I downloaded Dragon Dictate for the iPhone a few weeks ago, tried it for a few minutes–then wrote it off as fatally flawed. First, I spoke into it, and it understood me fairly well. I tried it again, and was further impressed. But the third time, I spoke 3 or 4 sentences–and after a while, it came back and said something like, “Sorry, couldn’t understand you.” I looked around to see where the voice file was. It wasn’t to be found.
So I thought, I get this great idea; click on Dragon Dictate; speak it into the phone; go back to paying attention to whatever I was doing (hopefully not driving). Then when I look at the phone again–it’s gone without a trace.
I didn’t delete the app, but I went back to using one of the many voice recorder apps for that purpose. Yeah, I have to type it if I want it typed–but at least I have it. (Actually, I speak directly into Evernote, because that syncs with my other computers without me having to do anything. And I can easily tag the recording, too.)
I had some downtime while waiting somewhere yesterday, so I tried Dragon Dictate on my iPhone again. It had been updated a couple of times.
While it still doesn’t save the recording, its speech-to-text seems to have been sped up and significantly improved. Just to test its boundaries, I said:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithey toves
Did gyre and gimbal in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.“Beware the Jabberwock, my son–
The jaws that bite, the claws that snatch–
Beware the jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Here’s what Dragon Dictate yielded:
What’s really, and the sleeping toll
good guy here and getting pulled in the way.
I’ll miss see where the parables
and the mobile rats out great.Beware the Jabberwock, my son;
the jaws that bite the clause that snatch.
Beware the chuck chuck burn and shut
the from you spend your snatch.
When you’re done giggling–I chortled for quite a while–you’ll probably be as amazed as I am. This app did an incredible job of making sense out of nonsense.
It’s far from perfect. But did I mention that it is free? So when you are in the ZipWriting part of my book-writing process, you might try dictating pieces into your iPhone.
