[Macworld]

Post your comments for MacSpeech updates Dictate speech-recognition program here

[6555]

This reads like a press release. How about actual user experience with the update?

[Philip Michaels]

6555 said:

This reads like a press release. How about actual user experience with the update?

Kind of difficult to do since the update just started shipping.

The purpose of this article was to inform people about the release. We'll likely follow up with hands-on experience in a future article or product review. You may recognize this approach from the way we handle product coverage of just about everything.

[BikerFunJoe]

This is one instance where MS does it better "out of the box". Windows 2000 did speech recognition and it has only gotten better with every OS release. Plus, MS gives away the SDK. I love my Mac but don't think I'll be shelling out $200 for dictation.

[hmurchison]

The biggest difference here seems to be the (hopefully) vastly improved Vocabulary editor. I don't use Dictate yet but i've used DNS and the vocab editor is crucial to maintaining %90 accuracy and tailoring the system for your needs.

I know that some users are flipping out over the $50+ dollar upgrade fee so there better be substantial bug fixes involved in this upgrade or MacSpeech could lose good will and users.

[Paulyboy]

$55 for .2 upgrade for registered users? Are you kidding me?

[chsiung]

I've got MacSpeech and it does irks me that I have to pay for an update and by the looks of it, not a significant one. I'm already getting 95% accuracy for my voice, so why would I need another 20%?
Anyway, looking forward to the reviews to see if it's worth the upgrade.

[mooncaine]

We'd recognize it as your standard method if we took the trouble to study previous articles and get to know you. Sorry, but that's not the kind of readership your article serves.

A guy at a tire shops gave the same excuse when I questioned an additional expense. I told him I'm a regular customer, and I'd like to keep giving him my business, but I'm unhappy with the unexpected charge. He told me that if I'd been a regular customer, I'd "know that that's how we do things."

As it happens, he was totally wrong. I was a regular customer for over 10 years. Key word now is "was". Not again.

[D_Champagne]

6555 just doesn't understand and mooncaine doesn't get it. I recognize the obvious limitations of an article like this right away...
The first line of the article "A new vocabulary editor for adding new words leads the changes to the MacSpeech Dictate speech recognition software introduced by MacSpeech on Thursday."
Well, this is Thursday. In a few days, after people have installed and actually used the update, you may be able to get some user experience posts. The only people who have actually used this update are typically, "that's how they do things", restricted from posting any information at all, by a non-disclosure agreement.
Your tireshop joke doesn't change the way programs are released or reviewed, and in this context, doesn't make much sense.
If you've been a computer user for 10 years (or even 1 or 2), then you should know the difference between an Announcement and a Review. Let me help.
This is an announcement, not a review.
Tune in for user experiences in a day or so... I hope they make me want to fork out the dough!

[freudo]

I don't quite understand why someone would complain this isn't a review, as this was announced today. Macworld is doing a good job. I suppose if the company wanted to give Macworld a pre-release for review an earlier review would have been possible, but we have no indication they tried to do that.
The real issue is the absolutely shameful and disgraceful behavior exhibited by MacSpeech. If you look at their own forums, you will see that so far, up to the program has not even been functioning at a beta level for most people, and this 0.2 upgrade is really a bug fix that people who bought this only months ago are being asked to pony up another 50 something dollars.
It's been an alpha level program that has been of no use to most users. Some people who have no choice but to use voice recognition software have been using it, but with many workarounds and frustrations. And yes, I'm sure someone will post a reply saying they are succesfully using it, but I would bet this is a minority. The program was not even able to learn new words as of the last release. The function never worked.
I have actually been one of the more patient people on the boards, giving MacSpeech the benefit of the doubt, realizing that it's a complex program and that bug fixes take time - although they were stretching my patience. But then this slap across the face to customers comes along, asking $ for a bug fix release.
There must be some place to give people a bad corporate citizen award. I buy a lot of software, and I haven't recently come into such greed.
I suggest that anybody looking to buy this program have a look at running DNS under parallels or fusion instead. It's not an elegant solution, but you can at least avoid dealing with MacSpeech and you will have a much more solid solution.
All hail MacSpeech, the sleaziest software company for the Mac of 2009?
But Apple, wouldn't a solution you could also spin off into the iPhone be worth developing yourselves?

[dwever]

"The purpose of this article was to inform people about the release. We'll likely follow up with hands-on experience in a future article or product review. You may recognize this approach from the way we handle product coverage of just about everything."

Philip, thanks for your response to 6555 providing the article's purpose and your future intentions with a product review. That is what was needed. Given you're a professional writer working for Macworld serving a customer base, I am disappointed you found the sarcasm necessary in the final clause of your response.

[mooncaine]

Sure, I get it. It's a press release. That's clear.

My point was that it's bad customer relations to tell customers, "The problem is that you don't pay enough attention to how I do things." That's free advice. Take it or leave it.