[MV] MacSpeech Dictate

[Chuck Rogers]

Damien (and everyone else):

Beta software is software that is "feature complete" and free of known  
bugs. The purpose of beta testing is to find bugs the development team  
did not find - the unknown bugs. In some cases, of course, things  
aren't always that clear cut. Sometimes, beta software has some known  
issues that the development team is still working on, but they need  
people to beat up on the rest of the program. This is important, as  
the development team does not have the same machine configurations or  
combinations of installed software as the wide variety of our users.

So let's look at the phrase "feature complete" for just a moment. It  
is up to the developer to decide what features it will ship with its  
software. In this particular case, we have been listening to our  
customers very carefully. iListen's Correction feature was very  
innovative when it was introduced in 2000. But today we have many  
other tools at our disposal, and over 7 years of experience under our  
belts.We want to take the time to get it right.

In no way should anyone consider what we release next month as beta  
software. If we wanted to release beta software, we'd release what we  
have today. But we feel the accuracy is so good with this new product  
that most people will only be using Correction when they want to add a  
word - mis-recognitions will be few and far between. So we had a  
choice: release 1.0 without Correction (while we take the time to get  
it right), or hold up release. In light of the amazing accuracy you  
will get and the fact you can add words using Vocabulary Training, we  
thought it best for both our users and ourselves to get the software  
out there as soon as possible.

We will be offering a free update to a version that includes  
Correction as soon as we possibly can.



Best Regards,

Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
MacSpeech, Inc.




On Jan 22, 2008, at 10:15 AM, Damien Fox wrote:

> Chuck-  Thanks for the fast answers!
>
> On 22-Jan-08, at 12:49 PM, Chuck Rogers wrote:
>> Damien (and everyone else):
>>
>> First, let me make one thing very clear: this is not "Dragon on the  
>> Mac." So don't expect everything to work the way Dragon  
>> NaturallySpeaking does. There is not one line of code from the  
>> Dragon NaturallySpeaking program in MacSpeech Dictate. Any  
>> similarities between the two programs (other than the amazing  
>> accuracy) will be because that is simply the best way to do  
>> something, not because Dragon does it that way.
>>
> sounds good--  dragon is a windows app, after all!
>
>> To answer your questions specifically:
>>
>>> 1) How are words added?  With the old phonetic editor, or with  
>>> Dragon's (and ViaVoice's) "type it out and record your  
>>> pronunciation" system?
>> Right now, words are added through Vocabulary Training. Additional  
>> features for adding words will be added in a later version.
>>>
>>> 2) How does correction function?  Is it like Dragon's "say and  
>>> replace" that can be done while working on the document?
>> Version 1.0 will not have a traditional Correction interface. You  
>> correct mis-recognitions by selecting the mis-recognized word or  
>> phrase and then either re-speak it or type it in manually. (You can  
>> select by voice, btw.) We are totally re-inventing the way we do  
>> Correction compared to iListen, and we are taking the time to do it  
>> right. We will offer Correction features in a free upgrade.
>>
> sounds like the same function as the part(s) of dragon that I find  
> works so well-- i like correcting right away.
>
>>> 3) Will there be special plugins for Word/Pages/etc, like Dragon,  
>>> so that Dictate can work flawlessly in those apps, just like it  
>>> will in the included Dictate Notepad?
>> Right now we are concentrating on getting version 1.0 out the door.  
>> After that, our focus will be Correction. It is too early to  
>> speculate on what applications will be supported with Correction.
>> Best Regards,
>>
>> Chuck Rogers, Chief Evangelist
>> MacSpeech, Inc.
>
> With respect, then it sounds like a late Beta rather than a 1.0.
>
> Not to nitpick, but as a strong supporter of MacSpeech, I would  
> rather have expectations that match the product-- i.e. "wow, what a  
> great beta, can't wait for 1.0", rather than "wow, 1.0 is lame, wish  
> I had waited for 1.1, or 2.0".  Still, the code shipping next month  
> will be the same either way.
> -damien
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