Voice Recognition For Mac Lovers - iListen

Recently, I was involved in an auto accident. I rolled my car on black ice and broke by clavicle on the right side. I am a right handed writer, and this made it impossible to work. My honey, angel that he is, went out and bought me iListen by MacSpeech to put on my MacBook.

iListen has been a huge lifesaver for me. Two weeks into recovery, with iListen I am able to write at almost 100 percent productivity. IListen has been very easy to set up, and even easier to use.

The nitty gritty

iListen is made by company called MacSpeech based out of Salem, New Hampshire. The version that I purchased is version 1.7 with the headset included. This version costs a little more than the version without the headset, but having the right headset increases your accuracy. I highly recommend spending the extra money.

This software is available online through stores like the Apple Store and MacMall, and offline at any Apple Store location. Everything you need is included in the box. I like the way MacSpeech saved space (and trees) by making the User Manual and Command Guide downloadable pdf files instead of bulky bound manuals.

The software is on one disk and installation is completely painless. It takes mere moments to install iListen on your hard drive and start training it. You would think that a program like iListen would take up a lot of room on your hard drive, but it doesn't. I also figured that I would only be able to use iListen with one other program open instead of my usual four or five, but I was wrong about that also. Right now I have iListen open to write this review along with Microsoft Word, Thunderbird, FireFox, Adium X, and Entourage. Everything is running with out a hitch.

The training process

On the iListen CD, you have several options for training included. It is very important that you read each segment of the training panels. The more you read, the more accurate iListen will be. I decided to read every training panel in one sitting. After getting behind for two weeks on my writing clients, I was anxious to catch up!

The one drawback of the training material is the interest level. I would estimate that more than half of the material you read is marketing material for iListen. That was annoying! You also read excerpts from famous novels, like Dracula, and business letters and other types of every day writing.

I spent 2.5 hours reading training material aloud. The moment I was done reading the training material, I would estimate iListen was already at eighty percent accuracy. Then I opened Microsoft Word to play with my new tool, and I noticed that the software kept learning. iListen opens a small toolbar that allows you to keep training it while you use it. By the time I was done playing with it in Microsoft Word, the accuracy had improved at least three percent.

Another thing I like about training iListen is the ability to teach it your writing patterns. You can take any document, Email or instant message file on your computer that is saved as a text file and upload it to iListen. This takes a little time, but it is worth it because it teaches iListen your most common word use patterns. Doing this got my accuracy level over 90 percent.

After you have read the training materials and uploaded your text files, the best way to keep training iListen is to use it. Over the last two days, just by using the software I have increased the accuracy to about 95 percent. As I correct as I go, it just keeps getting more and more accurate. I expect it to reach about 98 percent accuracy after few more days of use.

Other features

Because I am still behind in my work, I have not had a chance to play with the other features of this software. This software can be a real godsend to people with a disability. It comes with of full set of commands, which also need a little training, that will allow you to run your computer using iListen.

Once I get completely caught up with my work I plan to use the commands and see if they increase my efficiency. You can tell iListen to do everything from turn off the microphone, open or close programs to print a document, and more. You can use it to navigate the internet, create sticky notes and so much more.

The list of commands is nearly 25 pages long, and MacSpeech has included a handy Guide for your reference. I estimate that this program may make the keyboard obsolete for people who take the time to train it well and learn the full command set. Even as I type this review without knowing the full command set, I have only had to touch the keyboard twice.

A few small glitches

As much as I love this program, as with anything there are a few glitches. As a writer the biggest glitch for me is spacing. For some reason iListen periodically inserts extra spaces between words. I haven't figured out why it does this yet. Until I do it means extra time proofreading each document before sending it to the client.

Another glitch I see is the problem of similar words. English is a complex language, and iListen does pretty well, but you still have the issue of words like their, there and they're. Because there is no way to differentiate, it is up to the user to remember to go back through the document and make sure each word is correct.

Several people who know I received this software from my honey have asked me about accents. Because of the extensive training program that allows you to set up more than one profile on each computer, with each profile trained to that user's voice, I don't see accents as an issue. iListen learns how you specifically talk. That means if you have an accent, you train iListen to understand your accent.

Long story short

I am completely in love with this program. So far, there are only two issues that I would change. The first issue is that of spacing. It would make me very happy to see iListen limit spaces between words to one space, no matter what.

The other issue is the headset. It is comfortable, but it is wired to the keyboard via USB. This means that any time I want more coffee, need to answer the door or just step away from the computer for any reason, I have to take the head set off or unplug it and take it with me. Because I only have one arm in use right now, I usually take it with me because getting it on and off my head is a pain. I would really like to see a Bluetooth or other wireless solution for the headset in the next release.

I have used other voice recognition software in the past. Dragon Naturally Speaking is the other software I have the most experience with. iListen has been far easier to set up and use. iListen is also more forgiving of background noise then other software. This means I can listen to music or the television softly in the background, which is nice.

A few specs for the techies

System Requirements: 10.3.9 or higher for 1.7 (Mac OS 10.4 or later recommended) or 10.2.8 or higher for 1.6.8 (included with 1.7), G4, G5 or Intel Processor (Upgrade cards are not supported, and may cause unexpected behavior with speech recognition software), 512MB RAM or more required. You can also use iListen with your iPod for transcription and dictation on the road. It is also Apple script ready, making it possible to customize it to your specific needs. For full technical specs please see the MacSpeech website at MacSpeech.com.

Price

$184 on the MacSpeech site, $149 at the Apple Store in the mall, or get it at Amazon