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Rating: 
Summary: No good on NT or W2000!
Review: Beware! This product won't work with Windows NT or W2000! It only works with W98 or Me. If you have W2000 you must buy the Professional edition ... which doesn't seem to have any real additional features, it just costs ... more.
Rating: 
Summary: Via Voice - pretty good, even better with a better computer
Review: I have a severe case of tendonitis that has reduced my ability to type for the last 7 years. I am now in law school, and even 20 minutes of typing leaves me in pain for a few days. So I must make voice dictation work for me - this is not optional but mandatory for me to survive in the working world in the future! That said. . .
Via Voice can be frustrating. After many corrections, it still gets some things wrong (like it always thinks I'm saying "bid" when I say "good" even after correcting it a few times). However - after getting a new computer - a Dell Dimension 8400 with Pentium 4, 3.0 GHZ, 1.0 GB RAM - it is SO much better than it was with my 4 year old Compaq laptop. Friends and family are amazed at its accuracy and comment that they should stop typing. I even had laryngitis when I was showing it to my mom, and it still had about 90% accuracy.
I do have a bit of an accent/twang, and it has learned my voice in a really amazing way. For example - new English speakers have a hard time understanding me because I speak quickly and run words together and over-pronounce my Es sometimes (I grew up in New Mexico!). But I have done my 80 page study outlines for law school with Via Voice. Granted, it took about longer than it would have taken if I could type. However, since I can't type, it works - and really, I think I am becoming a better writer by needing to proofread things a little more rigorously.
I would recommend it not only to people with disabilities/injuries like myself, but also to people who just type really slowly. I think even with doing the corrections, it's still a better deal than typing if you're one of those people who types with two fingers really slowly!
This is an amazing deal for the money. The dictation program does playback. (I have the personal cheap version - with Dragon, you need to get the professional verson for $170 to be able to play back.) Play back is wonderful for reading along and finding mistakes. I'd say Via Voice now makes probably one mistake in every 2 or 3 sentences, which is not too bad.
It has some quirks - the quotation marks put a space between the " and the first letter. But I can deal with that. You must be patient with Via Voice. And I haven't tried Dragon so I don't know if it's better. I do know this was cheaper for me, and it has met my needs.
Rating:
Summary: No good on NT or W2000!
Review: I recently purchased this new ViaVoice advanced 9 edition. My first ViaVoice was the personal 8 edition which was a very good voice recognition software for the money. I upgraded to this version to see what better applications it has to offer. I have been pleasantly surprised with this new version. I am able to talk directly into instant messengers such as yahoo, msn, aol and also able to talk directly into fields such as the one I am filling out right now. You talk, it types. It really does work and if you like to send instant messages or spend more time doing other things than typing, then get this software. You will enjoy it. Also the installation process was very easy. For those of you that already have a ViaVoice software and want to upgrade, the software does all the work, you don't have to re-teach your voice model because it upgrades it automatically with the new software. I hope this was helpful in making your decision.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Software!
Review: I recently purchased this new ViaVoice advanced 9 edition. My first ViaVoice was the personal 8 edition which was a very good voice recognition software for the money. I upgraded to this version to see what better applications it has to offer. I have been pleasantly surprised with this new version. I am able to talk directly into instant messengers such as yahoo, msn, aol and also able to talk directly into fields such as the one I am filling out right now. You talk, it types. It really does work and if you like to send instant messages or spend more time doing other things than typing, then get this software. You will enjoy it. Also the installation process was very easy. For those of you that already have a ViaVoice software and want to upgrade, the software does all the work, you don't have to re-teach your voice model because it upgrades it automatically with the new software. I hope this was helpful in making your decision.
Rating:
Summary: Fast and accurate!!
Review: I was impressed on how easy this software sets up!
Within an hour of training it with my voice it got very accurate. However there are some words it had difficulty to get them at first. You have to keep correcting it within the first days so it can be well trained. Great product!
Rating:
Summary: Very good product
Review: IBM hits the mark with this product. They also, somewhat amazingly, avoid most of the usual IBM mistakes. Easy set-up allows quick use of the application. Documentation is pretty good - although there are areas where more in-depth info is desired. Also, there are some elements in which audio and visual clues appear but no documentation explains what they are or why they are there - typical IBM in that respect. The enclosed microphone is my only complaint - poor quality. I use a high end mic and have very few recognition errors as a result. Spend some extra dough and invest in a decent mic. Overall - a good product. I'd recommend it to a friend.
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