New Olympus Voice Product Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

This week Olympus Imaging took over the distribution of all Olympus voice products from Nationwide Dictating. Nationwide had been the sole distributor for the last sixteen years and had supported the voice community from their head office in Melbourne and small offices in Sydney and Brisbane.

Olympus Imaging have already started adding the voice products to their website - www.olympus.com.au and we will be seeing some new digital voice recorders in Australia soon, namely the amazing DM-450 and DM-550 recorders which have taken over from the now discontinued DS-55 and DS-65 models.

Also of note is the reduction in RRP for most of the recorders in the digital voice range. More details on this from at our main blog site: http://idictate.com.au

What recorder shall I take to the conference? - Olympus WS-450S, LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen or iProRecorder iPhone app

I was fortunate enough to attend FlyingSoloLive at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney this week where I met and listened to some great Australian business people.

The day was made up of mainly keynote presentations listening the experiences of Australian business people, their thoughts and their advice.

I decided to take along three recording devices to see how they would cope with a day of recording and how good the audio quality really was. The devices were:

• Olympus WS-450S digital voice recorder
• LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen
• iProRecorder - Voice recorder app for the iPhone

For the full review of how these performed with sample audio from each head to our main blog site: idictate.com.au

MacSpeech Dictate International Announced - Support for French, Italian and German Speakers

Annouced out of the MacSpeech head office in the US today is a new Mac only voice recognition product called MacSpeech Dictate International. This adds to MacSpeech's current range of only English speaking (with various accents like Australian) speech recognition software and now adds support for French, Italian and German speakers.

More on our main blog site: http://idictate.com.au

Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR Digital Voice Recorder Edition

New from Philips and Nuance is the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Digital Voice Recorder Edition, a bundle containing a cut down version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 and a Philips Digital Voice Tracer 660 digital voice recorder.

The is a very cheap entry into the voice recognition world and well worth a look, especially if you are someone who is used to recording dictation into a voice recorder for a secretary or transcriptionist to transcribe.

The Dragon software, although using the latest speech recognition technology on the Dragon voice recognition engine, is a cut down version in terms of features when compared to the basic Standard Edition or the more advanced Preferred Edition. Both of which come with a headset and mic and allow you to dictate directly to your PC. With the Voice Recorder Edition only dictation recorded on a digital voice recorder can be transcribed.

For the full review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR Edition please visit our main blog site: http://idictate.com.au

New WS Series Digital Note Takers for Australia Announced by Olympus Voice

Another change in the digital voice recorder range from Olympus Voice Australia is soon to be upon us. In a total revamp of their WS Series range of small, high quality digital note takers the old range is about to be discontinued and replaced with three new recorders. The recorders being, or have been already, discontinued are the:

WS-210S, WS-311M, WS-321M & WS-331M

These recorders which are very popular and used for a range of audio recording from single speaker note taking, interviews, small meetings and focus groups and conference and lecture recording will be replaced by:

WS-450S, WS-550M & WS-560M

The 'S' stands for Stereo, as in stereo recording and the 'M' stand for Music playback and stereo recording. The new models look similar to and operate in the same way as their predecessors with the big chances in these units coming with the memory increases (1Gb, 2Gb and 4Gb respectively) and the addition of a restractable USB connector.

No official release date as yet but they are expected before the end of August 09 in Australia. Also no indication of pricing as I write this blog post.

For a full round up of the new recorders please head to our main blog site: idictate.com.au

Review of the Olympus WS-210S Digital Voice Recorder

The little WS-210S digital voice recorder from Olympus Australia is our top selling digital voice recorder. Used by all kinds of people from students recording lectures, market researchers recording focus groups, journalists recording sound bites and interviews through to amateur family historians recording their relatives voices and stories to keep for generations, the WS-210S is a true all round voice recorder.

Head over to our main blog site for a full review on this digital voice recorder: iDictate Blog

More Recorders Discontinued By Olympus Australia - WS-311M & WS-321M

In another surpise from Olympus Voice Australia, keeping the tradition of not telling anyone that its coming, they discontinued two more voice recorder models yesterday (10th July, 2009), they were the popular WS-311M digital notetaker and the next one up in the range the WS-321M. Both recorders were exactly the same in function and ability, the only difference came with their memory 512Mb for the WS-311M and 1Gb for the WS-321M and their colour. This now leaves just the WS-331M, with its massive 2Gb of memory from the original line up of three recorders.

