Nuance Dragon Dictate 2.0 for Mac review
The newest version of Nuance's Dragon Dictate voice recognition software for Mac is finally available. Is it a second-class port of a Windows app or a real boon to productivity? Julian Prokaza dons a headset and clears his throat to find out.
Impressive recognition performance and a vast array of features make Dragon Dictate 2.0 a flexible and highly capable speech recognition application for Mac users, but it’s a shame about the Mac OS price premium.
Vocabulary training can also be performed to extend the range of words that Dragon Dictate 2.0 knows about. The application already correctly recognises some technical terms such as "TCP/IP" and "DVD-ROM" without the need to specify capitalisation and punctuation. It can be further trained to identify more esoteric jargon by importing a suitable text document and performing voice training for the words that aren't in its database.
In addition to straight dictation, Dragon Dictate 2.0 can also be used for text editing, but the long list of specific phrases required for this (necessary to distinguish between dictation and spoken commands) make it a slow substitute for editing with the keyboard. Unfortunately, switching to the keyboard mid-dictation can cause more problems, since this puts a document's content out of sync with what Dragon Dictate 2.0 has recognised so far. This don't mix inputs' rule is spelled out in the manual, but the problem can be bypassed by uttering a command to rebuild the application's internal document cache after a keyboard edit to make it aware of the new, manually altered, structure.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
-
Salesforce says ‘Microsoft’s anticompetitive tying of Teams' harmed business in triumphant response to EU concessions agreement
News Microsoft has agreed to make versions of its Office solutions suite available without Teams – and at a reduced price
By Ross Kelly Published
-
Healthcare organizations report rampant email security failures – and Microsoft 365 is often the weakest link
News IT leaders say they're drowning in security alerts and missing real threats, thanks to limited resources, expanding attack surfaces, and weak security strategies
By Emma Woollacott Published
-
Is the honeymoon period over for Microsoft and OpenAI? Strained relations and deals with competitors spell trouble for the partnership that transformed the AI industry
Analysis Microsoft and OpenAI are slowly drifting apart as both forge closer ties with respective rivals and reevaluate their long-running partnership.
By Ross Kelly Published