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Dr D · Mar 5, 2004, 07:26 PM

OK, so I'm an early adopter, and I would have been on 10.3 ages ago except that I use ViaVoice a lot - like most days - and they still say they have issues with 10.3 [specifically the rapid user switching]. So does anybody know when they will sort it out, or is it illusory, or what? I want to move on here!

car1son · Mar 5, 2004, 08:10 PM

Given that IBM fobbed off ViaVoice on ScanSoft, who make the Dragon Naturally Speaking for Windows, I'm not sure you should expect any further work on the Mac ViaVoice.

You might move on with MacSpeech's iListen instead. Or stay with VV and see if I'm wrong again. (I'm still on 10.2 with VV, for the same reasons as you.)

Dr D · Mar 6, 2004, 11:59 AM

Well that's very encouraging... not! So you dunno how good iListen is? And it's not the expense so much as the time training it - I currently use VV on Al Book in 4 different locations, each required an hour plus of training.

wadesworld · Mar 6, 2004, 10:52 PM

If it just has issues with fast user switching, why not try using it and not using fast user switching?

Wade

sandsl · Mar 7, 2004, 04:52 AM

I haven't had any problems using ViaVoice under 10.3 - but then I haven't tried fast user switching whilst ViaVoice is active, never needed to.

Don't stay away from 10.3 because you've heard that ViaVoice doesn't work under 10.3 - it does, and its perfectly usable.

bmhome1 · Mar 7, 2004, 03:52 PM

There ARE credible reports of 10.3 and ViaVoice problems. Me for example. Since upgrading to 10.3-10.3.2 it never recognizes the mic when launched. I'm not the only one. Check Charles Moore's OSX Odyssey at Applelinks.com article series.

I have iListen also and it works fine in 10.3.2. They just recently updated it yet again, unlike VVX which hasn't been since 2002. The direction is clear, voice recognition for Mac OSX has changed.

car1son · Mar 8, 2004, 11:08 AM

Thanks, sandsl. It's always good to hear a success story. I've read a number of messages regarding ViaVoice not working with 10.3, but you're the first person to actually write straight out that it worked fine for them. Of course, most people only post when they have problems, and it's pretty rare to read a message that says "Everything's fine".

bmhome1, when you say it doesn't recognize the mic when launched, does that mean if you revisit the Speech pane and Sound pane and change its input settings, that it will he eventually recognize the mic? Or, are you just living without ViaVoice?

I think you're right that iListen is the voice dictation program of the Mac's future. Ironically, I chose IBM three years ago because I thought they were the product more likely to last.

Wadesworld, the reason I haven't tried 10.3 with ViaVoice for myself is that I just don't want to commit to perform a complete reinstall, restore and upgrade of the 10.2 product if ViaVoice didn't work for me with 10.3. Speech dictation is a necessary product for me; so if it didn't work, I'd have no choice but to wipe the disk and revert to 10.2.

bmhome1 · 06:25 PM

ViaVoice simply stops recognizing it's own Andrea mike. Its listed in Speech preferences and available to select as input device, but VV doesn't budge. Restarting, rebooting, throwing away the preference files, throwing away one speciifc file recommended elsewhere, nothing works. It's not just my problem, check out Charles Moore's reports.

Also, ScanSoft who took over ViaVoice has an appalling attitude towards their Mac users and OSX in general and Panther specifically. They have ignored ANY development for OSX since before Jaguar and seem to have no intention to ever do. Same with their OmniPage ProX, a disaster in scanning OCR for post Jaguar. To say many owners of either application will never touch another Scansoft product is to put it kindly. Check out either application's comments at VersionTracker for sobering reading.

car1son · 08:21 PM

Originally posted by bmhome1:
...ScanSoft who took over ViaVoice has an appalling attitude towards their Mac users and OSX in general...

Yeah, my assumption/speculation/flight-of-fancy is they took over ViaVoice to get the customers for IBM's Windows edition of ViaVoice for their Dragon: Naturally Speaking product, and got stuck with the Mac version as part of the deal. (The last VV update was for OS X 10.2.3, and it was produced and originally released by IBM, not ScanSoft; though it's now available through ScanSoft's website.)

But then, I'm a cynic.

BTW, searching AppleLinks for ViaVoice articles really didn't turn up much edifyingm beyond an "orphaned" comment. Anything I should look for specifically?

bmhome1 · Mar 8, 2004, 08:29 PM

At Applelinks.com Charles Moore has a article series called OSX Odyssey, VV and iListen were discussed frequently, especially at Jaguar and Panther introductions and their problems/fixes. Also his other article series Road Warrior Mailbag at MacOpinions.com has similar questions and answers about VV and iListen.

Bayanus · Apr 22, 2004, 02:16 PM

I have found Ilisten (1.6.4) to be terrible: diffiult to train, high rates of errors, and it crashes nearly every single time I use it under 10.3.3.

I would definitely not buy it again. Even IBM's ViaVoice was superior to this!

Bee

Originally posted by Dr D:
Well that's very encouraging... not! So you dunno how good iListen is? And it's not the expense so much as the time training it - I currently use VV on Al Book in 4 different locations, each required an hour plus of training.