When you think about it makes sense to drop these two. The WS-311M was very very close in spec and size to the WS-210S recorder, the WS-210S was quite a bit cheaper so maybe a pricing decision casued the WS-311Ms demise. Also the WS-321M, this was really an unneccary recorder, most people either went for the WS-311M or if they needed more memory would jump to the WS-331M so this recorder never really sold well.

In the WS series this now only leaves the WS-110 mono digital voice recorder (great for single speaker and one-on-one interviews), WS-210S stereo digital notetake (interviews, larger meetings, conferences and lectures) and the WS-331M (same as WS-321M but with added class in the piano black).

Olympus Australia Launch New DS-2400 Digital Dictaphone

Olympus Voice Australia today announced that the trusty DS-2300 digital dictaphone has today been discontinued and replaced by the new Olympus DS-2400, available from today in Australia.

The release of the DS-2400 completes the Olympus Australia revamp of their digital dictaphone range after the release of the DS-3400 and DS-5000 ealrier this year ending the life of the DS-3300 and DS-4000.

The DS-2400 is your classic entry level digital dictphone, easy to use, fully featured with amazing audio clarity. The DS-2400 records only in the new DSS Pro digital audio format which produces .ds2 audio files.

Available from today from Dictate Australia

MacSpeech Announce MacSpeech Dictate Legal Version - Voice Recognition for Intel Mac

They say good news always comes in threes and for the good folk over at MacSpeech they have just made their third big announcement in recent weeks.

First we had the upgrade to version 1.5, a major upgrade which introduced a new state of the art voice recognition engine, aswell as some enhancements and bug fixes.

Next we had the launch of MacSpeech Dictate Medical version.

Today we get the news that MacSpeech Dictate Legal is available, boasting a legal dictionary with 30,000 legal words and terms. Enough to keep any legal Mac person happy.

News of when MacSpeech Dictate Legal will be available in Australia is yet to be confirmed but I would guess within two weeks. Once Australian pricing and availability is known I will update this blog.

MacSpeech Dictate Medical Version - Australian Pricing And Bundles

With the announcement last week of a new medical version of MacSpeech Dictate we have been waiting for pricing, availability and bundle details for us here in Australia. Those details have just been released by the Australian distributor.

We can expect to get two bundles of MacSpeech Dictate Medical with a choice of either the Parrott VXI TalkPro USB headset and mic or the Revolabs xTag wireless mic.

Stock of MacSpeech Dictate Medical is expected in Australia next week so will be shipping nationally in early July. We at Dictate Australia have sold the very first copy of MacSpeech Dictate Medical which will head off to a doctor in Victoria very shortly.

For a run down on the Australian pricing and upgrade pricing for people with standard MacSpeech Dictate (both version 1.3 and 1.5) click on this entries heading above or head direct to idictate.com.au

MacSpeech Dictate Announce Medical Version - Voice Recognition For Mac

Hot on the heals of their latest (paid) upgrade to version 1.5 MacSpeech have just announced (Friday 19th June, 2009) a Medical version of their voice recognition software for Intel Macs, called ... wait for it ... MacSpeech Dictate Medical !

It will be available as a stand alone package or if you already own MacSpeech Dictate a cross grade licence will be available.

No details yet on availability or pricing in Australia, as soon as we know we will update.

Olympus DS30 & DS-40 Discontinued in Australia

Some news out of Olympus Australia this week is that the popular large meeting and focus group digital voice recorder the DS-30 has been discontinued. The next model up the DS-40 will also suffer the same fate in the next week or two.

My suspicion is that both these models will be replaced by a single new recorder, the Olympus DS-55 which is yet to be seen in Australia and as yet no pricing is available for this model.

As the DS-50 was recently dumped and replaced by the DS-65 it looks to me that it is not likely that we will see the DS-75 model available across Europe. This make sense, the three model choice of the DS-30, DS-40 and DS-50 was a bit of overkill where two models would do.

As soon as we receive news on the DS-55, its availability and Australian pricing we will update the blog with the info. In the mean time, feast your eyes on this stunning silver model and wipe a tear for the legendary DS-30.

Spotted - New Olympus DS-3400 In Australia

The latest recorder from Olympus Australia has just arrived in the country with an expected release nationally next week. The DS-3400 fits with the new digital dictaphone image Olympus are adopting, the sleek black and chrome look, this digital voice recorder looks stunning.

News on pricing for the new DS-3400, which seems to be replacing the DS-3300 phased out earlier this year, is not available yet. As soon as it is I will update this post.

The recorder will come with a removeable 1Gb SD card and the DSS Dictation Pro v5 software supporting the new .ds2 (DSS Player Pro) audio format.

