IBM VIAVOICE for Mac OS X USB

Other products by Nuance Communications, Inc.

Product Features

• Brings natural, continuous speech voice dictation to Mac OS X
• OS X/Aqua human interface look and feel
• Dictate, correct, edit, and format by voice text within SpeakPad
• Create customized voice commands in favorite Mac applications
• Noise-canceling USB headset microphone included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000A58IY
• Item model number: H501A-G00-3.0
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 21, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,914 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #16 in	Software > Utilities > Voice Recognition
  #58 in	Software > Business & Office > Communication

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X brings natural, continuous speech voice dictation to Apple's highly anticipated Mac OS X. Optimized to work with this cutting-edge UNIX-based operating system, IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X brings a new level of accuracy and ease of use to voice recognition on the Apple Macintosh computer platform. All aspects of Mac OS X, including the new Command Center and re-designed Voice Center, use the Aqua OS X look and feel. Mac OS X Edition is also optimized for use with G4 and multiprocessors. Support is also available for specialized vocabularies such as legal and medical.

Users can dictate, correct, edit, and format text with their natural voice in the IBM ViaVoice speech-enabled word processor, SpeakPad. They can also take advantage of the new DSR technology, which enables direct dictation into text-fields of Mac applications, with correction and editing in SpeakPad.

Mac OS X Edition also provides voice command and control of the Internet, so users can move back and forth between Web sites. An enhanced Speech Recognition Engine takes advantage of Mac OS X audio features and provides for faster enrollment than previous IBM ViaVoice for Mac products.

Features:

• OS X/Aqua human interface look and feel
• Noise-canceling USB headset microphone included
• Dictation with correction: dictate, correct, edit, and format by voice text within SpeakPad
• Create customized voice commands in favorite Mac applications

Product Description

IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X brings natural, continuous speech voice dictation to Apple's highly anticipated Mac OS X. Optimized to work with this cutting-edge UNIX-based operating system, IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X brings a new level of accuracy and ease of use to voice recognition on the Apple Macintosh computer platform. All aspects of Mac OS X, including the new Command Center and re-designed Voice Center, use the Aqua OS X look and feel. Mac OS X Edition is also optimized for use with G4 and multiprocessors. Support is also available for specialized vocabularies such as legal and medical.

Users can dictate, correct, edit, and format text with their natural voice in the IBM ViaVoice speech-enabled word processor, SpeakPad. They can also take advantage of the new DSR technology, which enables direct dictation into text-fields of Mac applications, with correction and editing in SpeakPad.

Mac OS X Edition also provides voice command and control of the Internet, so users can move back and forth between Web sites. An enhanced Speech Recognition Engine takes advantage of Mac OS X audio features and provides for faster enrollment than previous IBM ViaVoice for Mac products.

Main Features

Manufacturer: Nuance Communications, Inc

Manufacturer Part Number: H501A-G00-3.0

Manufacturer Website Address: www.nuance.com

Software Sub Type: Voice Recognition

Software Name: IBM VIAVOICE v.3.0 Mac OS X Edition - Complete Product

Features & Benefits:

Aqua user interface/look and feel throughout the application, including VoiceCenter, Command Center, SpeakPad, and Preferences.

Faster enrollment allows the IBM ViaVoice for Mac OS X user to create a personal Voice Model and get up and running more quickly than any previous IBM ViaVoice for Mac product.

Re-designed Voice Center.

New Command and Preference Centers.

G4 Processor Optimization (Optimized for G4 w

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wrong Product for panther, March 31, 2004

By	Sara (Susanville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I can't get the microphone to even record. I think this version is incompatible with Panther, or I may have a faulty product. I am a very experienced Mac user and actually read manuals and web sites for support. It's possible that the correct product is actually IBM ViaVoice for Mac X USB, v. 3. It's a $30 upgrade from this version. Neither Scansoft nor Amazon makes this clear from looking at this page!

To give this product a fair review, it needs to be repesented correctly on this site as not being the latest version for Mac.

If I am wrong about this, I will correct it in a further review very soon.

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money!, July 25, 2004

By	DaktariEd "Bibliophile & MacAddict" (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

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!

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dying product, June 26, 2006

By	Bruce Carlson (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.