Amazon.com Product Description

Use intuitive, spoken "natural language commands" to edit and format your documents in Microsoft Word 97--it's easy, fun, and natural. Say weights, currencies, phone numbers, measures, and dates normally, and they appear in the correct format. Correcting documents with your voice can be simple. You can make changes as you work, when you have finished, or you can ask someone else to do it for you. ViaVoice Outloud will even read documents aloud to you. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Voice Xpress Advanced 5.0 is voice recognition software for writing reports, letters, proposals, resumes, and almost any other type of text document. After training the system to recognize your voice and pronunciation, you can achieve up to 98 percent accuracy with continued use. Create special macros that automatically insert an entire section of text when you speak a short phrase. Make editing easier by listening to your documents or e-mail read out loud. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not Bad, Not Bad at All
I bought this title a couple of days ago. I gave it four out of five stars because the enrollment was a bit frustrating. The setup was as easy as pie. The enrollment took about 15 minutes, not the five they said. I had to read three stories about iinventors. Hey, it was worth the hassles. The second day that i used it, it went extremely well. It recognized 99% of what i was saying. The technology is great. When you say something, it processes first. It is a bit behind you though. You may be sayingsomething 2 or three sentences ahead of what it is typing. I recommend this product to anybody. You are getting a great buy for the price! Look, I'm typing with it right now! (I editted a couple of words) ... Read more

Features

• Comes with a 300,000 vocabulary, that you can expand by adding your own entries
• Transform the way you interact with computers by stepping away from the keyboard and using your voice to enter commands, text and more
• Use your voice to write & send emails, go into chats, surf Websites and command your browser
• Boost your personal productivity with the new speech engine and enhanced dictation tools
• Command applications with your voice - just say the command name to activate menu options, lists and buttons

Amazon.com Product Description

This upgrade to version 5.0 of NaturallySpeaking features improved accuracy from a company already recognized for its accuracy. Make corrections faster and easier with the new, convenient Quick Correct Box. Learn with ahands-on tutorial that leads you through basic dictation techniques.Dictate into popular e-mail programs, or use voice commands to send andmanage your mail. Use the new Add Words from Document feature to addterminology quickly. Get started promptly--all machines that meet thesoftware's minimum system requirements now learn your voice in underfive minutes. Advanced features include Text-to-Speech, letting you listento your work, hearing any text--such as incoming e-mail--read aloud;Dictation Playback, to help your editing and proofreading; and CommonlyUsed Text, which allows you to create dictation shortcuts so you can insertmultiple lines of text (such as a letter closing) with only a few words.Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred also supports the transcription ofyour words directly into documents from approved portable recording devices(sold separately). ... Read more

Reviews (1)

PICK THIS ONE UP
PICK THIS ONE UP. THIS WAS A LOT MORE INCLUSIVE THAN I EXPECTED. IT HAS SOME AMAZING FEATURES I WOULD HAVE NEVER THOUGHT COULD BE PUT TO SOFTWARE AND MANAGED AND CATAGORIZED SO EASILY AND SIMPLE. THIS IS A GREAT PRODUCT. PICK THIS ONE UP. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

ViaVoice for Macintosh OS X Edition is a fully integrated voice recognition application for the Mac OS X platform. Built on IBM's series of continuous speech recognition developments for the Macintosh and designed to integrate with the new Mac OS X, users can dictate naturally into most text applications, easily launch and surf the Web, and navigate Apple's new Mac OS X--all by using their voice.

ViaVoice for Mac OS X is designed to take advantage of Mac OS X's Aqua interface. ViaVoice for Mac OS X sustains the Aqua look and feel throughout, including the new Command Center, redesigned Voice Center, SpeakPad, and preferences control. This latest version offers faster enrollment, allowing users to more quickly train the system to recognize their speech. ViaVoice's Outloud Text-to-Speech technology in U.S. and U.K. English allows users to listen to e-mail and other text documents that the computer reads out loud. An expandable, user-customizable, command-and-control feature allows you to speech-enable common tasks. ViaVoice for Mac OS X even features specialized vocabularies for computers, business and finance, "chatter's" jargon, and cuisine. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Don't Waste Your Money...
This review of his of ViaVoice for Macintosh OS 10. to begin I am using ViaVoice to dictate this review. So if you find a glaring errors, words out place caught or sentences that makes little sense please rest assured it is not my use of English grammar.