Olympus DS-50 Discontinued In Australia - Replaced By New DS-65

News filtered through to the Dictate Australia office today that the classy Olympus DS-50 digital voice recorder, commonly used for larger meetings, focus groups, podcasting etc has been dicontinued in Australia and has been replaced by a new model, the Olympus DS-65.

From the outside the DS-65 looks the same as the DS-50, except it is blue. The differences are internally. The DS-65 has double the memory of the DS-50 and now supports Audible files (.aa) so you can listen to your audio books aswell as music when you are on the move.

The doubling of the memory means the recorders can now save a whopping 33 hours plus on the highest quality audio mode.

Review: Express Scribe Compatible Philips USB Foot Control - 2310 - 2320

For years now transcriptionists around the world have been using Express Scribe, the free software from NCH Swift Sound. Able to take just about any audio format you throw at it (on Windows) Scribe is the software of choice for many transcription typists.

For those who come from an analogue transcription typing background or those who spend hours transcription typing they will prefer to use Scribe with a transcription foot control. Connected via USB the foot pedal allows the typist to control the audio playback via pedals on the foot control.

Some of the best USB foot controls which are Express Scribe compatible are the 2310 and 2320 from Philips Dictation. With no software required, these plug and play foot controls can be connected and working with Express Scribe in under a minute.

With a great ergonomic look and feel the Philips pedals do come in a little higher in price than the cheaper two pedal USB foot controls like the VEC. But you get what you pay for and with a big name in the digital dictation and transcription world like Philips Dictation you know that it will be a pedal you can use day in and day out for years to come.

MacSpeech Dictate Announce Paid Upgrade To Version 1.5 - What Does This Mean For Australian Users

In a press release out today from MacSpeech they have anounced a new upgrade available for their popular voice recognition software for Mac, MacSpeech Dictate.

This however is the first paid upgrade, all previous upgrades have been free. This has caused some consternation from US MacSpeech users in the US on both twitter and the MacSpeech forum.

What does this mean for Australian user for MacSpeech Dictate?  Click on the blog title above for a run down of whats in the upgrade and common questions Aussie MacSpeech users have.

Philips Dictation Australia Price Rise For The Popular DVT Digiital Voice Tracers

We have heard that a price rise is on the way for the Philips range Digital Voice Tracers (DVT). It will be effective from 1st June, 2009.

Philips blames the increase on the state of the Australian dollar against the Euro, the dictation arm of Philips is run out of Vienna. To be fair, they have held off as long as they could, Olympus jumped back in February with an across the board price rise.

On average the DVTs will go up by around 25% on their current pricing. Even with the increase these voice recorders are still excellent value. The are rich in features (and a couple of gimicks), easy to use, look great and record very well.

Olympus Australia Announce, Kind Of, The DS-3400

Yes it hasn't actually been announced by Olympus Voice Australia more snuk in (sp?), it appeared on their "whats new" page of the website - www.olympusvoice.com.au

This came as a bit of a surprise, I know that the DS-2400 is in the pipeline for Australia but I had not heard anything about the DS-3400. 

It has the same look as the DS-5000, sleek and black and uses the DSS Pro technology to record .ds2 audio files. It will be compatibe with the AS-5000 transcription kit but it is unknown as yet if like the DS-5000 it can be set to classic mode or not.

No official release dates from Olympus and no pricing, so we are all in the dark on this one for the moment. As soon as there is news I will blog it and will update the DS-3400 page on the Dictate Australia website.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 - Digital Voice Recorder Edition from Philips

Philips Dictation recently announced that they have joined forces with Nuance, the people behind Dragon NaturallySpeaking to create the Digital Voice Recorder edition of the software.

This bundles the Philips DVT (Digital Voice Tracer) 660 model with a cut down version of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software for Windows at a very low price of $209 incl. GST.

Philips Dictation Australia expects the bundle to be available any day now.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking : Here is a tip for you - faster transcription

On some machines you may find that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a little slow to dump out your spoken dictation into Microsoft Word. This could be caused by a few things, maybe an older PC, maybe lack of RAM etc.

One way to speed up your transcribed single speaker dictation a tip is to let Dragon transcribe into Notepad or Wordpad. The overhead of Word trying to spell check as you talk is then taken away giving you faster smoother transcription. When you are done just copy the text and dump it into Word and it will then happily spell check your document for you.

Handy hints from Dictate Australia - www.dictate.com.au

Digital Dictaphone or Digital Notetaker - What Is The Difference?

