New, NaturallySpeaking Version 10
Click for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 order form: Pricing & Order form
Very Important: Discounted upgrade pricing is now available, only until September 30th. Depending on the version you have, the upgrade price is going up from 50 to 100%. Click on the "Pricing and Order form" link above for more details.
Just released Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10, is an amazing upgrade over previous versions. The increased accuracy, speed, plus many new features, means you will achieve huge productivity gains.
Greater Accuracy
NaturallySpeaking Version 10, will provide you with a staggering 20% greater accuracy than NaturallySpeaking Version 9.
NaturallySpeaking 9 has been praised by users and the press, and won numerous awards, for the productivity and outstanding accuracy it produced. Now NaturallySpeaking 10 breaks through that bar, to provide a dramatic increase in the accuracy of transcribing the words you dictate.
Greater Speed
The Engineers at Nuance, tuned every line of code within the NaturallySpeaking engine, to accelerate how quickly your words display as you say them. This also doubles the speed that Dragon 10 will perform the commands you say.
Seeing your words transcribed faster, will mean you can edit and correct as you dictate, making you more productive than ever before.
NaturallySpeaking 10 now handles Accents
NaturallySpeaking 10 includes special profiles, that are programmed to accept many different accents. When starting NaturallySpeaking 10, you can select from different pre-set accent profiles. You can now pick a Southern US Accent, there is a Great Lakes region accent, or a General US accent. If you are originally from overseas, you can select the Southeast Asian, Spanish, Indian region, Australian, or British accents. Choosing from these extended accents will provide much better accuracy, much quicker.
NaturallySpeaking 10 Adapts to users with speech problems
Dragon has a “Teen” accent, to handle voices before they reach maturity, plus there is one more new training method. NaturallySpeaking now has added a self paced reading profile. This is especially important both for people with speech difficulties, and also learning disorders. With this new enroll procedure, the user can read a supplied script, completely at their own pace. When the NaturallySpeaking profile has heard enough audio information, it announces it, and then performs its adaptation. This takes the pressure off the user to fit within the regular training method. Also, it helps to gather a more natural sample of speech from the user, which helps in gaining even more accuracy.
PC Requirements remain the same, for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10
In all past upgrades, the new Dragon version always required increased specifications for a faster computer with more memory. Happily, NaturallySpeaking 10 requires the exact same minimums and the same recommended specifications as NaturallySpeaking 9. At Minimum you still need 1 GHz of speed, and 512 MB RAM memory. It also requires the same 1 GB Hard Drive space.
The recommended specifications for Dragon are the same as before, recommending 2.4 GHz processor speed, (1.6 GHz processor speed for dual core PC’s), and 1 GB RAM memory size.
For the first time, Dragon is listing the needed L2 Cache size for NaturallySpeaking. They have set the L2 Cache side needed at 512 kb. Dragon recommends a size of 1 MB L2 Cache. In talks with Nuance, the L2 size did not sound critical, but more as a suggestion to look for in your shopping specifications whenever you buy new PC’s in the future.
If you have any questions about your PC’s amount of memory, speed, or L2 Cache, I would suggest downloading the Free software package CPUZ, version 1.46 at www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php This free program test your computers operation, gives you a full reading of all these specification of your computer.
There have been a few changes. Dragon no longer supports Windows XP with the SP1 (service pack one). Most computers are running either XP SP2 or now SP3. If you need to upgrade, go to our Download section on our Video Page, to upgrade your computer to XP3. Free Download XP Service Pack3 and those service packs are all free upgrades, so that is not a problem. It requires the same amount of hard drive space.
One disappointment is Nuance was talking about having the new Version 10 available for use with 64 bit operating systems, as well as 32. That is especially important for Vista Ultimate version users. We have been through many headaches downgrading Ultimate users to 32 bit. Nuance was still hinting at 64 bit usage coming, but continuing to require a 32 bit operating system, is the same as the previous Version 9 requirement. Nuance has now required having Internet Explorer 6 instead of version 5, but again that is a free download, and is just needed to help handle the programs installation.
One other change is the software is now on DVD disks, instead of CD's. Most computers have a DVD drive, but if you don't, you could use either an external DVD drive to be used during install, or copying the software over to a USB drive to do the installation.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, Now Works Even Easier, to Transcribe Text from Digital Recorders
With Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10,there is an option to create a desktop folder, into which you can copy digital dictations from a hand-held recording device. When you place your new recordings into that folder, NaturallySpeaking automatically transcribes them. This process makes the work flow for recorded transcription much easier and quicker, with many less steps.
