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Nuance -- the company behind Siri's speech recognition -- has unveiled version 3 of its Dragon Dictate speech recognition software. The software will be available via Digital Download on September 13 with the physical box shipping on September 24.

Dragon Dictate 3 increases accuracy, speed, control of third-party applications, and support for transcription from digital voice recordings -- a feature that will be useful for many professions.
Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced Dragon® Dictate for Mac 3, the most powerful, accurate and personalized voice recognition software for the Mac available on the market today. With increased accuracy and significant feature updates, Dragon Dictate lets people quickly and easily create and edit content, and command and control their favorite Mac applications by voice - anytime, anywhere.

Dragon Dictate harnesses the power of the renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition technology to let Mac users simply speak to see their words instantly captured in real time on their screen. Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is the most robust version of Dictate yet, with a 15 percent increase in accuracy, new Smart Format Rules and new correction capabilities for a personalized experience, wideband Bluetooth support, the ability to transcribe recorded audio files from a single speaker, and much more.
Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is available for $199.99 as a digital download, a $199.99 physical box with a USB headset, or in several other configurations of varying prices.

Article Link: Nuance Announces Update to its Dragon Dictate Voice Recognition Software
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Knowing that the mic is central to a good voice rec experience, I don’t care for the digital download costing the same with no headset/packaging/backup media/manual as the physical version does!

I’d still choose the download to save waste, but a discount for the $35 headset would be fair. (Or a free-with-shipping headset even.)
 

sandiegotim

macrumors newbie
Sep 5, 2012
1
0
Upgrade prices!

I've been using version 2.0 (now updated to v2.5.2) for about a year now, and I was totally floored just now to learn that Nuance wants the full $150 upgrade price, even though I'd only be upgrading 1 step in the development!

Seems crazy that their upgrade price is so high! Especially if you consider they will likely want the same amount in coming years with future upgrades.

Further, they just told me that my version (2.5.2), is not supported by Mac OS Mountain Lion (I haven't upgraded yet, is this true?).

What a way to keep your customers happy, Nuance! :mad:

As for me, I'm abandoning ship, and won't be paying such high prices to upgrade. I'll use this version while I can, then I anticipate other, more open developers (e.g., Google) will have dictation solutions that will not only be more reasonably priced, but will likely work better as well.
 

DockMac

macrumors regular
Dec 22, 2008
184
1
One nuance Nuanced missed, the lack of price differential for boxed and download.
 

VulchR

macrumors 68040
Jun 8, 2009
3,358
14,217
Scotland
If only the business end of Nuance was as good as the software development group. The price is far too high and Nuance's UK web site is confusing and uninformative. Nuance as a company blows.
 

RabidMacFan

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2012
356
170
California
Whats the difference between this and dictation in Mountain Lion? Also, I find dictation pretty useless until it's able to translate while I'm speaking, similar to how Google does it.
 

Sihua

macrumors newbie
Sep 5, 2012
6
0
College Station, TX
I was a PC user until last summer when I switched back to Mac. On the PC, I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) and loved it. Knowing that Nuance had Dragon Dictate for Mac helped me feel betters about the switch since I relied heavily on DNS for document creation. I felt better, that is, until I began using it. What a disappointment. Hard to use and sub-par performance compared to their PC product. I would never recommend it to anyone.
 

theanimaster

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2005
319
14
From the pricing alone one would think Nuance was in the business of making as much money as they can before the features that already come with OS X puts them out of business.
 

firewood

macrumors G3
Jul 29, 2003
8,106
1,343
Silicon Valley
From the pricing alone one would think Nuance was in the business of making as much money as they can before the features that already come with OS X puts them out of business.

Those features that come with OS X and iOS are reportedly licensed from Nuance by Apple. Likely for a really huge fee. So they'll get the money either way.
 

dickg

macrumors newbie
Sep 5, 2012
1
0
Dragon Dictate 3

I have 2.5.2 on my iMac, which appears to be sort of incompatible with Mountain Lion. From what I understand, it will cost me heaps to upgrade.

This is disgraceful and once I check things out (maybe the release date of 12/13 September will solve the problem) I will be going to my complaints tribunal.
 

photographypro

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2010
219
77
American in Pisa (Italy)
Upgrade for $20

Just spend the $20 to upgrade to Mountain lion. And get dictation for free, which I understand is licensed from Nuance. You can only dictate two to three sentences at a time, but it works perfectly.

In fact, I dictated this whole post.


I've been using version 2.0 (now updated to v2.5.2) for about a year now, and I was totally floored just now to learn that Nuance wants the full $150 upgrade price, even though I'd only be upgrading 1 step in the development!

Seems crazy that their upgrade price is so high! Especially if you consider they will likely want the same amount in coming years with future upgrades.

Further, they just told me that my version (2.5.2), is not supported by Mac OS Mountain Lion (I haven't upgraded yet, is this true?).

What a way to keep your customers happy, Nuance! :mad:

As for me, I'm abandoning ship, and won't be paying such high prices to upgrade. I'll use this version while I can, then I anticipate other, more open developers (e.g., Google) will have dictation solutions that will not only be more reasonably priced, but will likely work better as well.
 

Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
8,803
11,240
I do wish Apple would buy these guys or create their own. Apple has proven that well integrated speech is valuable, but I really don't like having it uploaded to a foreign server for processing. I have to believe that even the iPhone has enough power to do it, but there's clearly no excuse on a desktop.
 

