It has been almost 5 days since I set out to purchase a new laptop with Bluetooth capabilities built into the laptop. I thought this would be as simple as going to the store and buying a laptop that had Bluetooth capabilities.  I want a Bluetooth capable laptop so that I can use it with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, which now supports Bluetooth noise cancellation microphones.

Boy, I could not have been more incorrect.

Things you can do with Dragon Naturally Speaking include setting up something of a macro so that you can say one word and Dragon Naturally Speaking will write an entirely different word, phrase or paragraph, essentially triggering the completion of a form!

As it turns out, these laptops are pretty hard to find. I’ve scoured Best Buy and Circuit City and Office Depot with no success. Maybe I should be a little bit more explicit, I have found a couple of laptops with Bluetooth capabilities, but these laptops were definitely not designed for someone like myself in mind. In fact, I have no idea who in the world they could have been configured for.

Then I started looking for Bluetooth headsets. I figured those two would be a relatively easy thing to do.

Boy, I could not have been more incorrect.

Looking in the same stores I could not find Bluetooth headsets, anywhere. I did find some Bluetooth headsets for telephone systems at Office Depot, but these were not designed to plug into USB or anything else related to computer as far as I can tell in the price tags were approximately $350, which is at least $250-$300 more than what I wanted to pay.  You would think that I was shopping for jogging strollers in a Florida Over 55 retirement community where children are banned from eye sight.

So now it would appear that I’m kind of stuck. I need to get a new laptop very soon, but it looks like I’m going to have to go with the laptop that does not have Bluetooth capabilities built into it. L

I will keep you updated as to how I deal with the situation, and hopefully I will figured out before too long. On a side note, I was very successful at finding my wife, a great laptop. I guess I have my priorities straight!

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Here are some additional quotes from blog articles covering Dragon NaturallySpeaking recently. The first one starts off with a blog article about the David Pogue, New York Times review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. That video from David Pogue is exceptional, and really does get the point across as to just how good the software is. And so I’ve included a quick video review of that video, so that you can get an choose one here and at the end of the video you can click on a link to actually go to the New York Times video and see the real deal.

I watched the NY Times Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking with David Pogue and he does a lot of technical reviews on video so you can watch as he reviews the product. From the review he did you can tell that he really likes this product so that’s saying a lot. I watched some of the other product reviews he did and he tells you both the good and bad and all I heard was good with this product. I always like to get product reviews and recommendations before I buy something. This product even searches the web and types e-mail by voice command now that could save a lot of time. - Can You Type As Fast As You Talk? - Jude’s Eclectic Resources

The next bloggers talking about their intention to buy Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and I can’t fault them for that conclusion because I bought it myself two years ago when it was on sale. It definitely helps me with my work, and I am not competitive enough to tell bloggers not to go do it because it might take away my business. The reality is that there is plenty of work to go around in the blogosphere.

I can see myself actually purchasing this product and using it. I blog daily, sometimes 4-5 times a day or more and Dragon Naturally Speaking would come in so handy for me, and probably any one who blogs as much as I do. - Dragon Naturally Speaking

The final quote I’m covering this from a person whose brother was severely injured in an accident and try Dragon NaturallySpeaking years ago. They actually had a positive experience all those years back, which is surprising for me because I don’t know of too many people that had a positive experience with Dragon NaturallySpeaking before version 7 or eight. Then again, maybe there are a few people that have the right type of computer that was working the software with the right amount of RAM and some other set up but I couldn’t quite afford eight years ago. Regardless, the quote does reinforce the concept that people that do not have the luxury of being able to type, or possibly people that have difficulty seeing a computer screen, or using a mouse or a host of other issues that could give them difficulties in working with a computer the way many people do, Dragon NaturallySpeaking can definitely increase the number of options that you have to interface with computer, whether you’re standing up, lying down, or literally moving all around.

Several years ago, my brother was paralyzed in a bicycle accident. He could not move his arms or legs. Soon after, he was moved to a hospital where they would help him to adapt to new ways of getting things done. One of the most interesting technologies that they used was speech recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking. I was amazed to see what could be done through using this software on a computer. Now, it’s about 8 years later and this software has come a long way. - Life With Rog: Typing At The Speed Of Your Voice

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As part of my series to reach out and gain more perspective on possible applications or in this case benefits from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking I received a little feedback from people that offered a couple amusing health benefits. 

