We wish a USB headset were an option you'll have to buy a dongle to hook up the mic-in headset to a USB slot. We tested the $899 Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 10, which adds support for forms, networking capabilities for an office, and the choice of a standard or Bluetooth headset. Preferred Mobile adds a digital voice recorder. Preferred, for $199, includes software voice commands as well as support for mobile devices. If you only need a tool to type as you talk and don't want to dictate commands to software or for Web searches, then opt for the $99 Standard edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You'll also need a noise-canceling headset microphone, a 16-bit or equivalent sound card, and a DVD drive. (ViaVoice for the Mac, which uses Nuance's technology, is no longer updated.) It requires 512MB of RAM and 1GB of free hard-drive space. We couldn't measure that, but did notice a speed improvement.ĭragon NaturallySpeaking 10 runs only on Windows XP or 2000 SP4 or higher or on Vista, so Mac users are out of luck. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is supposed to translate spoken words to text twice as quickly as version 9. The updates to Dragon 10 include support for people with accented English, as well as voice-command shortcuts for supported applications and Web searches. Should we blame our lisping, soft-spoken ways, the software, or the hardware? We found success with about four out of five spoken words. However, that won't likely translate to your personal experience.

Version 10 is supposed to be 20 percent more accurate than its predecessor, both which supposedly offer greater than 99 percent accuracy. You could get by with such features in Windows for occasional use, but Dragon is deeper and more accurate. While not perfect, it's the best consumer tool available for digital dictation and can save time and headaches for the right user.ĭragon NaturallySpeaking's maker, Nuance, estimates that built-in speech-to-text capabilities in Windows Vista are about five years behind those of this application. Who wants to risk or aggravate carpal tunnel syndrome at a keyboard? People who suffer repetitive stress injuries, type slowly, or dictate long documents for work are among the best candidates for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, which types as you talk. We don't find this upgrade necessary for the most basic dictation, although new features may benefit heavily accented English speakers and those who rely heavily on voice commands. Bottom line: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 isn't perfect, but it's the best dictation software available.

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