Dragon Dictate 4.0
Nuance has released Dragon Dictate 4.0, a major new release of the Mac dictation software that continues to improve accuracy and reduce latency while also adding the capability to transcribe text from any single speaker’s pre-recorded audio file. Once you’ve created a profile of a speaker from a 90-second clip, you’ll be able to transcribe recordings (such as interviews, college lectures, and more) from a wide variety of audio file formats (including .mp3, .aiff, .m4a, .m4v, and .wav). Dragon Dictate 4.0’s new Full Text Control feature enables you to mix talking and typing in Apple’s Pages 4.3, as well as manage the Gmail inbox within
Safari or Firefox. The new Smart Format Rules store user-specific formatting of dates, numbers, titles, and other text, and Dragon Dictate will remember corrections and can adapt to your formatting preferences.
The digital download is available now, and you can currently pre-order the physical disc version for shipment starting on 18 March 2014. Registered owners of MacSpeech Dictate or Dragon Dictate can upgrade to Dragon Dictate 4.0 for $149.99, and there is also a $129.99 student/teacher edition for qualified students and faculty. ($199.99 new, $149.99 upgrade from previous versions, 28.8 MB)
Unfortunately Nuance decided to release a new upgrade instead of updating 3.0x to make it compatible with Mavericks. This means that users who had 3.0x since last November, that could not use the product since last November without constant crashing whenever the Finder was made the active program, according to Nuance normal policy must spend significant funds in order to 'fix' this issue
First of all, while it still has a few issues such as performance and minor bugs, it does work very well with Mavericks and is probably one of the best versions they have released.
And for those who have had an almost unusable program since last November their may be a a shining light on the horizon. Here is what you have to do (copied from my comment on MacUpdate).
After much discussion with Nuance I have negotiated a mutual settlement for Dictate for the Mac running on Mavericks for myself. They have also agreed to consider alternate upgrade policies for other users that have been impacted by the inability to run Dictate 3.x under Mavericks on a case by case basis. Here is what needs to be met as I understand it:
- You must have installed Mavericks near the date of official release.
- Mavericks must be your primary OS that you do most of your work on.
- You must have purchased or updated Dictate to 3.X before you installed Mavericks or purchased it with the indication it would run normally under Mavericks.
- Your current version of Dictate must be freezing when running under Mavericks to the point of being unusable.
- You must have filed or proceed to file by phone or e-mail a Nuance tech support incident documenting the above and run any tests and/or provide logs of the issues you are having with Dictate.
- You must then contact Nuance customer service and request that your issue be examined for special consideration.
Since this is done on a case by case basis, I cannot guarantee that the outcome will meet your expectations but I speak from experience that if these procedures are followed with some kind of documentation or evidence of the above you may be considered for an alternate upgrade other than the standard upgrade pricing.
Also, upgrade price is $99 for a limited time; use the web chat option on the Nuance website to talk to a representative or google for a discounted upgrade URL on Nuance store.
I am sorry but Nuance is a terrible company that doesn't care about it's customers. I agree, they should of said that DD 3.0 didn't work with Maverick and they should of fixed that in a more timely manner. It took them over two months for a fix.
For them to ask good customers to upgrade at $149 is hitting their best customers in the gut. Even though DD is a good product, I refuse to give them another penny, they have to be fairer to their customer base. This is a $39 upgrade, not a $149 upgrade.
Nuance is really big in the window world, but the Mac world is totally different and the way Nuance does business on the windows side does not work in the Mac world.
Wish another product would come out and give Nuance a bit of competition.