In the world of digital voice recorders, typically the recorders can be grouped into two seperate types. We have the digital dictaphones and the digital notetakers.

Most people on the look our for a digital voice recorder are often confused by or unsure of what this really means and which type of digital voice recorder they need.

In simple terms, the general functionality of each is listed here:

Digital Notetaker

• Used to record multiple speaker audio: lectures, interviews, meetings etc.
• Audio is recorded in one session with minimal or no interruptions.

Digital Dictaphone

• Used to record one or single speaker audio: letters, notes etc.
• Audio can be recorded in multiple sessions, because of interuptions or stopping and starting dictation.

The digital dictaphones generally try to emulate the older analogue tape dictaphones and usually have a slider switch or rocker switch to initiate what we call the rewind/review functionality. Audio the has been recorded can be rewind for a few seconds and the last few dictated words can be heard. Dictation then continues on from that point untli the user presses a button to indicate the end of the dictation, causing an audio file to be created.

Digital notetakers are very simple and basic to use, press one button to start recording, press another to stop. It is that simple. Most notetakers can pause recording and then resume but it is not possible to rewind and hear what was just said and continue recording in the same audio file. It is possible to listen from the beginning of the file and fast forward through though.

Using Free Software To Help When Typing Up Notes From Digitally Recorded Interviews, Meetings or Focus Groups

You have just spent an hour or so digitally recording an interview, team meeting or focus group now you have to head back to your desk and type up notes from that meeting. How do you do it?

Most people would play back the audio in Windows Media Player of QuickTime and flick from their audio player back and forth to their word processor typing the small snippets of information they hear before they have to head back to stop and rewind the audio for a couple of sentences. Anyone who has done this will know it is very painful and takes forever.

There is a solution and it's free. It is Express Scribe from Australian company NCH Swift Sound. Using Express Scribe the audio playback is totally controlled from within your word processing application like Word. Simply by using any pre-configured keys on the keyboard (or by using a USB foot control) you can easily stop/rewind/play the audio without leaving the document you are writing, saving alot of time.

Just because of free does not mean it is feature poor. Far from it, Express Scribe has an impressive array of features like:

• Auto file loading from email or network drives
  
• Audio file noise suppressing/noice boost for poorly recorded audio
  
• Variable audio playback speed
  

Express Scribe is available for both the Windows and Intel Mac platforms. Give it a try and save yourself a few painful hours at the keyboard.

Record Phone Conversations With The Olympus TP-7 Telephone Pickup Mic

Ever need to record telephone conversations? Maybe you record interviews by phone or hold meetings by phone that you need to record for later transcription or note taking.

Olympus have a nifty microphone compatible with all their digital voice recorders called the TP-7 telephone pickup mic. The microphone end fits in your ear much like an iPod earbud and is held in place by the phone against your ear. The in ear mic records clearly the audio from the phones speaker and your voice.

As it fits in your ear it can be used with any telephone - mobile, desk phone and even pay phones.

LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen - Digital Voice Recorder In A 2Gb Pen

Here at Dictate Australia our attention was recently drawn, thanks to Twitter, to the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen. This incredible gadget which is both Mac and Windows compatible is basically a computer in a pen.

Using the LiveScribe Dot Paper you hand write your notes while recording the audio from around you, being a lecture, conference or meeting. The audio is linked to the words you are writing so by simply touching on a word in your notes the audio is instantly replayed.

We have just received our first SmartPen in the office and will be working on video demos on both Mac and Windows in the coming weeks.

Australian Dragon NaturallySpeaking Users, Update Available - Standard & Preferred - Version 10.1

Nuance have issued an update to version 10 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Standard and Preferred editions.

The update is a huge download, just over 1Gb, and now brings support for 64-bit Windows Vista operating systems as well as the usual bug fixes and enhancements.

The upgrade is available free of charge for existing DNS10 licence holders via:

http://www.nuance.com/vista/naturallyspeaking/Dragon10.1/

For the Professional version an upgrade will be available late April 2009.

How To: Update The Philips Digital Voice Tracer DVT Firmware

The latest digital voice tracer notetakers from Philips (DVT models 600, 620, 660, 860 & 880) can be updated via a firmware download on the Philips Dictation website. The firmware updates will address bug fixes and may in the future provide additional functionality to the recorders.

The firmware update is relatively simple on either Windows or Mac.

Review of the Philips 880 Digital Voice Tracer

Philips Australia have recently re-vamped their Digital Voice Tracer range of cheap digital note takers. The top of the line DVT is the 880 which boasts PCM recording to .wav files and high quality recording to MP3. With a wealth of goodies in the box and a lean Australian price tag we take a look as this new recorder from Philips in our review.