I’m positive that these are not true product claims by any stretch of the imagination but there might be something to the breathing aspect . . . Let me know what you think (would more talking be better for your lungs?  Its good for child development, I’m not sure about adult maintenance though . . )

Now, this first little quote below is definitely one that I can relate to.  I’m in my late thirties and finally starting to experience some hair loss.  By family standards I’m about twenty years late to the game, so I have nothing to complain about.

I am imagining the time I’d save with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Standard. Not to mention the hair on my head that would be saved from being pulled out everytime I make yet another typo - Save Your Hair with Dragon Naturally Speaking?

Then again, I personally don’t have too many typos myself (although I get more than enough comments on my blog reminding me of the mistakes I do make! – Please keep them coming, I’d rather correct them than leave them broken).

But that leads me directly to one of the comments that definitely resonated with me in more ways than one.  When I first picked up Dragon, I had been working behind a computer for at least 10 years.  I have had a great deal of vocal experience throughout my life and even made a living in sales at one stage of my life, relying on my voice for a pay check.

Ten years later however, I was rusty.  I felt like I became tongue tied easier, more um’s and ah’s had slipped into my speech and I was dropping (forgetting) names left and right. 

So here is the quote that reminded me of this . . .

I’m a pro blogger and I spend 6-10 hours sitting in front of my pc working silently. There is no one who will disturb me and the same way, no one to talk. But talking less is not healthy and will  lead you to a un-healthy status and to a status of having a lack of talking skills. This is why I try my best to talk and talk loud with different people around me. The more you talk, the more you  can breath and can live a healthy life. - BlogKori: Dragon -for business, for health

Now, I can definitely say that after using Dragon for almost two years, I feel like I have significantly reduced and possibly eliminated um’s and ahs from my speech.  I’m not using a verbal keylogger to track and flag these sounds, but I do pay attention and think they are reduced if not gone. I do not get tongue tied as much, but I still have problems with names.  :)  Guess I’m getting older….

Anyway, I do think that the verbal judo I engage in now with Dragon Naturally Speaking has helped me.  I’m not sure if my lung capacity has improved or if I’m healthier, but I’m speaking better.

That then points to one of the last quotes that I kind of view as something I can’t quite relate to yet, but I’m trying.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is used at my husband’s place of employment. They use it for medical dictation and integrate it with their practice management software. This allows for quicker dictation enabling the doctors to see  more patients. - A Fil-Am Journey: NATURALLY SPEAKING

Now, I am not a doctor, but I can definitely understand the need to document things accurately, in a timely fashion and without a lot of wasted effort.

Here’s the thing.  I’ve used the preferred version and find that it works very very accurately with medical terms (I’ve tested this extensively actually).  I can’t quite see spending $900 for the ‘medical’ version when the preferred version would seem to cover that.  I’ve yet to hear from an actual doctor that has used both so that I could hear how much better the medical version of dragon might be from the Preferred version.  There may be some other value added component that I have missed, maybe a special mobile feature, or a networked solution or something, but I’ll wait and see on that one….

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I have recently asked a number of bloggers to consider how they would use Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 and how it might impact their lives.  I’d like to share with you some of the responses from parents that stuck out to me.  I was specifically seeking unique comments and insights.  Overall, almost everyone was very impressed with the benefits that DNS10 can provide as it enables people to type at 150 words per minute.  They were impressed with the accuracy and much more.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking types the words that you speak and it does it 3 times faster than you can type! The accuracy rate is 99%! The special headphones keep background noises from  being an issue! This would be a must at my house, between the dog barking, little one always yelling "Mama" and the work they are doing on the house next door, it can be pretty loud in my  office. - It is nap time: Let your voice do the typing…

But I wanted to know how it might directly impact their lives, how they could use the tool.  I did not want to hear marketing messages resonating in their brains, but what it was that would actually be used in the field so to speak.  J  In general, I received two areas of feedback. 

