Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Standard [OLD VERSION]

by Nuance Communications, Inc.

Product Features

• Speech recognition software for dictating, editing, and controlling applications
• Surf the Web and access information by speaking URLs and links
• Teach software to recognize your voice in as few as 5 minutes
• Nothing But Speech technology eliminates "ums" and "ahs" from dictation
• Free high-quality headset microphone with noise canceling technology included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00030096W
• Item model number: A309A-G00-8.0
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 1, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,643 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard you can talk to your computer and watch your words instantly appear in letters, e-mail, instant messages and chat rooms. You can even surf the Web by speaking! Dictate and edit by voice in your favorite Windows applications including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook Express, America Online, and Corel WordPerfect. It’s fast, accurate, and easy to use. You can even browse, search, and navigate Web pages, all by talking. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard is fast, accurate, and easy to use. It learns to recognize your voice in fewer than five minutes, and gets better the more you use it! A noise-canceling microphone is included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

138 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great program perfect for the disabled, January 16, 2005

By 

Charles Bittner "Disabled comedian & gamer!" (New England USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Standard [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

This is my review from version 8 preferred. The only differences between them at the link below.

http://www.dragonsys.com/naturallyspeaking/matrix/

If you're reading this, You are interested in buying Dragon NaturallySpeaking version eight. I highly recommend it! I had versions of Dragon software, dating back to 1995. Let me tell you the software was clunky back then, being a quadriplegic, I used it to type and move the mouse. But as soon as I got a touchpad mouse. I dropped Dragon altogether. Step forward almost 10 years, I decided that I needed to send longer e-mails than two sentences (because that's all I could type, it gets tiring using only one hand and one knuckle on that hand). So I took the plunge drop the cash on Dragon, and after three days am totally satisfied.

I added up and running and dictating in less than 20 minutes. The accuracy is amazing I'm actually typing this by voice. Since I can use a touchpad, I do not use the Dragon NaturallySpeaking for mouse commands. But for dictating it is perfect and quick!!!

I'm using it with a 2 GHz processor, and it is fine. Getting it set up was a little quirky with my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. I'm actually using it with a tabletop condenser microphone, not the headset that they came with it (which I found to be quite uncomfortable). Since I'm unable to get the headset on my head, but a tabletop mike is working perfect.

So I recommend this product anyone who has a disability that makes typing difficult. Anybody who doesn't want to learn to type (though I think he would be lazy, just suck it up and learn) will find this are useful, actually quicker than typing. Almost hundred words a minute! The software is leaps and bounds above previous versions go for it! Enjoy!

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, June 4, 2005

By 

Anne e Nonomous (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Standard [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

DNS version 8 is leaps and bounds better than earlier versions. I'm now achieving 98% accuracy - even the small words are properly recognized. Just be aware that you need a horse of a PC (1 GB RAM, a powerful processor, and a very good sound card) plus a good microphone (Sennheiser is best).

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE of Copy Protection and Support Charges, April 30, 2006

By 

Michael Developer "amazon3748" (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8 Standard [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

LET THE BUYER BEWARE -- This product requires "activation" from Nuance and they don't tell you this until AFTER you bought the product AND installed it. It won't work until you activate it and you get FIVE installs and then after that your CD to install is worthless. This means if you change laptops, replace a hard drive, need to reinstall because Windows got corrupted or the copy protection fails, etc. you are screwed. Nuance / ScanSoft also charges $20 per "support incident" and they are only open Monday through Friday. Email support is onerous too and subject to a charge FIRST before they will answer questions, although they will take all your information down first for marketing purposes. "Individual users can interact with Nuance Technical Support through a pay per-incident email process. Incidents can be reported by completing the Problem Report Form at a cost of $9.95 per incident." You also can't contact them until you take out an account, and that includes anyone -- and your activation code too. This is a company that does not want to talk to the customer.

This is the worst, most reprehensible kind of consumer abuse. Look elsewhere and support other companies. Don't buy Omnipage, Textbridge,, Via Voice or Dragon NaturallySpeaking because Nuance / Scansoft have begun to take out copy protection issues on the customer. Now I'm having an impossible time returning it even though I didn't activate the software. DO NOT but this software - don't say you weren't warned.