Changing from analogue tape dictaphones to digital - some things you should know

If you have been using a tape dictaphone recorder for a few years, maybe a micro cassette or even a mini cassette the thought of changing and going digital my worry you. After all, the trusty cassette has been around for years why would you ever need to go digital?

Well in our latest blog we look at the top three digital dictaphones from Olympus and some compelling reasons as to why digital is not just better but is way ahead of your trusty tape dictaphone. The fact that analogue tape is being phased out, not just by Olympus but also the other players in the voice market should be reason enough to go digital. Rather than wait until forced to do so when your analogue dictaphone and its moving parts finally give up and can not be replaced.

We look at the full range of professional digital dictaphones from the DS-2400 to the DS-3400 and up to the top of the range DS-5000 and its more secure partner the DS-5000iD. We look at the differences between the three, most people are interested to read that the recording quality is exactly the same with all three recorders, its the features that beef up the recorders as you move up the chain.

Dragon Dictate for Mac - Volume Site Licence Available for Commercial, Government & Academic use in Australia

For the first time voice recognition for the Mac is available to purchase on a site volume licence in Australia. This is great news, especially for the education/academic organisations looking to get a hold of speech recognition. Since MacSpeech has been transformed by the take over from Nuance the Dragon Dictate software continues to move in the right direction and is definitely a viable alternative for Mac users to Dragon NaturallySpeaking in the Windows space.

The minimum purchase for a site licence is only five installs and can be utilised by education, government and commercial users. There is also an option to buy support and maintenance for Dragon Dictate which although is email only is supported at the first level in Australia and backed up by Nuance in the USA.

Dragon Dictate For Mac - Simply, Speech To Text

On our main blog I have just posted a short video of Dragon Dictate in action. Nothing flash, just the basic voice to text speech recognition that makes this software so useful.

The video shows me talking to my Mac using a Parrot VXI USB noise canceling headset and what I say is transcribed into a Dragon Pad edit session. In the video I just wanted to show that by talking normally, at your usual pace Dragon Dictate can accurately understand what is being said and can transcribe faster than you can type. Perfect for students writing large essays or anyone who needs to type large documents. Click the header link above and see Dragon Dictate in action.

To get accuracy this good I only had to spend around four minutes doing the basic voice training when I first created my voice profile. So setup time is minimal.

Dictate Australia Become Windows & Mac Voice Recognition Experts

Listen, listen carefully ... in the distance you might be able to catch the sound of trumpets !! That's us, Dictate Australia, blowing our own trumpets as we have proudly just become Certified Dragon NaturallySpeaking Certified Gold Resellers .. not silver or bronze - GOLD resellers.

Apologies for the excitement but we are quite proud. To become a Gold reseller we work closely with Nuance Australia and have to study and sit exams. This study gives us an insight into all aspects of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and gives us the skills to advise our customers of the best Dragon package or setup to suit their needs.

We are also claiming expertise in the Mac side of the voice recognition fence. We claim this title as we have been advocates for MacSpeech Dictate since day one. We were on board with version 1.0 in Australia and have followed the success of MacSPeech Dictate up to where it is today, sitting at version 1.5 with alot more goodies to come in the near future. How do we know that for sure? Well we are beta testers for MacSpeech Dictate so we can see into the future and the future is good.

If you have been considering a voice or speech recognition solution for your Windows or Mac platform please get in touch. There is no hard sell here, we will tell you what we know and will advise you on what we think is best for you.

New Olympus Voice Recorders For September - WS-650S, WS-750M, WS-760M & DM-5

The Olympus ride continues with yet another spate of new voice recorders about to hit Australia. This time the WS gets another revamp and the DM series adds another friend. Say g'day to the WS-650S, WS-750M, WS-760M and the DM-5.

In the WS series we see these small super high quality recorders just get better and better. Audio recording quality was already stunning, the new recorders sport a new stereo mic location on the unit for even better audio pickup, yet more memory, high quality linear PCM recording and FM radio and FM radio recording. Also being added are micro SD slots for even more storage, if you need it.

