April 7 - April 14

ViaVoice for Mac (IBM) by Alessandro Cancian Contrary to some other manufacturers, after almost one year IBM kept its promise to port its speech recognition software, ViaVoice, on the Mac platform. A return, if we may say so, in perfect iMac or iBook style, with the possibility of changing the colour of the plastic components of headphones and microphone, bundled with the software package, matching your favourite case. Although IBM kept its timetable, in my opinion expectations were somewhat disappointed. ViaVoice for Mac seems a rather rough product; still immature for the market. Installation is definitely simple and the help given by several wizard panels further simplifies the set-up. ViaVoice features multi-user support, through the creation of different profiles that can share the basic set-up. Creating a new profile takes time, more or less a couple of hours, for the computer to learn your voice. Once set-up is complete, you can start dictating your first letter. Unfortunately, the only way you can see the words you say is through the inclusion of SpeechPad with ViaVoice. In addition you must then transfer the text from the SpeechPad to other programs like Microsoft Word, Netscape etc. A significant limitation, in my opinion. Upon first attempt, ViaVoices accuracy seemed quite limited, especially if some background noise was being generated. Several mistakes required an attentive rereading, with a significant loss of time. I got some improvement after installing an update made available by IBM. I immediately noticed an acceleration in operation and a marked improvement in the accuracy of dictation, which favourably influenced my final judgement. ViaVoice requires at least a G3 processor and 48 MB RAM, so its ideally suited for iMac owners.

 

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