If I were you and I would save my money I am actually dictating this review using ViaVoice, and today it is behaving as usual. In just these first few sentences the software has missed multiple words, and important to punctuation. As I continue to take you will notice that the sentences really don't make a lot of sense that I am afraid of this garbage software.

I have attempted to upgrade as well as teaching the voice model her IBM instructions to no avail. This is an incredibly frustrating software program. I took it with me to Africa so that I could dictate my daily journal and other documents. I spent more time tweaking, restarting, just plain and trying to make this program work I would have been better off just typing as I have in the past. If you think this program will save you time, think again. You'll probably spend more time trying to get to work then if you simply typed by the hunt and peck method I use. Bottom-line is IBM has produced [bad product]

Didn't work under OsX 10.2.2
Tried it on my new g5, under OSX 10.2.2. It never really ran enough for me judge how well it would work if it did.

Viavoice not so good
I tried ViaVoice on Mac OS X. I was disappointed that it turned out to be so unstable with such poor recognition. It's a pity because it is a really nice looking program.

I ended up buying iListen, that's much much better, and a little easier to use. I guess I expected something from IBM to be better than something from a small mac only company, MacSpeech - I was wrong.

Frustrating - just doesn't work
Well, maybe I am totally wrong but I just have had it trying to use this product... I don't know what is wrong... the OS X or the ViaVoice, but I have had it. The support is only during the day time hours... great tostay on the line for a large segment of your day waiting to speak to someone... calling some long distance number... so use email ... last email he wanted to know how many "Favorates" I had in Internet Explorer... This product works well for about 5 to 10 minutes ... then you start to talk to the wall... nothing works... bombs sometimes, abberrant behavior other times... accuracy is not too great... bought the Medical Vocabulary and it works well a while then God knows what happens... it goes into some funky state ... I can't get it to work.... It is just as bad as ViaVoice Millenian edition and just as slow... helps.....if.... you......talk.....like..... this.........ViaVoice Beta Version all over again -

Really, really, good but not perfect.
I've only had ViaVoice for about one week now, but I have a pretty good impression of it. At first, what I was using it, I thought that it wasn't doing very well. It was making a large number of mistakes, and I was spending a lot of time correcting them. However, IBM seems to have done a good job, since I find that I'm correcting the program less, even after just one week. I probably use it for about one hour a day. The interface is actually very good, and mostly shows that they did try to write a Mac program. What finally convinced me that this program was great, is a test that I did earlier tonight. I read several paragraphs, and then figured out just how fast I was dictating to the software. It turns out, that I've been dictating at 150 words per minute.

However, there are a couple things wrong with the program. At least a couple times a day when using it, SpeakPad just stops responding. And I have to save my work, and restart the program. Not deadly by any means, but rather annoying. I also find that the in line correction that ViaVoice uses can often screw up. Sometimes when I'm correcting it will start inserting text randomly or cutting out text randomly and I can't figure out a pattern, and it's obviously a bug. However, for the most part it works. I have a repetitive stress injury in my wrists, and even though I'm spending time correcting, I still think that I'm probably getting at least 70 words per minute, which is about how fast I can type. The speed of ViaVoice is not an issue, at least on my Cube. It's plenty fast enough to keep up with my dictation.

And just for your information, I dictated this review using ViaVoice, and there were six mistakes (that I noticed). =) ... Read more

Features

• Dictate on the move and automatically turn speech into Microsoft Word documents
• The best in the world - up to 99% accurate
• High-quality digital voice recorder included
• Easy proofing and integrated with your favorite applications
• Avoid Repetitive Strain injuries

Amazon.com Product Description

Just what the doctor ordered! Voice Xpress for Medicine is a speech-dictation product that allows you to create medical documentation by simply dictating to your PC. It works with virtually all Windows applications so that you can create documents by speaking to your word-processing system, create spreadsheets by dictating to your spreadsheet application, and send e-mail and faxes by speaking to your e-mail and fax system.

The Specialty Suite Edition contains 13 separate vocabulary versions: internal medicine, primary care, emergency medicine, pathology, neurology, oncology, radiology, neonatology, orthopedics, pediatrics, mental health, general surgery, and cardiology. Each vocabulary is designed to assist the specialist with the creation of documentation particular to that specialty. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It Takes Time, But It's Worth It
Having tried the L&H program, I returned it and bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard v. 4. It took about a week for me to "teach" it enough to take dictation faster than I could type. I now dictate with much higher accuracy than I type.