MacSpeech Dictate Announce Upgrade To Version 1.3

In a press release from MacSpeech in the US they today announced that MacSpeech Dictate is now on version 1.3, an upgrade freely available to registered uses of Dictate via the Check For Updates feature.

So whats new in 1.3?

New "Cache Document" command which instructs Dictate to read any document, even those now created by Dictate. This allows easier/better/smarter navigation within a document. Sounds good, will give that a try very soon.

Also added is the "Cache Selection" command, again another way to get around the old problem of cursor positioning within a document.

And two more commands to add to your headspace, "Press The Key" and "Press The Key Combo" allowing keyboard entries and key combinations to be input by voice.

Aswell as this new command is the usual bug fixes, a new Help Book system and some additional indicators to show the Mic status.

This is just a quick post as the release has just come out. In the next few days I will give them a try and as usual post to my YouTube channel.

Excellent work from the guys at MacSpeech. The frequency of the updates is increasing and we are starting to see more and more functionality coming through and small niggly bugs being hit on the head. Early adopters have a large smile on their face now and new users will be impressed with the power of this software.

To read the press release click here.

Olympus Voice Australia Increase Digital Voice Recorder Costs Today

Today we see some changes in the pricing and product line across the board from Olympus Voice Australia. Nearly all recorders get an increase in RRP (recommended retail price) with the exception of the VN-3100PC (which has gone down in price) and the DS-3300 which remains the same, we expect the DS-3300 to be dropped off the product line in the near future.

Two new digital notetakers have been added, the VN-3500PC and VN-5500PC which should be available in Australia towards the end of February. We anticipate that when these two arrive we can say goodbye to the VN-3100PC.

We also say goodbye to the VN-2100PC, not my favourite recorder so not too upset by that departure. The AS-4000 transcription kit has also now been discontinued after a long and distinguished career, this follows on from the Olympus DS-4000 discontinued late last year.

Other minor changes to the product lists include a replacement cable (KP21), power supply (A513) and carry case (CS119) for the Olympus DS-5000 and DS-5000iD.

The Olympus A513 power adapter can also be used with the Olympus LS-10 so good to see an alternative power option for this specialised digital PCM recorder.

Philips Introduce LFH9162 In Ear Telephone Pickup Mic

Philips Dictation Australia today announced the launch of a new telephone pickup microphone called the LFH9162. Similar to the Olympus TP-7 this clever mic fits in your ear and is held in place by the telephone you are talking on, recording to your digital voice recorder your phone conversation.

I have long been a fan of this style of telephone recording mic as it can be used with either the office phone or your mobile if you are out of the office.

The LFH9162 simply plugs into the mic socket of any compatible Philips digital voice recorder. Available in Australia any day now the expected price of the LFH9162 will be around $66 incl. GST.

In the box along with your pickup mic you will get a 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter plug, spare ear cushion and a carrying pouch.

For the techs out there here are the tech specs:

• Type: Electret condenser microphone
• Directionality: non-directional
• Frequency response: 50-20,000 Hz
• Sensitivity: -34 dB at 1 kHz
• Output impedance: 2.2KΩ
• Power supply: Plug-in-power system (1.5V – 10V)
• Cord length: 1.0 m
• Output plug type: 3.5 mm monaural mini plug
• Weight: 16 g
• Color: Black / Silver

Olympus Australia Price Rise For The LS-10 PCM Recorder

Olympus Voice Australia have announced that there will be some price rises effective February 1st, 2009 across most of their digital voice recorder range.

One recorder, the LS-10 was slipped a price increase ahead of this deadline. Effective immediately in Australia the LS-10's RRP (recommended retail price) has shot up from $695 to $895. This is likely to its stunning perfromance and the fact that it has quickly become a leading contender in the digital PCM (pulse-code modulation) market.

For full specs on the LS-10 click here.

Olympus LS-10 PCM Recorder Back In Stock In Australia

Good news for all you Aussies who were keen to grab an LS-10 over the Christmas period and were dissapointed that Olympus Australia had none available, they now have a small number back in stock so grab one while you can.

We saw huge interest in this recorder over Christmas from people keen to get one to record their musical talents but also interestingly enough quite a few people keen to record bird and frog sounds. I think I have mentioned before that we have sold quite a few LS-10's to the Australian Goverment to record frogs so this PCM recorder is popular with a diverse range of people.

Grab one soon before the 2009 Olympus price rises kick in.