Customer Reviews

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred Upgrade

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been a long term user of Dragon Dictate - Dragon Naturally Speaking having first bought into the software during version 3. Although I liked version 8 I have religiously upgraded to enhance the performance of this very complicated and what I hope to be useful software...this version promises to be the first that will be able to recognize more then one voice and reach 96% or better recognition. Which means I will finally be able to spend more time dictating then editing. That catch thus far has been Nuance. The DVD that came with my order has a corrupt file on it and I have emailed, I have called customer service who forwarded me to tech support which had a robot voice that told me that I might be charged $ 15.00 and should have my credit card ready and then was put on hold for a considerable amount of time...how long you might ask...the first day it was 42 minutes before I gave up and went back to work...I am not paid to sit on hold with the people I pay to sell me working software and my supervisor did not understand. Today I was on hold twice, the first time for about 33 minutes - when I had to go to a meeting and the second time for 72 minutes until the battery in my phone died. Another current concern is that Nuance's tech support is only open M-F from 9am to 8pm eastern time: meaning that I will have to wait another weekend to ask permission to use their software. I never talked to a tech support human being, but heard that they were busy serving other customers for a very long period of time. My guess is that there was a mistake someplace in production and none of the current copies are working and that is why everyone is calling. This does not mean that the software is not good and that my review will be as negative as this current (first one) once things are worked out on their end...I am strongly advising that you wait for them to get the bugs out of their support and DVDs prior to ordering.

I have never used speech recognition software before. Therefore, I was very excited to try Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, Preferred version. I pre-ordered ($99.95) it a week before release and when I tried to install it on my eMachines T3025 I received several error messages that failed to tell me why the software would not install. After considerable time on hold (long distance telephone calls) I was informed by a very polite and heavily accented "technician" that my processor did not possess the 2EE instructions required by the software. Not to be deterred, I purchased a new Dell desktop computer with a Core 2 Quad processor featuring the 2EE instructions and more. Today, when I attempted to install the software, the installation failed. The error message was that the software does not support 64 bit. Nuance's web pages offerred no help that I could find. I dread the thought of additional long distance phone charges for being on extended hold; therefore, I'll post this on Amazon with a copy to Nuance. I have high hopes that someone more savvy than I can get me up and running. I'm waiting... :)

I'm surprised and confused about the negative reviews this product received. It works very well for its intended uses, assuming you take the time to tweak it and train it. I last used VR software about 10 years ago, when I was an editor for PC World Magazine. It was mainly a novelty back then, but is now a mature and effective product that takes advantage of the horsepower of today's computer systems.

Don't expect miracles, though. It's not 100% accurate, nor could it ever be considering the variations of context. I purchased this because I have bad shoulders, and long periods of typing are painful. Being able to speak instead of type is a godsend.

It is puzzling to see this software given poor rankings. I have used it for many years and in many different versions. It only seems to get better. Several of the reviewers complained about installation issues. Thankfully, I have never had such a problem. The closest I came to an installation issue was when I purchased a Vista 64 computer to replace a Vista 32 computer. My Dragon 10 software would not install on Vista 64. However, the Dragon website allowed me to download the 64-bit version of the software and install it using the software installation code of the 32-bit version.

I have used Dragon to dictate letters, legal briefs, e-mails, Internet blogs and a variety of other applications. I have recommended it to professionals who have used it extensively in their business practices. All of them have raved about its capabilities. One has to be willing to spend the time correcting dictation errors by training the program, particularly at the beginning of using the program. But for me, all of my training time has been time well spent. Accuracy rose dramatically and my personal satisfaction with the program has grown with it.

the software works as advertised, but there was not an included headset as the product description claimed.

I have been using speech recognition products since IBM ViaVoice and Dragon Dictate were battling it out. This is by far the best version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It is compatible with both Internet Explorer and Firefox, as well as Microsoft Word. I am using it right now to dictate what looks like to be a lengthy post addressing some of the one star reviews posted above. I think they are pretty absurd, but let me be a more specific.

M. Stone received a DVD with a "corrupt file" and therefore is advising everyone not to purchase now but to wait until some unspecified time in the future when he believes that the product will be bug free. LOL Even though Stone claims have been using speech recognition software from Dragon from version 3, Stone doesn't provide any guidance as to whether or not Dragon speech recognition software works very well at all. IMHO, version 9, for example, was a pretty slick and useful speech recognition product itself. Version 10 is better. His tale of woe with tech support may be true. Speech recognition software is some of the most complicated software the consumer can buy. At least there is someone to call. Who would you call when you have a question about Microsoft Office? In any event, his complaint about the "robotic voice" is kind of lame when everyone knows that phone trees and automated phone systems are ubiquitous in customer service. At least we need to get a tech support representative eventually, the tech will be knowledgeable and based in North America. In any event, I am very skeptical his story-- I ordered mine Wednesday from Amazon, received it on Monday, and installed it today without a hitch. As far as the $15 charge, the charges actually $19.95, and only applies after your first free tech support call. Moreover, in all my years of dealing with Dragon, I have never had them charge me for a tech support call. moreover, I believe it is their policy not to charge anyone for tech support calls dealing with installation. If you think about it, that doesn't even make sense. If you're selling a product and the consumer can't even install it, you're not likely to gain much goodwill by charging them 20 bucks to get some help just to install the software.

