Comments on: MacSpeech Dictate:Legal – Review http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/ A Mac-Lovin' Lawyer Lovin' Macs Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:26:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robin Callender Smith http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-105 Robin Callender Smith Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:39:41 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-105 I could not disagree more with this review. I work as a judge (in the UK) dealing with a variety of complex jurisdictional areas. Most of the cases I deal with require a minimum of 30 A4 pages for a decision. I have run MacSpeech Legal on my Apple MacAir in parallel with my Dragon 10 Preferred on my Dell XPS. The MacSpeech accuracy is appalling and the way of using the system is so clunky as to be almost Victorian. I generally give up after 25 minutes and just keep typing. It will not cache properly and it does not seem to learn anything of my style (and I've followed all the tips in the manual). Worse still it has a tendency to crash without warning after about five pages. Calling it rubbish is being kind to it. Working with Dragon 10 Preferred (which is, in effect, the same system) on my Windows Vista based Dell gives me around 93% accuracy, the confidence of knowing that if I fire up the system it will keep working and - over the last three years - no crashes. I thought I might get round the rubbish performance of MacSpeech Legal by installing Parallels on my Apple Mac so that I could use Dragon in its Windows mode. That is an even bigger waste of money. Snow Leopard as an OS seems to be completely unable to adapt to MacSpeech Dictate's requirements. All of this matters to me because around a quarter of my judgements relate to sensitive asylum cases - involving matters of life and death - and I cannot afford to take the risk of an idiot system screwing up someone else's life apart from my own. I could not disagree more with this review.
I work as a judge (in the UK) dealing with a variety of complex jurisdictional areas. Most of the cases I deal with require a minimum of 30 A4 pages for a decision.
I have run MacSpeech Legal on my Apple MacAir in parallel with my Dragon 10 Preferred on my Dell XPS.
The MacSpeech accuracy is appalling and the way of using the system is so clunky as to be almost Victorian. I generally give up after 25 minutes and just keep typing. It will not cache properly and it does not seem to learn anything of my style (and I’ve followed all the tips in the manual). Worse still it has a tendency to crash without warning after about five pages. Calling it rubbish is being kind to it.
Working with Dragon 10 Preferred (which is, in effect, the same system) on my Windows Vista based Dell gives me around 93% accuracy, the confidence of knowing that if I fire up the system it will keep working and – over the last three years – no crashes.
I thought I might get round the rubbish performance of MacSpeech Legal by installing Parallels on my Apple Mac so that I could use Dragon in its Windows mode. That is an even bigger waste of money.
Snow Leopard as an OS seems to be completely unable to adapt to MacSpeech Dictate’s requirements.
All of this matters to me because around a quarter of my judgements relate to sensitive asylum cases – involving matters of life and death – and I cannot afford to take the risk of an idiot system screwing up someone else’s life apart from my own.

]]> By: asdub http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-13 asdub Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:52:33 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-13 One issue of note to all UK and non-US users of Macspeech Dictate Legal - you should note that MacSpeech Dictate Legal is a US spelling only package. As an Irish/UK spelling user - this is a huge dissapointment - moreso because there is NO warning of this limitation. A package that may therefore be a delight to use as a lawyer - is now a pain as you have to correct all US spellings to UK ones - I have complained - but no response yet. This omission was very poor indeed - something should be done about this. MacSpeech is a fantastic product - but as UK spelling is available in MacSpeech v1.5 - why in the much more expensive and specialist legal package is it not? Also - why is this not made clear on the website and product literature?? I implore Macspeech to add UK spelling to its package - otherwise it cannot and will never be an international success. One issue of note to all UK and non-US users of Macspeech Dictate Legal – you should note that MacSpeech Dictate Legal is a US spelling only package. As an Irish/UK spelling user – this is a huge dissapointment – moreso because there is NO warning of this limitation. A package that may therefore be a delight to use as a lawyer – is now a pain as you have to correct all US spellings to UK ones – I have complained – but no response yet. This omission was very poor indeed – something should be done about this. MacSpeech is a fantastic product – but as UK spelling is available in MacSpeech v1.5 – why in the much more expensive and specialist legal package is it not? Also – why is this not made clear on the website and product literature?? I implore Macspeech to add UK spelling to its package – otherwise it cannot and will never be an international success.

]]> By: Carson http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Carson Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:57:20 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-5 Wave To Text - powerful English speech recognition software A useful English speech recognition software 'Wave To Text v5.2'. Help you convert your voice to text in real-time, while the program's wizard enables you to convert your Windows Audio WAV files (speech recorded) offline. http://www.111download.com/product/wave-to-text-v.html Wave To Text – powerful English speech recognition software

A useful English speech recognition software ‘Wave To Text v5.2′. Help you convert your voice to text in real-time, while the program’s wizard enables you to convert your Windows Audio WAV files (speech recorded) offline.

http://www.111download.com/product/wave-to-text-v.html

]]> By: Shelby Jordan http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Shelby Jordan Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:11:44 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-4 let me know how you like it after your initial month or two. let me know how you like it after your initial month or two.

]]> By: MacSpeech Dictate Legal Released « AccessTech News http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-3 MacSpeech Dictate Legal Released « AccessTech News Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:23:48 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-3 [...] web have been very positive although few people actually have the software yet. There’s a good review of MacSpeech Dictate Legal written by Victor [...] [...] web have been very positive although few people actually have the software yet. There’s a good review of MacSpeech Dictate Legal written by Victor [...]

]]> By: MacSpeech Dictate Legal Released | ATMac http://www.maclovinjd.com/2009/macspeech-dictatelegal-review/comment-page-1/#comment-2 MacSpeech Dictate Legal Released | ATMac Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:32:19 +0000 http://www.maclovinjd.com/?p=5#comment-2 [...] have been very positive although few people actually have the software yet. There’s a good review of MacSpeech Dictate Legal written by Victor [...] [...] have been very positive although few people actually have the software yet. There’s a good review of MacSpeech Dictate Legal written by Victor [...]

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