NaturallySpeaking 10 also now works with more digital recorders. Version 10 has added support for the Pocket PC, Palm Tungsten and a whole list of approved digital recorders. (Our favorite, is featured in our headset page, click the button in the left column above, to view this recorders features).
Version 10 increases your productivity, with commands that perform multiple steps
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 has added a series of new voice shortcuts. These series of single commands, each take the place of having to say several commands, to perform the same function. For example, you can input and at the same time format your text, all within the same command. Cut or copy specific text, with a single command. Select a browser, and issue a search command, all in the same single command. Plus you can search your computer for a file, with a single command.
NaturallySpeaking 10 improves your accuracy overnight
Dragon 10, has included a new feature, which will allow you to set an automated tuning procedure. This tuning process starts at a time of your choosing. This is a lengthy process, so this arrangement allows you to set the tuning process to perform at off hours. The ending results are continually optimized voice file, giving you better speed and recognition.
More Bluetooth Input Devices Are Now Supported by NaturallySpeaking 10
We have been offering a wireless solution to be able to dictate into NaturallySpeaking, and also the use of the same wireless headset to talk on the phone. With NaturallySpeaking 10 you are now able to use Bluetooth headsets, as an input device. We are now in the process of testing a new Bluetooth headset from Sennheiser, that is proving to be as accurate as the wired headsets. Using Bluetooth and wireless technology, provides you with more flexibility, for dictating into your computer, without the bother of wires. There is an ever expanding list of Bluetooth headsets that work with NaturallySpeaking. Plus, the engineers are actively testing other Bluetooth devices, to insure their compatibility, and will soon be adding those models to the approved device list.
Our Own Impressions, (Mark's comments)
As with all other users, we are always looking forward to new releases, for their increased accuracy.
To test this new Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10, I installed it on a computer that has been terrible for speech recognition. The PC is one of those dirt cheap, no-name, small store build it yourself type jobs with a terrible sound card. Then, to make this even more of a torture test, I attached an outdated poor quality wireless microphone, that has never been able to produce good transcription. I figured, if you're going to test something, why not put it under the worse possible conditions! If you get halfway decent results, then maybe it's worth upgrading.
I started to dictate, and to my absolute delight, right out of the box with a brand new voice profile, and bad equipment, Dragon was transcribing my words with such great accuracy, it was like I'd been working with it for years. I can only get it to make a mistake when it's my fault because I stumbled over saying a word. I am especially impressed with Dragon 10's new vocabulary. I was throwing it words that I knew were not in version 9's dictionary and just trying to see if I could get it to fail. Dragon 10 knew every word I tossed at it, and perfectly transcribed everything I could think of.
The engineers have done such a magnificent job with this new version, NaturallySpeaking appears to be reading my mind as I dictate.
Also, this new version, the program now automatically adjusts itself, according to the power of the computer. There is a slider bar, which you had to set set manually in previous versions. If you set the bar to the left, NaturallySpeaking will print your words onto your screen faster. If you side that bar to the right, your transcription will be more accurate, but your words will take longer to appear transcribed on your screen. You always want this bar set as far toward the accuracy side as possible, without annoying you by taking too long to respond.
The Dragon engineers were bragging, that with this version, your words appear on the screen twice as fast as with the previous version. When I created this new profile on this "horrible" PC, the Dragon program reported it was setting the slider all the way to the left, toward speed.
I instantly thought, "What a cute trick! All they did was adjust the slider bar further to the left, so my transcription will appear faster". They had said that I could override that bar setting, so I went in and slid the bar way over to the right toward "accuracy", to test just how quickly my words would show up on the screen.
Once again, I am astounded with the results. Even overriding their settings, pushing it way beyond where the setting really should be, my words were still transcribed much faster than Version 9 Dragon. Even going against Dragon's suggested settings, it was flashing my words onto the screen in what I would estimate half the time as with the previous version! Plus when I give Dragon a verbal command, the program acted twice as fast performing the command, as the previous versions.
As a user of speech recognition myself, and as a trainer of speech recognition to students for the last 15 years, I was hoping for improvements from this new version. I did try everything I could think of, to make it fail. Of course, in the background I was cheering it on. The results were, I not only had to cheer, I had to jump up and give this Version 10 a standing ovation. NaturallySpeaking 10, is truly a giant step forward for users who want to use this wonderful speech recognition program to increase their productivity and overall throughput of work.
Click for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Version 10 order form: Pricing & Order form
Remember, the price for upgrades will be going way up, on September 30th. Please get your order in before that, to avoid a huge price increase after that deadline.
Read the review of NaturallySpeaking Version 10 by David Pogue, Click Here