Moving right along to "Jon "L. V. Teacher" -- he has never used speech recognition software before. I would sure like to know how he bought the upgrade product no previous product to upgrade. He claims he pre-ordered it for $99.95. I wonder which version this is -- my upgrade to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred version 10 was $69.99, and I didn't pre-order. It has gone up $20 since I ordered it. There is a stripped-down version called "Standard" and a very expensive professional version not at issue here. In any event, he tried to install it on an eMachine. eMachine went out of business several years ago. They were always bottom-line budget computers. Installing a state of art speech recognition product on an unsupported bottom-line budget computer and then claiming that it doesn't work is less than reasonable. I have no idea what he is talking about regarding "2EE" instructions. It doesn't sound like he does either. Then he complains that he purchased a top-of-the-line 64-bit Dell. Not much consumer software runs on 64-bit PCs. The specifications for most software assumes that you have a 32-bit version of Windows. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred explicitly states as one of its minimum system requirements that you are Windows system be 32-bit. Seriously, if you buy a 64-bit version of Windows you better know exactly what you're buying it for and know that all of your software is going to be compatible with it. Mr. Las Vegas teacher obviously didn't make this minimal inquiry. However, Nuance provides an FAQ and, interestingly enough, the first question they addressed is whether or not any of their versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking run on 64-bit operating systems. They explain "No" and why. [...] . A comparison matrix for all of their speech recognition products that covers every conceivable detail is here: [...]

As for Mr. Beckwith in Elk Grove "Hey!" -- I live 10 miles away from you. I can't believe that you have purchased each Dragon since version 5 and you're giving it one star based upon the price? First of all, you claim that this upgrade says that it comes with a microphone. Well it doesn't and there is no claim that it does. If you have purchased Dragon speech recognition product since version 5, then you should know that during the first 30 days you can find extraordinary deals, like I did -- I paid $69.99. It has already gone up to $89.99. And will soon go up to $99.99. So Mr. Beckwith gives a product he didn't buy one star and decides that he will "wait for a software upgrade at a lower and more reasonable price." You have already waited too long, Mr. Beckwith. Wait more and pay $20 more. In the excellent review by David Pogue in the New York Times, he notes that if you already own Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.5 you can get away with skipping this upgrade. I tend to agree with them. However it has sufficient additional features that I'm willing to shell out the upgrade price.

Finally, as to the merits of the software itself. It takes about 5-10 minutes to go through a very essential training process so that the software recognizes your voice. Additionally, Mr. Beckwith is correct in that you will have to buy a high-quality microphone in order to get the maximum quality this software is capable of delivering. I am using a $300 wireless Plantronics USB CS50. He did not really need a $300 microphone to use speech recognition software, but you cannot use a five dollar plastic beige-colored microphone that some computer vendors give you for free. It must be reasonably high-quality microphone with a microphone element that sits close to your mouth. The Nuance and NaturallySpeaking website has a whole list of Nuance approved microphones. Any of these will give you anywhere from adequate to outstanding quality. Speech recognition is here for everyone to use and is surprisingly user-friendly and extremely accurate. However, if you are new to speech recognition there is a learning curve and you must invest, at a minimum, about $50 for a wired headset microphone specifically designed for speech recognition. A little bit of time googling vendors who do nothing but sell microphone for use with speech recognition will yield results. Dragon NaturallySpeaking supports wired microphones, wireless microphones, Bluetooth mics, array microphones -- for reasonably inexpensive wired headset microphones, Andrea has been in the business for a long time.

I SEE THIS ADVERTISED ON TV FOR CHRISTMAS AND IT BREAKS MY HEART! If you buy this for Christmas, it will be for someone you care about. We purchased this software from a local store (not Amazon) because the majority of my job is online and I was going through each carpal tunnel surgery (right and left wrist). It wouldn't record or listen to my voice or do anything. I took it back to the local store, they recorded room noise, and told me it was fine. No refunds, no help, nobody cared. Save your money. If you absolutely require this type of software, make sure you get follow-up training and repairs and workmanship included and get the $600 item. I don't know if it works, but it HAS to be better than the $100 one!

Yes, I too had to search the internet for a solution to the installation problems, and found a solution at the following link:

[...]

Essentially, you turn off your antivirus (and I turned off Spyware Doctor) and download the following file from nuance:

[...]

When it asks you, after you run it, if you want to continue without restarting, say yes.

After that,the installation went perfectly and the program actually works amazingly well.

It is a shame that Nuance makes you jump through so many hoops, to get the program installed but it's worth the effort in the end.

I am very impressed with the performance of Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.

I have used and upgraded several versions of NaturallySpeaking over many years (I started with version 5) for work. When I retired I (A) bought Preferred 8 and (B) a really nice Parrott microphone for use at home. When Preferred version 9 came out I bought a software only copy here from Amazon at a considerable savings. Later I was able to freely upgrade to version 9.5 via a software download (9.5 simply provided Vista compatibility). This upgrade says it provides a headset microphone, which is unnecessary if you are truly simply seeking to upgrade the software. Besides, the headsets provided by the manufacturer are notoriously poor. I will wait for a software-only upgrade at a lower and more reasonable price.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred Upgrade Because the DVD was sent in a white mailing folder, not in the Nuance box, I returned it without even opening it. I had no way to know it was not a copy of the original, and possibly copied illegally in China or some foreign country. Last year I purchased Dragon Naturally Speaking from another reseller, and when I called Nuance for help, they detected it was an illegal copy. So I had to purchase the version 9.5 from Nuance to get the help I needed! BLM