As memory gets cheaper we are seeing the continued trend of throwing more into your digital voice recorder. This is not really required for recording voice but starts the transform the recorder into a multi use device by adding music/podcast/audio book playback and of course a USB mass storage device. With the additional space linear PCM recording which produces large size fbut very high quality .wav files is becoming more common.

Briefly:

• WS-650S - 2Gb, no micro SD, no FM radio, no PCM, .mp3 & .wma recording - replaces WS-450S
• WS-750M - 4Gb, micro SD, no FM radio, linear PCM recording, .mp3 & .wma recording, music/podcast/audio book playback - replaces WS-550M
• WS-760M - 8Gb, micro SD, FM radio, linear PCM recording, .mp3 & .wma recording, music/podcast/audio book playback - replaces WS-560M

RRPs:

• WS-650S - $169 incl. GST
• WS-750M - $229 incl. GST
• WS-760M - $269 incl. GST

All recorders should be widely available towards the end of September or early October 2010.

More information on the DM-5 to follow shortly.

Multiple Match Text Editing & Formatting - New In Dragon Naturally Speaking 11

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 which is due to hit Australia in late August, early September 2010 is bristling with new features, enhancements and tweaks here and there to make us even more warm and fuzzy than we are already. Personally, I still quite can't believe that I am talking to a computer and it knows every word I am saying and I have been doing this for a few years.

One really neat feature in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 is the multi match text. In this version when you select a word for editing or formatting, if multiple words match your selection they are each given a number. You can then select the text you want to edit or format by its number. Single entries can be changed this way or all entries. This is a much quicker way of selecting text for editing and formatting than older versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Follow the main link for a screen shoot of the multiple text numbering from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 and a video demo from Nuance.

Olympus WS-550M Discontinued In Australia

This month Olympus Imaging in Australia, the distributor for Olympus Voice products, discontinued the WS-550M digital notetaker. Also on the list to be removed from service are the two remaining PC connectable VN series recorders, the VN-5500PC and the VN-6800PC.

Sad to see the WS-550M go, it was a popular recorder sitting nicely between the 1Gb WS-450S and the 4GB WS-560M recorders.

Olympus To Discontinue Analogue Microcassette Recorders In Australia

In an announcement from Olympus Australia today the old style analogue microcassette recorders are being given the flick and have been declared end of life and will be discontinued when all remaining stock has gone. Also scrapped from the product lists are the packs of 60 minute microcassettes themselves. So those rare people still using analogue dictaphones will soon have to hunt high and low for replacement tapes or they can just do the right thing and move to a digital voice recorder.

How To: Convert .ds2 .dss Files Using DSS Player Pro Version 7 Plus To AIF For MacSpeech Scribe

Now that MacSpeech Scribe is available, a select few will have the luxury of owning a Professional digital dictaphone like the Olympus DS-3400 or DS-5000. Both these digital voice recorders are certified to be used with MacSpeech Scribe. Both recorders are supplied with DSS Player Version 7 Plus for Mac.

The software can be used to convert audio recorded in .ds2 (DSS Pro) audio format to AIFF ready to load into MacSpeech Scribe. Click here for our main blog site explaining how to do the file conversion.

MacSpeech Scribe - The Missing Link For Voice Recognition On Intel Mac

For any Apple fan the annual MacWorld expo is always an interesting time of year with new gadgets and gizmos shown to the world to make our Mac, iPhone, iPod (and next year iPad) experience better than it already is.

This year the 2010 expo has significance for the digital voice world with MacSpeech launching their new software product MacSpeech Scribe, which for the first time, lets Mac users (with Snow Leopard) record their voice into a certified digital voice recorder for later playback into MacSpeech Scribe which will then transcribe the audio for you.

Using the Dragon voice recognition technology already in action in their MacSpeech Dictate product, MacSpeech Scribe accurately and very quickly transcribes single speaker audio.

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

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

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

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.

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.