The first area highlighted the fact that Dragon Naturally Speaking can filter out other noises including barking dogs and screaming children and pick up the words that you say.  This is more of a function of the noise cancellation headphones I believe, but has something to do with the programs ability to then listen to the words you are saying and ignore any other sounds that might make it throught he microphone itself.

Mothers using Dragon

"It will only recognize my voice and not the cry of my baby." - How to be a better blogger? read this

Here is what I love the most about this product: the background noise doesn’t affect the program! As a mother, that is awesome news because I usually have noise all around me most of the day. Three kids and a dog can be a loud  combination! - Dragon Naturally Speaking

Fathers using Dragon

So they like to sit on Daddy’s lap and watch him work, which makes it difficult to type, because my arms aren’t that long.

And because they help me type and it comes out like this:reklmef09ruew .

Plus, I’m not exactly the fastest typist in the world. I do okay, but I think a lot faster than I type, and I talk a lot faster than I type. I was therefore very interested in Dragon Naturally Speaking  10 Preferred, a computer program that automatically transcribes what you say and puts it onto the screen. - The Best of Everything: With this program, I can avoid this: reklmef09ruew

The second area then focused on parents that thought that they could use the tool to multi-task while doing household chores.  I personally, like to listen to audiobooks when I’m doing the dishes or laundry or even mowing the yard.  Many of the bloggers that I received feedback from indicate they would like to write and type while they did these chores.  Plus a few even thought that Dragon would be great for capturing recipes while they cooked, noting down all those simple meal customizations that you never quite have time to write while you are cooking or those healthy cooking tips you think of as you perform substitutions.

"I can dictate my post and do laundry at the same time. Now we all know that folding clothes takes the longest time and it is impossible to do it along with blogging. With this software, my problem is solved." - Clean and Blog by Using Dragon Naturally Speaking

I could certainly use this one! Just to think about being able to clean the kitchen, do laundry and blogging at the same time makes me want to get this software right now at this very moment.  I could just set my laptop close by, use a bluetooth microphone and bingo! As an added benefit, Dragon Naturally Speaking would free me from all the body aches and pains that come  along with sitting and "computering". - Live Laugh Love: Dragon Work and Health Benefits

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Image via Wikipedia

Below is a quick article I wrote using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 Preferred and my wired noise cancellation microphone.  Tonight I’m hoping to pick up a new blue tooth capable laptop and headset so that I can start using Dragon Naturally Speaking with out a leash. 

Hello everybody. Today I’m excited because I’m going to become untethered with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. For a couple years I’ve been using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I’ve always been attached to my computer via a wire. But today I’m headed to the store to pick up a new laptop. I’m going to get a laptop that has Bluetooth capabilities, and I’m going to try out some of the Bluetooth headsets with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. So that when I’m here working on my dock, I can get a little bit farther away from my computer than the seven or 8 feet that it allows me now. Actually, that is maybe 4 to 6 feet of cord that I have on my microphone, but I’ve never measured. But I do know that it keeps me a little closer than I need to be. So with a Bluetooth headset I’m hoping to be able to actually pace back and forth on my dock, because for whatever crazy reason, my brain works a little bit better when I’m able to walk around a little bit and get my blood flowing. So that’s what I’m up to, hope you’re having a great day and I’ll talk to you soon!

If you want to see the video that I created to make this article and edit you can see the previous article which has that fun stuff in video format. 

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Lots of people cover ideal uses for technologies, software programs, computers and services, but almost no one works in ideal situations all the time.  So today, I put together a little video using Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 out on my Dock Office here in North Carolina where we have winds blowing at 10-20 miles per hour.  I am using a noise cancellation microphone headset that I purchased at Office Max for about $25 after tax. 

Here’s the video of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 in Action

Editing On Windy Day-Dragon Naturally Speaking 10

As you can see from these two videos, Dragon did pretty good getting my words right even when the wind was blowing pretty hard in the microphone.  I did notice a hesitancy (especially when editing) when the wind blew in my microphone at the same time that I was speaking but Dragon usually still managed to get things right.

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I’d like to share with you a new experience I’m trying this evening. I am staying at the Doubletree Hotel in Birmingham Alabama. This is a very nice hotel, and I highly recommend it. Right now, I’m sitting in the tub of the hotel that’s not normally something I would share in an article.