However, the "Preferred" version will read back what you write or scan into a document, and I wish I had bought that version. The upgrade is much too expensive, in my opinion, because the cost of Standard plus the cost of the upgrade is much higher than the Preferred version costs. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Allowing the software to speak for itself, the first few paragraphs ofthis review were written, or spoken, using IBM's ViaVoice 9. Any typos you seeare there resell--er, are the result--of a misinterpretation on the partof ViaVoice. The new voice and dictation program shows a marked improvement overprevious dictation packages, but it also proves that such technology still has away to go before it true we could come--uh, make that trulybecomes--convenient.

It's important to distinguish between limitations of consumer computing powerand the quality of dictation programs relative to each other. Voice dictation isextremely complex, and it is difficult to create truly reliable software withoutmassive, NASA-level computers to run it on. With that in mind, ViaVoice 9 is anexcellent dictation package, and the Pro U.S. bee (that should be USB)addition (edition) comes with the plant phonics Dee's pee 300 (uh, makethat Plantronics DSP-300), a headset with outstanding microphone qualityand fairly decent earphones.

Upon installation, the program asks you to read several paragraphs aloud to helpit get to know your voice. The better "trained" ViaVoice is to your vocalnuances, the more adapted it is at translating your vocal commands anddictation. Unfortunately, even after hours of training, you can see it's stillfar from perfect, which is why I'm typing from this point on.

If you can get past its vocal follies, you'll appreciate the rest of ViaVoice9's package. It's loaded with outstanding, user-friendly features, including itsown dictation pad, a direct-dictate mode that works with just about every wordprocessor you can think of, and the ability to format text and manipulatepull-down menus with intuitive vocal commands. It lets your voice perform othertasks, too, such as checking e-mail, surfing the Web, and using an applet calledVoice Mouse to command the mouse cursor. In addition, ViaVoice packs the besthelp interface we've seen in years. For instance, for a list of vocal commands,you only have to utter the words "What can I say?"

Although its specs recommend differently, we suggest running ViaVoice on amachine equipped with a 1 GHz or faster processor and 256 MB or more RAM.Dictation was slow and error prone on our 1.5 GHz/256 MB test bed.

If you have a lot of patience, some spare time for extra proofreading, and theneed or desire for a dictation suite, ViaVoice 9 is an excellent choice. Just beprepared for silly misinterpretations. --Joel Durham Jr. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

OK, not great
I tried both Via Voice 8 and 9. For the most part I still prefer L&H Voice Xpress V.4

The accuracy of IBM Via Voice V 9 is better, but lacks featurs such as adjusting the microphone level found in Voice Xpress.

I see that version 10 of Via Voice is out as an upgrade (a change in the previous policy). I would have considered spending the $90 or so bucks to upgrade and get the mike control for background noise, but I never got my $75 rebate from IBM for purchasing Version 9 a year ago. You can get Voice Xpress V 4 (standard) with the Platronics DSP folding headset for the price of the Upgrade cost of Via Voice alone. A better way to go if you are on a budget.

The software update policy ...
This is not a review for this version, but a comment on IBM's update policy. I have an earlier version of ViaVoice, namely the Millenium Pro version, which I previously wrote a positive review about. However, if I want to update to the newest version I have to pay full price, since IBM only allows users who bought the previous version within a narrow, specified time period to get the upgrade price. Everyone else has to pay full price!
Not even Microsoft who has often, deserved or undeserved, been called predatory, has to my knowledge never had such a restrictive software upgrade policy towards end-users.
This is outrageous, and it certainly makes me want to look for alternatives!

SOME RECOGNITION, but HOURS of talking
This software can recognize voiced speech, but it takes several hours to configure it so that it doesn't make lots of mistakes.

For a person who has Arthritis of Carpel Tunnel this is a great program, but they likely will need to voice out commmands for several hours to ready the program for near errorless preformance.

Via Voice
Via Voice works on my Pentium 4 XP operating system.
It recognizes a large percentage of my speaking BUT not all and makes some amazing mistakes. It may get better with more training. It is not yet working well enough to use for full time work BUT works very well when my carpel tunnel kicks in. The computer responses well to my spoken commands. Not as quick as the mouse but when you can not move the mouse without pain it is the only way to get work done.

