The folks at MacSpeech say that based on their internal and external testing iListen 1.0.1 is compatible with Mac OS 9.2.1 when running on single — but not dual — processor Macs.
Users of dual-processor Macs may experience some issues when performing the training exercises, according to MacSpeech. The work-around is to perform training on a single processor Macintosh, back-up your user profile and restore it to a copy of iListen installed on the dual processor Macintosh.
Some users may experience conflicts that are not directly the result of Mac OS 9.2.1 incompatibility. These may be specific to certain machines or the combination of extensions installed, the folks at MacSpeech said. They add that they’re “confident almost all users with single-processor Macintosh computers will be able to successfully use iListen 1.0.1 with Mac OS 9.2.1,” but add that they’ve “not had the opportunity to test all hardware and software configurations.”
iListen, which has “TalkAnywhere” technology, lets you dictate into virtually any Mac application. It translates speech to typed text and characters anywhere you would normally type. iListen is speaker dependent, meaning you have to spend some time “training” iListen to the unique cadence and timbre of your voice. However, it can handle multiple users, each with their own speech files. iListen was developed in cooperation with Philips Speech Processing, a specialist in speech recognition, natural dialogue, and language understanding technologies. A Mac OS X version is in the works. However, for the time being, iListen doesn’t work on Mac OS X or within Mac OS X’s Classic Environment.
MacSpeech also makes ListenDo!, a PlainTalk-based application that provides enhanced voice control of Macs. It’s a free product, but you can purchase ScriptPaks that are designed to enhance the user’s ability to Command & Control the application for which it was written. ScriptPaks cost between US$10 and $20 and are available for such applications as: America Online 5.0, AppleWorks 6, FileMaker Pro 5.0, Final Draft 5.0, iCab, iLiner 1.1, Internet Explorer 5.0, Microsoft Entourage 2001, Microsoft Excel 2001, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001, Microsoft Word 2001, MYOB Plus, Netscape 6, Nisus Email, Nisus Writer, Palm Desktop, QuarkXPress, Quicken Deluxe 2000, Quicken Deluxe 2001, Spaceward Ho!, and Street Atlas USA 6.0
MacSpeech is also working on iDictate, which will let users dictate into any text area in almost any application.
Last week Dr. Bott, a manufacturer and distributor of Mac peripherals, has been named the exclusive U.S. distributor for MacSpeech’s speech recognition products for the Mac.