[MV] IBM ViaVoice 3 and 10.4.7

[Chuck Rogers]

Gavin (and everyone else):

There is no doubt Dragon has done great things with  
NaturallySpeaking. They produce, when all is said and done a program  
that is more feature-rich and easier to get up and running than ours  
- of that we offer no argument.

But with regard to the accuracy you can attain, it is only that they  
can get you more accurate *sooner,* not more accurate no matter what,  
forever. And when it comes to command and control of the interface,  
we win - hands down.

All that having been said, my reference to Dragon NaturallySpeaking  
was purely anecdotal. The real purpose of my post was simply to point  
out that, in case some people didn't realize it, popular consensus is  
that we surpassed ViaVoice in both features and accuracy some time ago.

Regarding your comment about the word "Paragraph" I would add only  
this to what Joe already said. In Word, you can use "New Line" to  
produce the results you would get by pressing the Return key once. It  
is not what you would prefer, I realize that - but it is a work around.

Best Regards,

Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
MacSpeech, Inc.




On Sep 1, 2006, at 3:59 PM, Gavin Wynford-Jones wrote:

> Chuck,
>
> Much as I support MacSpeech and iListen as a user, investor and  
> evangelist, I feel there is still a very long way to go before it  
> can be considered a serious challenger to Naturally Speaking,  
> regardless of the platform. One fundamental issue is that of the  
> software distinguishing correctly between commands and the words in  
> the command. Dragon made sure that all commands were at least two  
> words, MacSpeech took a different tack and allowed one word  
> commands (my all-time bugbear is "paragraph" which is recognised as  
> a command 100% of the time, even in the middle of a sentence, never  
> as a word), without providing an easy method to customise, expand,  
> alter, or delete anything in the command dictionary: I want to set  
> it so that "paragraph" is never recognised as a command, "return"  
> types the word rather than pressing the return key, and to be able  
> to define "New paragraph" and "Press return key" as replacement  
> commands.
>
> Then I would probably never have to go into command mode ever  
> again, because iListen would know the difference...
>
> I love the fact that you've been able to do so much with so few  
> resources, when IBM couldn't keep it going with al the money and  
> people they have at their command. When people switch to an Intel  
> Mac, they're probably going to look at Boot Camp plus DNS and some  
> of them are going to go that route.
>
> Gavin
>
> On 1 Sep 2006, at 21:14, Chuck Rogers wrote:
>
>> All:
>>
>> I'm sorry, but I really need to jump in here. I tried to keep my  
>> mouth shut, but I just can't.
>>
>> Neither IBM or Nuance has any intention of modifying ViaVoice, and  
>> I have yet to hear from anyone who can get it to work on an Intel  
>> Mac. The last update of ViaVoice was April of 2003 - over 3 years  
>> ago!
>>
>> Meanwhile, we have been busting our arses for the past 6 years  
>> and, by all accounts have (some time ago, actually) finally  
>> surpassed ViaVoice in accuracy - we were ALWAYS better in terms of  
>> command and control. Since April of 2003 we have issued multiple  
>> updates AND kept up with changes in the Mac OS. If you accept the  
>> fact that speech recognition is also more prone to issues than any  
>> other type of software you are likely to use on your computer, our  
>> set up and use is also relatively hassle-free in comparison to  
>> ViaVoice.
>>
>> I really appreciate the fact that many of you have established  
>> profiles in ViaVoice, I really do. But even NY Times Columnist  
>> David Pogue - who is an avid NatruallySpeaking fanatic - reported  
>> (in the NY Times) that he was able to get almost 96 percent  
>> accuracy after using the latest version for only 30 minutes!
>>
>> So, let me ask: what is it going to take to get y'all to switch to  
>> the ONLY speech recognition software that is GUARANTEED to work on  
>> current Macs, from a company that continues to develop and support  
>> it? Let me know, and I will do my best to provide it if it is at  
>> all in my power. (Keep in mind that at some point, you will have  
>> to switch anyway - when you get an Intel Mac).
>>
>>
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
>> MacSpeech, Inc.
>
>
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