[MV] Can we have less argument? -- HOW?

[Thomas Nagy]

Dear Folks,

   I'm puzzled and write in the hope someone can clears things up for me.
I bought MacSpeech believing the company's assertions that important,  free upgrades were in the pipleline so it would be safe and sensible to buy software which ran on my Mac rather than to buy software which ran only on Windows.

    Did I miss something -- did the company NOT make these assertions?  I've waited a long time and have no idea if ANY upgrades will arrive ever. BTW, how can I get the one update that some writers allude to? (First, is the update worth getting??)

   I find MacSpeech's performance so erratic and the documentation so poor and the absence of key features so limiting, that I have virtually stopped using the product altogether.  I feel that I've had been mislead into buying  a beta product when I thought I had bought a stable and complete product. 

 I am reaching the conclusion that my investment of  time and effort to use  MacSpeech has been wasted. And no, I don't feel it's a very  attractive option to risk more time and effort (and $) to run windows on my iMac and buy some version of Dragon Dictate -- once burned, twice cautious.  

    Frankly if MacSpeech values its customer base, I feel it has only 2 realistic alternatives:

      1) immediately release the promised inprovements/additions to MacSpeech OR admit the updates are simply not going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future; 
    
      2) If the  updates are ready and completely debugged, even for Tiger; then 

      3)give each purchaser of MacSpeech enough $ to buy the software needed to run a workable version of Dragon Dictate and the funds to buy a copy of Dragon Dictate itself. (This assumes that the time and effort to install the windows emulator and Dragon and to learn Dragon is worth the time and effort. How different (and better) is Dragon's functionality and ease of use and documentation and user support than MacSpeech? How fast does Dragon execute on a duel core IMac? 

   Finally, if the company will not reply to its user base, what alternatives  have we but to post to this listserve? 

      Absent (1) or (3), I see no way for MacSpeech to survive.

      I  hope that MacSpeech does not force its user base  to explore a class action law suit.

    Thanks in advance for any constructive replies.

    Two final thoughts:
1)  I purchased MacSpeech, based on Allen Pogue's  glowing account in the NYT, 

 2) Had I any inkling of the problems with MacSpeech [starting with the hours wasted trying to installed original flawed disks]  I would have spend me money on Dragon Dictate and whatever software I  need to run it on my iMac instead of MacSpeech. 

   Finally,  my guess is that Tiger is not undergoing much change, if that's the case, why doesn't MacSpeech produce fully functional updates for Tiger and after that concentrate on updates for Tiger's successor?

Thanks in advance for any constructive comments and any needed clarifications or correction to this posting if I have been unclear or factually mistaken. I still relatively new to the MAC and MacSpeech has been my first (hopefully not last effort to do viable voice recognition. 

    

tom


--- On Mon, 9/1/08, Ellen Scheiner MD <scheiner at pipeline.com> wrote:

> From: Ellen Scheiner MD <scheiner at pipeline.com>
> Subject: [MV] Can we have less argument?
> To: "A place to discuss speech recognition on Macintosh." <macvoice at listserver.themacintoshguy.com>
> Date: Monday, September 1, 2008, 7:02 PM
> All:
> 
> It is my understanding that "MacVoice" is a forum
> for all kinds of  
> dictation on the Macintosh. It is not exclusively devoted
> to Dictate.  
> It would seem appropriate to address complaints directly to
> MacSpeech  
> rather than to list them for the entire group. As a
> disabled person I  
> am thrilled with  Dictate.  I bought the first version of
> Power  
> Secretary for $2000 as soon as it was available. I was able
> to use it  
> through OS 9 because John Parsons rewrote it for me. I then
> went the  
> route of buying a PC and using DragonDictate. When Intel
> Macs became  
> available, I installed Parallels and Windows and
> reinstalled Dragon  
> NaturallySpeaking.
> 
> What a joy to use my Mac and just to dictate in sentences.
> Of course  
> it would be nice to have more communication from the
> MacSpeech folks.  
> I know they're working on a correction facility which
> would be  
> wonderful. Yet I rejoice in the sheer verbal fluency of
> this program.
> 
> Peace,
> Ellen
> 
> Ellen Scheiner, M.D.
> mailto:scheiner at pipeline.com
> 
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