I promise not to share your pictures nor any video in this blog article, I would like to explain how I typed this article. You see I’m sitting in the tub with a headset on, and I’m using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 to dictate an article to my computer which is sitting on the counter top.

This isn’t something that I do all the time. In fact, this is the first time that I’ve ever tried this. I have thought about using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 lot was in the hot tub before, but those can be a little noisy, and I never feel much like work.

Today however, after a long day of travel, I’ve been driving from Charlotte North Carolina to Birmingham Alabama all afternoon, I needed to relax a little bit and soak in the tub. That said, whenever I do that when I’m traveling on business, I always feel guilty because I’m not getting any work done.

If I were on vacation, I wouldn’t think twice about it. Then again, if I were on vacation, I have my kids here with me, and I doubt I’d feel the relax much at all. I love my kids, and I enjoy going on vacation with the family, but it’s not necessarily a relaxing event.

So this evening as I was contemplating mixing a guilty pleasure with business travel, I realize that I may have a compromise solution that literally enables me to enjoy the best of both worlds. So I wired up my computer in the bathroom, ran my noise canceling microphone set from the computer to the tub, and I started to get some work done.

To pull this off successfully, I opened up Microsoft Word and set the zoom level to 300%. I couldn’t dictate without looking, but I wanted to try and edit my words as I typed. To do that from 10 feet away, I wanted to have the zoom level set in a comfortable height. I could probably get away with 200% but I figured 300% would be comfortable.

I also made sure that my computer couldn’t get wet in any kind of way, and I ensure that I couldn’t electrocute myself as that would be a real bummer and definitely decrease my productivity.

Now as I sit here dictating this article to you, suddenly realize that this is a great way to type. It’s easy, relaxing, and definitely a good way to collect your thoughts while sharing them at the same time. When I first started thinking about writing this article, I thought it might be kind a cute gimmick. Now that I’ve been trying it for a few minutes, I think it’s one of the better ideas I’ve had this month.

So if you find yourself traveling a lot, maybe you’re attending a number of trade shows and walking your feed to the bone through the airports, you might consider treating yourself to Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 so that you too can kick back and relax in the tub at night when you get back to the hotel, and still get great deal of work done. More productivity, more comfort, and no guilt whatsoever, that’s what Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s doing for me this evening.

Maybe to take this to a new extreme, I will try and write an article next month while painting the interior of my house and doing a few other upgrades here and there maybe installing farmhouse sinks and staining some of our new wood work. For that, I may just try out the bluetooth capability of Version 10 and setup my laptop in a safe spot (away from paint drips) and then go to town multi-tasking.

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I would like to draw your attention to some great articles on Dragon NaturallySpeaking than finding in the blogosphere. I would like to specifically mention, that I have asked for these articles, because I want to see and hear from other bloggers and learn what they think they might be able to do with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

I have a theory, that Dragon NaturallySpeaking could revolutionize the blogosphere. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with the blogosphere, however I do think that if writers were given a tool that made it even easier for them to communicate and express their ideas more clearly and in more detail, their readers would benefit.

I think that I can apply this theory to the blogosphere, and so I want to see what bloggers can do with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. Your average blogger will tend to write an article that is about 200 to 500 words long. They will often quote other sources and articles to reach that total number of 200 to 500 words. Some bloggers are very gifted at weaving in their own thoughts and perspectives, while quoting other sources and other bloggers even.

I think that when they do this, they tend to lose their voice just a little bit however. I would like to hear more from the bloggers that are actually writing, as opposed to the people that they’re quoting, agreeing with, or even refuting. We bloggers write a lot and we read a lot, and when you’re sitting in front of a computer all day long, that can significantly increase the amount of eyestrain you experience just from looking at the computer screen.

So when it comes time to finally write that article after you’ve done all this great research, you’re already halfway exhausted and out of energy. This can definitely be reflected in your articles when we finally write them as we rush to get the thing done.

I think that if more of us bloggers use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to right, will be able to write with more energy because we won’t be as tired when it comes to writing, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes it so easy. We can take time to think about the words that were picking and choosing a little bit more, because when we actually write them they come out of 150 words a minute which more than makes up for the amount of time that we spent thinking about them.

