Hey guys - anyone have any experience with any dictation software for a Mac?
I'm not looking to give the computer commands - the Mac already has that built in and I'm not a big fan - but rather to dictate to it for transcribing.
Dragon Dictate is supposed to be good, but it's ungodly expensive, and I'd rather not reward a company that employs buffoons (http://strayvoltage.blogspot.com/2008/08/transparent-bullshit-in-press-releases.html).
I'm figuring that there has to be something else out there that's cheaper and *not* Dragon, but before I just start randomly throwing searches at Google, I thought I'd ask for recommendations first. I know it's not a Mac-heavy crowd, but you never know who you mooks are connected to :)
thanks!
Sent you a PM.
Brant, have you already tried the built-in dictation feature that comes with OS 10.8? Also, there's a Dragon Dictation app for iOS that I D'Led for free a while back. There are a number of other apps as well though I haven't tried them. If you don't have an iOS device perhaps there is something similar for Android?
EDIT: It looks like the iOS app is still free. The Mac version is on sale for $139 (http://shop.nuance.com/store/nuanceus/Custom/pbpage.resp-dragon-int-dictate), still a hunk of $$ tho... :(
Quote from: Staggerwing on July 13, 2013, 01:12:05 PMBrant, have you already tried the built-in dictation feature that comes with OS 10.8?
I'm not up to 10.8 yet. Just 10.7.x
It's got speech recognition for commands, but not dictation
Quote from: Staggerwing on July 13, 2013, 01:12:05 PMIf you don't have an iOS device perhaps there is something similar for Android?
Google's stuff isn't bad, but I don't want to be dictating to my phone all day.
Mountain lion upgrade is just $20 if you have the App Store installed. I'm not sure if the app Store is part of 10.7.
I just tried the feature. It's not bad but probably doesn't have any of the nifty features such as verbal cues for punctuation. You start it by tapping the FN key twice and then it will let you dictate for about 30 seconds after which it dumps the text into your document. You can start another round afterwards by tapping the FN key twice again.
One caveat: the system uses Apple's servers to actually recognize the text, probably the same way Siri works. If you don't want Apple to know what you are up to or what your voice sounds like you will want to pass.
EDIT: You can also try this one out. It's old and may have some issues with newer flavors of OSX. It has a fair number of detractors but also some supporters: http://www.amazon.com/IBM-VIAVOICE-Mac-OS-USB/dp/B0000A58IY
OK, I took the plunge on the OS upgrade. It was $30 instead of $20, and I've probably broken 3-4 various apps with the upgrade. But the dictation software is actually pretty damn good. At some point I have to teach it what "Grogheads.com" is supposed to say, but in 4 paragraphs I've dictated so far, there's only been 2 errors: it heard "GMT Games" as "GMC games" and it heard "be able" as "a little". It capitalized "Sicily" and put all the right spaces in the right places. So far, so good.
Thanks to Stagger for recommending the upgrade :)
I'm glad it's working for you. :)
Sorry about the price, though it still shows $19.95 in the app store. ???
Brant my good buddy who I pm'd you about unsurprisingly said that he knows of very little by the way of dictation software for Mac outside of Nuance products...he said there just is not much out there.