Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium Go Wireless 11.5 (PC)

I use Dragon Naturally Speaking for comms - I am deaf so in reality, I rely on other people to use it to 'talk' to me. And that is so beneficial. It's fun to use for controlling the computer and it's good for 'writing' emails - (or my book of course!) - because it's so much quicker getting your thoughts written down than just typing would be. It helps the flow. Other reviewers have mentioned confusion because it sometimes interprets a word as a command (for the computer) rather than a word for transcription - you solve this problem by changing the mode, which you select from the menu bar - it's not a problem in reality. I upgraded from the Home Edition because I wanted to be able to use bluetooth microphone. The difference between Premium and Home is just the fact that you can use Bluetooth, or the Dragon Dictation voice i phone app but, disappointngly, you need a wireless connection to use your i phone as a mic - you can't do that with bluetooth. Using the bluetooth mic supplied was OK. A bit slower than wired but OK. I'm impressed with the accuracy of the transcription. The speed improves as you talk to it - obviously the accuracy does too but the speed does as well! The software has substantial requirements for RAM, processor speed and available disk space. It works OK with the minimum specifications but it does slow down noticeably any other applications you have running. I'm delighted overall. Buy from Amazon because of the price differential with Nuance. And try to resolve any niggles yourself, by just checking through all the various menu options and the booklet - or go to the Nuance US site for help - the European distributors service isn't top drawer.

This review was also written using Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred 11.5 Premium, hence it's slightly formal clipped style. There are no errors because I have corrected them all, such as quiet instead of quite. I did get this Dragon 11.5 Premium software for my 15 year old dyslexic son to use at home, as it's strongly recommended by dyslexia charities, but my son really couldn't be bothered with it at all and he now gets on far better with a Toshiba netbook and its keyboard at school instead. Likewise his visually impaired 17 year old girl mate rejected it, preferring to struggle with her face up close against a traditional keyboard & mouse with very large hi-contrast text. So although well worth trying for youngsters, Dragon NS seems better suited to committed adults who have the patience and time to get to grips with the software, or to older children who have real problems physically using a standard computer keyboard and mouse - probably as it's all not quite as straighforward as Dragon make out. As I get occasional RSI and neck pain using PCs, I ended up using Dragon 11.5. You probably need a copy of Microsoft Office Word as well, although this voice recognition software can write text into pretty much anything that has a text box.

I found Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 speech recognition software easy to install and use, and I got a free upgrade to version 11.5, that adds in iPhone digital recorder support. I have a fast desktop computer with a Creative XFi sound card and had no problems. You load the software, register it and run through the voice training exercises where you read out loud example text and Dragon listens and calibrates the software to work specifically for you (this takes about ten minutes). And Naturally Speaking Premium 11.5 works very well, with around ninety nine percent accuracy, provided you make an effort to 'speak slowly and clearly and pre-cisely' - it doesn't like you talking fast when words can start to slur, and I find I tend to chose words I know it will find easy to recognise, so it does affect your written style. Dragon 11.5 can also control Windows as well if you want, and do things like open a new Window, send an email or search the internet. It works with Windows XP (32-bit only), Vista and Windows 7 with pretty minimal PC specification requirements, and it runs perfectly on our two old MESH gaming computers. The supplied Plantronics blue-tooth USB2 dongle and over-ear mono microphone plus headphone headset is superb, and can fit either ear (with glasses), although it's limited battery life does require frequent overnight recharges if used all day (the headset can't be used when charging). It's easy enough to correct any typos Dragon makes using voice control, however if you are able to use the mouse (i.e. your writing problem is dyslexia rather than physical impairment) it is far quicker correcting text normally with the mouse. Full stops, commas and brackets and so on are easily added by saying them and you can say things like 'go back three words', and 'move up two lines'.

And Dragon really does type as quickly as you can talk, so even those with no physical problems with typing can benefit from using dragon, once you get used to thinking out loud. Really the only problem with Dragon, other than price, is that you need a quiet office or home environment to talk away to yourself with no distractions. But the software is still quite impressive and I use it instead of typing when I want to add short bits of text from printed books or dictate my thoughts. I would say it is quicker using Dragon than typing even for able bodied people, provided you don't need to do a mass of corrections and editing under voice control. So four stars for reasonable value and good performance.

I KNOW IT'S ME BECAUSE I'M NOT BRILLIANT WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY BUT I AM A BIT DISAPPOINTED AT THE MOMENT THAT DRAGON & I HAVEN'T GOT TO GRIPS WITH EACH OTHER YET. THE REVIEWS I READ REALLY REASSURED ME. IT ARRIVED PROMPTLY (GOOD OLD AMAZON). I GOT IT INSTALLED WITH NO PROBLEM BUT APART FROM ONE SUCCESSFUL GO THE REST HAS BEEN UTTER BALDERDASH. THE TITLE OF MY REVIEW IS BECAUSE I'D LIKE TO WRITE MY OWN PUPPY TRAINING MANUAL. PUPPY IN QUESTION IS CALLED GEORGIE (WHEN SHE'S GOOD)GEORGIANER WHEN SHE'S BEING A MONSTER. PLEASE WATCH THIS SPACE! I SUSPECT TRAINING DRAGON IS A BIT LIKE TRAINING A PUPPY ie THE MORE YOU PUT IN THE MORE YOU GET BACK.