I will admit that it can be a little tricky getting used to editing a blog article when you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. But I’ve recently found some great technology that makes this easier to do, especially for bloggers and I’m going to share that in a future article.

So the next few articles I’ve published, I’m going to share with you some of the articles I’ve found where bloggers are thinking and talking about how they might be able to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to do what they do best and maybe just maybe do it a little bit better or faster, while chilling by the pool, or doing mundane tasks, or relaxing in wooden swing sets with their kids.

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For a couple years I’ve been talking about the benefits of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Now I am a PC (guy) myself because I came out of the corporate world and frankly I just haven’t had time to learn how to use a Mac.

A funny thing happened last winter, when Apple hooked up a deal to release MacSpeech on the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 platform for engine. Essentially version 10 was released at Mac World almost a month before version 10 came to the PC world.

DISCLAIMER! Now I haven’t used a Mac and I haven’t used MacSpeech. That said, they are supposed to be basically the same voice recognition engine on two different machines. If you look at the capabilities listed by both they’re very similar. The Macintosh version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, claims that it can be set up and running within about five minutes. Last weekend at BlogWorld, I clocked the setup of Dragon NaturallySpeaking PC at about seven minutes or about the time it takes to get your appetizers at Applebees. I suppose it could’ve been done just a little bit faster, but seven minutes compared to an hour on version 9 or a week on version 3 seemed like a pretty good deal to me.

That said, here’s a great YouTube Demo from Prof Ramsey.

Here’s an even better tutorial by LifeHacker featuring MacSpeech with photoshop and firefox

Any software program that you can take out of the box and install, and then spend five minutes setting up so that you can talk to your computer and your computer will convert your speech in the text is pretty amazing in my opinion. In fact it’s pretty amazing in my experience!

Unlike the PC version which comes in a standard and a preferred software offering, Mac speech only comes in one version which would appear to be the equivalent of the preferred version of PC. The price is also the same as the preferred version on a PC for that matter, it costs $199.

I’ve covered some of the specs of the Mac version again, but just so that you don’t have to go hunting back through old pages of our website, I’m including them below one more time.

Summary from Nuance . . .

Nuance is proud to offer MacSpeech Dictate, the premier speech recognition solution for the Intel Macintosh. With MacSpeech Dictate you focus on what you have to say… just think it, speak it, and create it. It’s that simple. MacSpeech Dictate provides amazing speech recognition accuracy and easily works with the applications you already have, including Apple apps like Mail, iChat, iPhoto, and more. MacSpeech Dictate even controls your Mac; just speak a command and MacSpeech Dictate executes it for you. MacSpeech Dictate requires no more than five minutes of training and is as fun, productive, and intuitive to use as the Mac itself. Think it. Speak it. Create it. MacSpeech is Desktop Speech Recognition for Macintosh Users. Click Here for MacSpeech!

Features:

· Uses the Legendary Dragon NaturallySpeaking Recognition Engine: At the core of MacSpeech Dictate is the world-renowned Dragon speech recognition engine. It’s the brains and brawn behind MacSpeech Dictate’s phenomenal accuracy.

· Amazing Accuracy: MacSpeech Dictate will astonish you with its accuracy. You simply talk and leave the recognition to MacSpeech Dictate.

· Essential Command Capabilities: Instead of using your mouse to select menu commands or your keyboard to type shortcuts, just speak a command. MacSpeech Dictate executes it for you. What could be easier?

· Works with the Apps You Already Have: Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and on, and on … MacSpeech Dictate works with them all. And, of course, MacSpeech Dictate works great with Apple’s applications as well, including iChat, Mail, iPhoto, Keynote, and more.

· Minimal Training Required: With just five minutes or less of training, MacSpeech Dictate provides astounding accuracy and productivity. With very little time investment, you’ll be using MacSpeech Dictate’s superior capabilities.

· Comes with Everything You Need, Including Headphones: There are no hidden costs. MacSpeech Dictate includes everything you need to be productive as soon as you start using it, including a high quality headphone/microphone unit.

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