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Nuance Launches 'Dragon Express' in the Mac App Store

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Apr 12, 2001
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Nuance Communications, which provides the speech recognition technology included in Siri on the iPhone 4S, has announced the Mac App Store launch of Dragon Express, a new application that offers some of the same speech recognition and system control features found in the company's more expensive Dragon Dictate software.
Dragon Express is an easy and fun speech recognition utility that introduces OS X Lion customers to voice recognition for the Mac. Put your words to work without the hassle of typing. Just speak and amazingly accurate results instantly appear in the Dragon Express window. You can dictate anything - even words that wouldn't be found in any dictionary - since Dragon Express is customized to recognize your voice and the words you use.
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Dragon Express exists as a menu bar item, allowing users easy access to the dictation window. After speaking the desired input via integrated microphone or a USB headset, the transcribed text is then transmitted to the destination application.

Dragon Express is currently being offered at an introductory price of $49.99.

Article Link: Nuance Launches 'Dragon Express' in the Mac App Store
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/10/nuance-launches-dragon-express-in-the-mac-app-store/
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Agreed on all the above...damn tempted though. Apple - will Siri come on the mac? If so I'll wait.
 
polaris20 said:
That's pretty expensive for something there's no demo for. I agree with ya.
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The price will increase once the initial offer is up. Not sure how much it usually goes for but i definitely wont buy once that does happen. Going to try and look for a Youtube video of it running.

Found these 2 videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al6ur-Ycfcw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UHM528Ne6U

EDIT : these videos seem to be the Nuance Dragon Dictate and not Dragon Express

The differences between the versions can be seen below. Apparently it works without an internet connection. Probably why its over a GB in filesize

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Got me excited for a second. $50? F*** that.
 
Given Siri's appearance in iOS5, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don't find something like this native in Mac OSX 10.8 if they sort out the licensing.

As for this App, for what is basically a "fun app", I would have expected the price would be about $30.00 USD, and suspect that's what it's price will be within a few months.
 
*LTD* said:
That's the next game-changer. It's coming.

And then it will spread to all "computing" devices. That's the next step.
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just keep telling yourself that. I already am seeing the Siri newness wear off on people and it not as useful any more.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
just keep telling yourself that. I already am seeing the Siri newness wear off on people and it not as useful any more.
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Interesting that. By my side, I am noticing more and more situations in which being able to just quickly set a reminder without fumbling with the phone would be ... yes, even game changer. Enough to make me fantasize about getting the iPhone 4S. Does that wear off?
 
Rodimus Prime said:
just keep telling yourself that. I already am seeing the Siri newness wear off on people and it not as useful any more.
Click to expand...

Right, but what about Siri three years from now after the processor has quadrupled in speed and Siri's database of words and phrases is many times more sophisticated? If they are clever, they have some back office program working on everything that currently stumps Siri. So as Siri gets used, it is also getting smarter. Since every request goes through Siri's server, they should have a code looking for things that people had to ask twice because Siri didn't work. That should be leading them to real world solutions for real world questions. This should be crowd sourced beta testing, basically. So Siri should be getting smarter very quickly. In fact, I bet you will find Siri noticeably smarter on the iPhone 4S just six months from now.
 
Has anyone tried the Vlingo app in the app store? it's free and looks like it does the same thing to me.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
just keep telling yourself that. I already am seeing the Siri newness wear off on people and it not as useful any more.
Click to expand...

I use siri all day long to text back and forth to my wife from my car w/out having to touch my phone. It's made me a much safer driver, heh.
 
I thought Siri would end up being more of a fad than something useful... But after having it for a while, I find I use Siri a LOT more than I expected.

Now I'm hooked on how quick it can be to just say a few words and make things happen. Dictating quick messages and updates with Siri and/or the mic button on the iPhone keypad has spoiled me.

I want to see Dragon Express in action, or at least some good video demos of it, but I'm really close to clicking "buy" to have solid voice input on my iMac.

I also use Siri for things like alarms, timers, reminders and appointments -- Dragon Express doesn't seem to have that yet.
 
Siri let's me use my phone with gloves on. That's a win. Also, Steve said that they were taking what they learned on the iPhone back to the Mac and this will undoubtedly be part of that. The iPhone is their test bed for new ideas :)
 
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has anyone actually tried this app yet. I am especially curios on how it works with just using the integrated mic on the air
 
A few months ago I was able to find Dragon Dictate on eBay for $99.00 with a wired mic and free shipping. I use it every once in a while, but if I had it to do all I wouldn't purchase it.
 
wackymacky said:
Given Siri's appearance in iOS5, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don't find something like this native in Mac OSX 10.8 if they sort out the licensing.
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I wouldn't be surprised if licensing issues will keep Siri off Macs indefinitely. Virtually no one would buy Dragon Dictate if Apple included voice dictation.

This Dragon Express seems a bit overpriced even at $50 for what it does. Voice commands are free and built into OS X, and it's much more flexible (give any app or script a specific phrase and have at it!). System Preferences -> Speech -> Speech Recognition.
 
dolphin842 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if licensing issues will keep Siri off Macs indefinitely. Virtually no one would buy Dragon Dictate if Apple included voice dictation.

This Dragon Express seems a bit overpriced even at $50 for what it does. Voice commands are free and built into OS X, and it's much more flexible (give any app or script a specific phrase and have at it!). System Preferences -> Speech -> Speech Recognition.
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Oh now that I didn't know...I'm going to play! Thanks for the tip.

EDIT: Wow...that was...underwhelming. Recognised only VERY occasionally. Dragon might be the way?
 
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Rodimus Prime said:
just keep telling yourself that. I already am seeing the Siri newness wear off on people and it not as useful any more.
Click to expand...

I use Siri all the time. I find myself using it more and more. I use it for text messages, email, and to enter messages in forums. I will purchase this software and give it a try.
 
*LTD* said:
That's the next game-changer. It's coming.

And then it will spread to all "computing" devices. That's the next step.
Click to expand...

While Siri is neat, it still requires a data connection to work - something Macs don't always have but an iPhone will (except in limited areas).

Speech recognition, otoh, is an input method that requires no data connection and serves a different purpose.
 
Looking at the comparison between express and regular, it seems like express basically gives you the ability to dictate text without any of the system control functionality. While I understand everyone who wants siri on the mac will be disappointed, $50 for good quality dictation software is still a pretty good value. For me, the voice dictation is more useful than voice commands – I think I'm going to bite!

Arrr- requires lion! I'm gonna have to let go of my rosetta apps sometime soon. . .
 
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