I may be dating myself here, but back when I was in grade school, there was this new piece of software from a company called Nuance that had the power to turn your speech into text. They called it “Dragon Dictate.” The technology sounded too good to be true. Could I really do my homework by skipping the keyboard and talking directly to my computer? Turned out, no, it didn’t really work well enough to do homework with. The software was slow and accuracy was nowhere near acceptable. That was then. Today, Dragon is back with better speech-to-text translation technology, and they’re giving away their Dragon Dictation iPhone app for free (iTunes link)!
Dragon Dictation, as you can see from the video demo below, is much more accurate than what I remember using over a decade ago. And, I’d argue that the iPhone app is much more useful than desktop transcription software. It just makes more sense to have speech-to-text functionality on a smartphone with a limited keyboard than on a desktop with a full-sized keyboard.
The app works by recording snippets of speech. Once you’re done recording, hit the “Done” button and wait a second or two for Dragon Dictation to translate your words into text. You can record multiple snippets to form longer paragraphs and edit your text using the pop-up keyboard or your voice. Then, when all’s said and done (literally), you can send your text as a text message or email or copy it to the clipboard for use in other apps.
Check out the video below to see Dragon Dictation in action!
Dragon Dictation [iTunes link]