Excellent stuff
Having read the above reviews I am astounded at the misfortune of the guy with 3 computers and the recommended specs given in the other review.
I have a bog-standard Compaq Presario 450mhz - 192mb RAM and have recently installed WinXP and - in a spate of idleness - Viavoice Release 9 along with the patch from the IBM website for WinXP compatibilty. The product works beautifully!!
Much better than Release 8 on Win98 (which already worked well). Recognition seems vastly improved and desktop navigation works splendidly (direct dictation into MS-DOS prompts is great fun).
I'd love to have a 1.4ghz with 256mb to try it on but given that my recognition accuracy is around 95% anyway I can't see what difference it would make. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

The extensive vocabulary of this add-on allows users to dictate a patient's history; patient symptoms and complaints; general examination findings; radiology, pathology, and laboratory test results; course of action taken; and details of follow-up therapy.

If your practice has an existing patient management software program, you can dictate your reports with ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary and export the information directly into your current software system. Also use ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary to dictate and print form letters.

You can design forms and templates to customize letters to patients, letters to insurance companies, follow-up therapy forms, report templates, and referral letters. Dictate patient information into predefined templates, and you're ready to print a letter, fax a prescription to a pharmacist, or electronically transmit a patient's report to a referring physician. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Medical Voice Dictation at your 24 hour beckon call
This product is a MUST for anyone in the medical profession who is responsible for writing any document associated with their work!! The terms used in our profession are truly unique. Most, if not all, voice recognition devices are not programed with our technical, complex terminology. Much easier than "teaching" a traditional software program and much cheaper than hiring a personal assistant. Great for the professional who "burns the midnight oil"...and there are a lot of us. Make your work life much more enjoyable...we LOVE to practice medicine, but hate the paperwork! This software "eases the pain like a couple of aspirin". ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Get work done away from your desk while you're heading to an appointment, waiting for a flight, or just going about your business. Create e-mail, appointments, reminders, and notes by speaking into the included handheld digital recorder.

Connect the NaturallyMobile handheld digital recorder to your computer, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer software will automatically update your favorite PIM or groupware applications, including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop, Symantec ACT! 4.0, and GoldMine. It will turn your recorded speech into e-mail (even look up e-mail addresses and send the e-mail!), appointments, reminders, plain text, and more!

Record commands and text as you normally speak, using new Natural Language technology. There are no special alphabets to learn, no tapes to transcribe, and no need to retype. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile puts your words to work wherever you are. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

With L&H Voice Xpress products, you can "say it your way" with patentedNatural Language Technology. A voice-powered word processor lets you use yourown words as commands, such as "Center this" or "Bold this." Natural LanguageTechnology will understand what you mean. Now, there's no need to memorizecommands; just use your everyday speech.

Start dictating in as few as five minutes using L&H XpressStart technology. It'seasy to install and set up. You can dictate at a rate of up to 160 words perminute. This system not only enables you to dictate into virtually anyWindows-based program, but also to control Microsoft Office applications with your ownwords.

Other features include the Sample Commands View, which lists the top commandsfor the application that you are currently using without interrupting yourproductivity; the list automatically updates each time you switch to or open anew application. Insert a paragraph of frequently used text or graphics, such asa letter closing, using the Dictation Shortcuts feature. Vastly improved speechmodels enable Voice Xpress users to achieve up to 98 percent accuracy. With a307,000-plus-word vocabulary, spelling mistakes are reduced and accuracy isimproved. Enter numbers, letters, dates, and dollar amounts in your naturalspeech; for example, if you say "three thousand and four dollars," L&H VoiceXpress Standard types "$3,004.00" on your screen. The program also includesdocument editing using the text-to-speech feature, where L&H Voice XpressStandard reads your documents back, making editing easier than ever. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

With Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred Edition USB, you can create, edit, and revise documents and e-mail--even surf the Web--entirely by voice. Just speak, and your words appear in business letters, reports, e-mail, and virtually all Windows-based applications. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 5.0 Preferred Edition USB makes it easy to edit and format text, and change fonts, colors, and sizes--all by voice. Insert phrases and paragraphs with only a few words. Listen to text and e-mail aloud by replaying your recorded speech. You even can browse the Web hands-free. Adapted for American, Australian, British, Indian, and Southeast Asian speakers of English. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Caution
I have attempted to use this product on machines running Windows 98 SE, Windows Millenium, and Windows XP.I have found that in each of these operating systems, this product continually generates system errors (approximately every 5-20 minutes) and each error generally requires reboot.Although the speech recognition seems to be reasonably good (when it works), this is an extremely unstable product.I would not recommend this product at all.(Wait lines for customer support calls are also very very long.)

