Customer Reviews

IBM VIAVOICE for Mac OS X USB

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I purchased ViaVoice for Mac Enhanced version and immediately had problems with it. Foolishly I upgraded to ViaVoice for Mac OS X, release 3, and thought the problems would be over. I was wrong. This software has very poor overall performance. It slows, hangs and freezes at the drop of a hat. There is no rhythme or reason to the freezes. I've tried stoping and restarting, reloading, various combinations, and it never seems to work properly. Being a Mac Addict since 1986 I think I know a thing or two about this system. It's not a user issue, it's a software issue!

I find ViaVoice an important tools to save my arthritic fingers. Once trained, its dictation is reasonably accurate (even sorting out most homonyms), and the voice-directed correction (available only in SpeakPad) makes it useable. It learns as you correct it and can easily be taught specialized words in your business vocabulary or proper names.

Direct dictation into applications other than SpeakPad, such as MS Word or Safari, is less successful (interaction with Word's automatic formatting is particularly annoying) and not voice-correctable, so I only dictate to SpeakPad and then Copy&Paste to Word or the Browser. Using ViaVoice to control the Mac is messy, and I think you're better off using the Mac's Speech PrefPane to activate Speakable Items.

I started with ViaVoice Enhanced v2 under OS 9; and I was disappointed v3 for OS X couldn't import my OS9 voice model, meaning I had to train it all over again. Once trained and customized under OSX 10.1, it worked barely adequately on a 500MHz PPC Powerbook. Upgrading to a 1.25MHz eMac and adding a GB of RAM improved performance and recognition significantly, and I was happy with it until, starting with OS X 10.3 it became harder to make it work reliably. I've gotten it to work under 10.4.6, though it requires a bit of TLC (knock on wood.)

But, I must strongly advise readers not to jump into ViaViace now. IBM sold the product line (including the name "IBM ViaVoice") to Dragon Software, who have dumped it on Nuance. There hasn't been an update since OS X 10.2, and the Nuance website only lists 10.1-10.3 as supported OS. There's no sign ViaVoice for Mac will ever be upgraded; and now, with the arrival of Intel Macs, this is most likely a dead-end product.

I think you'd be better served considering iListen for Mac, or even using an Intel Mac to run both OS X and Windows and use Dragon Naturally Speaking on the latter instead.

Due to a spinal cord injury, my hands do not work. Obviously, typing is difficult, especially extended word processing. I use my computer 8-10 hours/day for work, email, etc., and frequently need to type more than a few lines. So, Viavoice seems to be the obvious choice for me. I have owned viavoice and each upgrade since the first version. Despite updates, this program has never worked well on OS X. On a few occasions I have gotten it to operate briefly, but usually it crashes, fails to open, does not respond, or dissappoints me in some other way.

Training the program is a long process, and the fact that I cannot use it now is ridiculous. I consider myself a mac expert, and use many programs. I have never been more frustrated with a program than I am with this one. Support is poor, and updaters are few-and don't help.

Save your money and more importantly your time-don't buy this program..

I recently purchased ViaVoice MAC OS X because I had used the OS 9 version and liked it. When I up-graded to a new G4 Powerbook running OS 10.3.7, I purchased the new version so that it would work with OS X. After installing it and going through the training, I found that I could not use it, because it kept unexpectedly quiting when I tried to launch Speakpad. I called Scansoft and was informed that it only works with 10.3.5 or below. I have searched many descriptions of the product and no mention of this was found. Tech support said that they had been working on it, but saw no new release in the near future. I would not recommend the product if you plan to use an up-to-date operating system. ScanSoft ought to make this clear in their product requierments.

I've been in touch with Nuance to ask about compatibilty. The reviewer above is right that ViaVoice doesn't work with later versions of Mac OS 10.3/Panther. Neither does it work with any version of 10.4/Tiger. I was told that Nuance is working on a Tiger-compatible upgrade, but that no release date for the upgrade could be given-- not even an approximate one. Unless you're willing to postpone upgrades of your OS indefinitely, order iListen instead. It isn't Naturally Speaking, but at least it runs on the current Mac OS.

Viavoice is running on my PC and it does very well. I hoped that was getting the same or similar product for my iBook G4, but it has been a disappointment. The software frequently stops responding, Speak Pad dictation screens crash often and without warning, and the correction process is slow and tedious. Microphone shuts off during corrections and must be frequently restarted. These are major complaints but there are many minor ones. For example, defined formatting decisions such as starting sentences with numerals rather than written numbers (2 cats vs Two cats...) is time consuming to correct. In contrast to the PC version of Viavoice, the OSX version is painstaking. These observations cover about 6 months of use; I'm about to quit trying.

I have a MAC IBOOK G4 OSX 10.4 The viavoice software has been nothing but problems.Getting severally stuck on words in making a voice model of my own. Then in everyday use It would work for a sentence then get stuck and I would have to restart. It cannot process any of my documents. IBM just wanted my money.

Dragon, the leader in voice recognition software, never bothered to make a Mac version. IBM's Mac 10.3 ViaVoice is better than nothing, but not by much. As others have noted, it crashes every few minutes even on the best Mac hardware. I use it anyway because it has better recognition than I-Speak, the only alternative. Someday, someone will make a lot of money creating a decent voicetype program for the Mac, but this isn't it. In the meantime, IBM owes us a crashproofing patch for 10.3.

While the box claims this product is OS X compatible, we have not been able to even complete installation. Turns out it used to work with OS.X, and customer support in India sez they're working on a new version. yeah, right. IBM has nothing to do with it, they dumped it on another company.

a huge company like ibm is unable to produce a half way acceptable product for the masses. sad but true. actually, has ibm EVER produced a pc program that was ready for prime time? they sold DOS to gates and thus made him a millionaire and pretty well messed up with OS/2...reminds me of AT&T that are also unable to produce anything successful outside of their major line of business (telcom). anybodty remember the att&t line of computers, think theyt were called B1 or something???

the bad news is that the only other voice recognition software for the mac i know of, ilisten, is pretty bad also. best is dragon naturallyspeaking 9 for the pc.