TominATL

macrumors newbie
Feb 12, 2008
2
0
Dragon Systems' demise

Dragon Systems is a sad tale. The founders of the company made the mistake of employing Goldman Sachs for advice on selling the company. In a nutshell, Dragon Systems and its shareholders lost everything, Goldman made millions in fees. Sound familiar? The brains behind Dragon dictation software are not employed with Nuance, a separate company that later bought Dragon at a bankruptcy auction.

From the link:
"Dragon Systems...was put up for sale at a bankruptcy auction. Visteon acquired some of Dragon’s technology. ScanSoft bought the bulk of it and went on to become a $7 billion giant, with a licensing deal with Apple. (The Bakers [developers of Dragon Systems] believe that some of their technology made its way into Siri.) ScanSoft later acquired — and assumed the name of — Nuance, another voice technology company."
 

needfx

Suspended
Aug 10, 2010
3,931
4,247
macrumors apparently
Dragon Systems is a sad tale. The founders of the company made the mistake of employing Goldman Sachs for advice on selling the company. In a nutshell, Dragon Systems and its shareholders lost everything, Goldman made millions in fees. Sound familiar? The brains behind Dragon dictation software are not employed with Nuance, a separate company that later bought Dragon at a bankruptcy auction.

From the link:
"Dragon Systems...was put up for sale at a bankruptcy auction. Visteon acquired some of Dragon’s technology. ScanSoft bought the bulk of it and went on to become a $7 billion giant, with a licensing deal with Apple. (The Bakers [developers of Dragon Systems] believe that some of their technology made its way into Siri.) ScanSoft later acquired — and assumed the name of — Nuance, another voice technology company."

"You really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" - Obadiah Stane
 

Marzzz

macrumors 6502
Nov 1, 2002
312
442
The Desert
So are there any real alternatives to Dragon Dictate? I am actually still using MacSpeech Dictate Medical because of the specific terminology I need to use; it would take an enormous effort to train the same vocabulary in Dragon Dictate 2.5 (and believe me, I tried: "C7-T1" always comes out as "Sea 7 T 1" no matter how many times I train it, and I have several hundred other words to also train).

For my uses, the included Dictation functions in Mountain Lion are just not sufficient.
 

Freyqq

macrumors 601
Dec 13, 2004
4,038
181
doesn't apple use nuance for their own implementation for 10.8's voice recognition? If so, who would buy this?
 

fruitpunch.ben

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2008
599
174
Surrey, BC
Also, I find dictation pretty useless until it's able to translate while I'm speaking, similar to how Google does it.

That's exactly the point of buying Dragon Dictate. It is able to transcribe as you speak, without an internet connection. With ML's dictation, you have no idea what it is going to transcribe until you cancel the dictation. And it relies on an internet connection. If for some reason your connection drops out while using ML Dictation, everything you just said disappears into the ether.
If you plan on using dictation for school/business purposes, Dictation just isn't good enough. It only works for short things, like tweets, forum posts, etc.
 

Mojo1

macrumors 65816
Jul 26, 2011
1,244
21
Dragon Systems is a sad tale.

Many thanks for the link; I have never heard a peep about the Baker's problems related to the sale of Dragon.

Nuance isn't going to get one more penny from me; I'm going to take the upgrade money and invest in a top-notch keyboard instead. The $150 upgrade fee is the Last Straw.

If you must use computer dictation it seems like the Windows version of Dragon is the way to go... :(
 

Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
8,803
11,240
doesn't apple use nuance for their own implementation for 10.8's voice recognition? If so, who would buy this?
I haven't enabled 10.8 dictation because it asks to upload my contacts to a remote server. If Dictate runs locally, that's worth a lot.
 

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,973
The Finger Lakes Region
Well it was good when it went on sale last year for the Christmas Season (at half price) and it is the last time i give money to then. The software is no good to me anymore it the treat upgrades this way!
 

Aftershok

macrumors newbie
Sep 29, 2011
10
18
Los Angeles
Bad Price, App Still BROKEN.

Nuance just lost another loyal user. I've been a fan since the MacSpeech days.

Be warned, guys. This "New" version still limits your address book to 250 contacts. Any more than that and you can't use their email feature. Maybe they can fix that the NEXT time they charge 75% of full price for an small upgrade.

How embarrassing.
 

tido2012

macrumors regular
Jul 20, 2010
144
0
Hey I appreciate you sharing your experience. I was considering purchasing this based off using dragon naturally speaking on someone's PC, however after reading your post and a few other people's comments online with the exact same complaint I will not be purchasing it. Thank you for saving me the headache of having to deal with this thing. Some guy on another forum went as far as to say he was going to install it in parallels to use it there, I guess he uses it for work, which is why I was thinking about buying it, however it's not a necessity. Any other people with similar experiences, I would really appreciate your info. Thanks again.
I was a PC user until last summer when I switched back to Mac. On the PC, I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking (DNS) and loved it. Knowing that Nuance had Dragon Dictate for Mac helped me feel betters about the switch since I relied heavily on DNS for document creation. I felt better, that is, until I began using it. What a disappointment. Hard to use and sub-par performance compared to their PC product. I would never recommend it to anyone.
 
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