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.2.1

Talking to inanimate objects has become more accepted in the past years, mostly thanks to Bluetooth headsets. But you can take it a step further by talking directly to your computer! MacSpeech Dictate is the premier dictation software to turn your spoken words into typed text without ever needing to touch a keyboard.

It’s really quite amazing the accuracy that MacSpeech Dictate has when translating your spoken words into typed text. In only three short training sessions, you’ll have your speech accurately recorded as keyed text. And when I say accurate, I mean really accurate; like, I wrote this 95% of this article using MacSpeech Dictate (the other 5% was me adding minor details like this). The software is very intelligent, so you won’t find yourself correcting it very often. And it knows all about the rules for words like “its” and “there,” meaning there’s a small chance it might actually be smarter than you, but I wouldn’t get all grumpy about it. Someday, the robots will rise and take over; it’s best you start to come to terms with that now.

After you install MacSpeech Dictate, you’ll be required to perform some vocal training so that the software can become accustomed to your voice. Basically, all you have to do is read the text that is displayed in the window. I found this process very easy; in fact, I was actually a little sad that there are only three training sessions.  You can further train the software, but it’s not necessary except for certain specific words.  After these three training sessions, the software will be spot on.  And you can set up as many profiles as you like; one for the morning, one for the afternoon, even one for your god-awful Batman voice…you get the picture.

Many of you might be saying to yourselves, “Why do I need dictation software?” Truthfully, you might not. Dictation is sort of a thing of the past.  We are not used to speaking to people who then write down our words in this day and age, especially if you’re a teacher.  We’ve become quite accustomed to others completely ignoring us and our ideas, so we type out our own thoughts. Still, though, speaking to a computer and having it type your words is actually faster than typing for a large portion of computer users. You’d be surprised how fast you can speak to a MacSpeech Dictate and have it translated in the text.

The only problem is that you have to be quite good at speaking exactly what it is that you want to go onto paper. I often found myself blankly staring at the computer screen, running the words I wanted to type through my head over and over. I didn’t want to get it wrong and then be required to fix it. This isn’t a problem with the software, I’m just used to using the difference between my typing and thinking speeds to my advantage. Dictation definitely takes some getting used to, but I think, in the end, it’s worth it. Here’s a tip, speak your sentences in small chunks, that way if you make a mistake you can fix it before it ruins the whole sentence.

MacSpeech Dictate is very good for recording your thoughts all at once. You can just kick back and speak to the computer in comfort, without the need to sit there rapidly hitting keys to keep up with your thoughts. But one thing it’s not so good for is editing.  While there are tools for editing mistakes that pop up while you’re speaking to MacSpeech Dictate, it’s not the ideal solution for editing an entire document.  It’s much faster to use a mouse and keyboard to select or rearrange text or fix things that are far away from the insertion point.  You’ll actually want to keep your hands off of the mouse and keyboard while you’re speaking to MacSpeech Dictate.  You might be tempted to click somewhere else in the document, which might confuse the software.  Part of its built in intelligence relies on knowing what was last typed.  It does not update itself based on where you click, something to keep in mind.

But dictation is not the only thing that MacSpeech Dictate can be used for.  It has a few more tricks in its bag. You can use the software in command mode to verbally access keyboard shortcuts or run AppleScripts. This could be used to augment what you already do inside an application such as Photoshop.  I personally don’t think that the command mode is fast enough to be able to be used in this manner, but I’m glad the technology is available, and I’m sure I’ll find a use for at some point.  It could be that I’m just not accustomed to it, and it also could be that the software is just not fast enough yet.

The only other annoyances I have with MacSpeech Dictate relate to the hardware. You are required to use a headset, since the software depends on having a microphone very close to your mouth. They ensure that this is the case by requiring you to have a USB microphone.  You cannot use a microphone that is simply plugged into the microphone port on your computer.  You are also restricted from using a Bluetooth headset, since the sound quality is apparently not up to dictation standards.  I really wish that there was a hidden option to at least try this out.  I’d really like to find out for myself just how badly a Bluetooth headset performs.  I also don’t enjoy the included headset all that much, but you have choices when you buy, so pick wisely!

If you think you could benefit from having all of your thoughts typed into a document for you simply by speaking, then this is definitely the product for you. Like I said before, this software is incredibly accurate, and it’s even intelligent enough to know the difference between certain words based on context. The software is expensive, but it performs as advertised, so you know exactly what you’re buying into.  As far as I know, this is your only option for dictation software on the Mac, but that’s not a problem because it is, in a word, amazing.

Update.  MacSpeech Dictate was updated just as I was uploading my review to version 1.3.  So it only gets better from here.