Dragon USB Very Accurate
I am a trial attorney who has been using Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred USB 5.0 for about 8 months on a lap top computer.The system is very accurate and useful.I use it to dictate correspondence, deposition summaries and pleadings. The system is over 95% accurate at 150 words per minute. I am concerned about the bankruptcy of L & H since the product is the best voice activated system around. Hopefully someone will pick up the product and move forward.

Be careful
When I received this product, the software CD was cracked on its underside.When I called Dragon technical service and customer service, I was told that my only alternative was to wait for them to mail me a replacement CD.Waiting time:SIX WEEKS, no ifs, ands or buts.They have a huge backlog. The program cannot be downloaded from Dragon's website.Still, be careful as a 6-week wait does not speak well of the manufacturer.

Dragon Naturally Speaking 5.0 Pref. USB
I used an older version and found it frustrating. I bought this version, with the USB connection for clearer transmission and better performance, and I am quite impressed. I use it to dictate medical notes and it has learned most of the technical/medical terms. I have spent, probably, 5-6 hours on it training and teaching it the medical terms. It doesn't cease to amaze me at how well it does. If it makes a mistake it can be corrected and will be much less likely to make the same mistake again.The digital USB converter can be a nightmare to install!

NaturallySpeaking 5.0 USB is now even better
This product really works amazingly well.Right out of the box (after 5 minutes of training) you can get close to 92% accuracy.The program learns from errors as you correct them so it quickly becomes even more accurate.I generally get no more than one or two errors per paragraph.

The USB mic makes all the difference on a laptop. (Laptops generally work less well for speech regcognition because the density of components produces interference when using a standard headset mic.)

Not sure what happened with Carol (review below) but there must be some basic configuration problem with her system, incompatible sound card or microphone. The problem could be that if her daughter is using the product she may not be using the correct speech model for teens. The software is normally tuned for adult voices only, so recognition would be terrible if you used the regular 'speech model' for a teenager. I'd reccomend calling tech support for help since they'd be keenly interested in getting it to work properly for her.

This stuff really does work and PC Magazine and PC world seem to agree on that if your read their reviews.PC Magazine got 98% accuracy after initial training and half an hour corrections. ... Read more

Product Description

With the Marvel Comic Book Library, you can relive the first 10 adventures of 10 classic Marvel characters on one super-powered CD-ROM that works on PCs and Macs! That's 100 complete comic books, with character bios, and three free bonus comics, highlighting the debut and subsequent storylines of Spider-Man (1962), the Incredible Hulk (1962), Daredevil (1964), the X-Men (1975), the Fantastic Four (1961), Captain America (1964), the Avengers (1963), Namor the Sub-Mariner (1962), Iron Man (1963), and the Silver Surfer (1966). Here are the issue numbers: Spider-Man - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15; Avengers - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Captain America - 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68; Daredevil - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Fantastic Four - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Hulk - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 60, 61, 62, 63; Tales of Suspense - 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48; Silver Surfer - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; Submariner - 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79; X-Men - 1, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102. System Requirements for PC: Windows 98 or higher; 6MB available hard disk space; 64MB RAM; Netscape Navigator 4.x or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or later; mouse or other pointing device. System Requirements for Mac: Mac OS X; minimum 64MB RAM; Netscape Navigator 4.x or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x or later; mouse or other pointing device. ... Read more

Features

• The first 10 adventures of 10 classic Marvel characters on 1 super-powered CD-ROM

Product Description

The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Ethernet and Fast Ethernet switching modules offer unparalleled physical interface flexibility, and support wire-speed, switched connectivity for unshielded twisted-pair (UTP), shielded twisted-pair (STP), and fiber-optic cable. Up to 12 48-port 10/100 modules can be added to a Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series platform representing industry-leading performance and scalability for the customers. ... Read more