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So, how's dictation on Mountain Lion?

2

212rikanmofo

macrumors 68000
Jan 31, 2003
1,897
724
This is a test. I wanted to see how dictation performs on my MacBook Pro.

Wow, it actually got it perfect! :) ^ the above was done by dictation. Will be using this more often now.
 
Death-T

Death-T

macrumors regular
May 18, 2012
125
0
Savannah, Georgia
While not perfect, I found it to be surprisingly accurate and easy to use. It seems to be better than iPhone's dictation in my opinion. I didn't even know my iMac had a built in mic before I gave it a try. Where is this thing? Lol
 
S

shiftlocked

macrumors newbie
Nov 9, 2011
5
0
i'll chime in on this now after my nightmare install.

It's not too bad but like all voice recognition software you really need to have a quiet environment to get the best results.

The time out period is longer than the iPhone for detecting the end of a sentence or when you've finished speaking.

Is pretty much going to put Dragon express on the scrapheap. I find myself incorporating talking to screen during my work flow time more often than I thought I would.

I'm not entirely sure what to do when you get the blue dots under a word. Can anyone help?

(Post almost 100% powered by making mines speech recognition)
or
(Post almost 100% powered by mountain lions speech recognition) :D
 
AndyMoore

AndyMoore

macrumors 6502
Feb 8, 2008
307
4
Another feature is that if iTunes is playing and you double tap the Fn button to start voice dictation, it stops the music. When you stop voice dictation, the music starts up again where it left off.

An obvious touch but still cool. I was going to see if it could transcribe song lyrics :)
 
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2

212rikanmofo

macrumors 68000
Jan 31, 2003
1,897
724
AndyMoore said:
Another feature is that if iTines is playing and you double tap the Fn button to start voice dictation, it stops the music. When you stop voice dictation, the music starts up again where it left off.

An obvious touch but still cool. I was going to see if it could transcribe song lyrics :)
Click to expand...

It's the small attention to details such as this that makes me love Apple. I didn't even know it does that. Things like this will just add to the awesome user experience that they're known for. :D
 
AndyMoore

AndyMoore

macrumors 6502
Feb 8, 2008
307
4
Death-T said:
While not perfect, I found it to be surprisingly accurate and easy to use. It seems to be better than iPhone's dictation in my opinion. I didn't even know my iMac had a built in mic before I gave it a try. Where is this thing? Lol
Click to expand...

If you're curious, the mic on an iMac sits on the top edge directly above the camera. Stand up and take a look, it's not obvious as the holes are extremely small and precise.
 
A

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2008
625
72
Wirelessly posted

It probably works much better on the new MBP with Retina since it has dual microphones.
 
A

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2008
625
72
Icy1007 said:
Two microphones shouldn't help with this.
Click to expand...

The second mic is used to detect and cancel out ambient noise. The result is cleaner source audio for interpretation into text. That, in turn, results in more accurate dictation results.
 
E

ericDylan

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2012
101
0
I'm sitting here watching television and I'm surprised how well dictation works. I'm just talking normally trying to see if you pick up my voice.

Considering I had the TV on in the background, that is pretty good and it is only going to get better. Pretty excited about this feature.
 
cosmic68

cosmic68

macrumors 6502
Dec 26, 2007
488
113
The blue dots

When I use dictation in mail. I get incorrect words that are underscored with blue dots. When I placed the cursor next to the words. It doesn't suggest an alternative, how do I use the blue dots properly?
In Safari, the cursor next to blue dot words suggests alternatives.

Thx.
 
M

Meyvn

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2005
498
0
Matthew Yohe said:
Stop using two spaces after a period. It's a habit you probably learned in school, but it's wrong, and they shouldn't have been teaching you this. Only if you used typewriters was this of any benefit.

I know it will blow your mind, but really... Don't use two spaces. It's very wrong.
Click to expand...

It doesn't blow my mind. It isn't about "benefit." Usually, stylistically, I just prefer to use two spaces. Especially when it comes to Helvetica.

(Though not, as you may have noticed, in Verdana).
 
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T

Toasterjoey6

macrumors newbie
Aug 25, 2010
2
0
I'm curious. Can someone please tell me if you're able to change the audio device/input that dictation uses by default? I have a great microphone and interface that I can use with facetime and skype, so I should be able to use this for dictation, right? Can someone test this and reply please?

Thanks, Joe
 
R

Revolverkiller

macrumors newbie
Jul 11, 2012
15
0
million7 said:
i think siri will be on the mac one day, but for some reason your picture doesn't seem to be legit.:confused:
Click to expand...

i just posted what I saw in the Force Quit box and im just as confused as you are. I havent tried Dictation since to see if it would pop up again tho
 
tarasis

tarasis

macrumors 6502a
Oct 26, 2007
699
103
Here, there and everywhere
I just dictated the following tax.

How good is the speech recognition. I would like to test it isn’t particularly practical and my children might come and investigate why I am speaking to my computer.

(not bad when you consider I have a Northern Irish accent)

(pS all text in this post has been dictated)
 
A

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2008
625
72
tarasis said:
I just dictated the following tax.

How good is the speech recognition. I would like to test it isn’t particularly practical and my children might come and investigate why I am speaking to my computer.

(not bad when you consider I have a Northern Irish accent)

(pS all text in this post has been dictated)
Click to expand...

You can dictate punctuation, too, ya know.
 
A

ajvizzgamer101

macrumors 65816
Mar 3, 2008
1,007
26
United States
iFanboy said:
Much was made of this feature in the keynote, and this was really exciting for me as I basically live in word processing apps.

Anyone here care to share how they are getting on with it on the GM?

I'm really interested to get a mini review if I can :)
Click to expand...

Works 80% of the time for me. It seems to have a hard time with long sentences though. It's better used for like twitter or facebook and quick notes.
 
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