Dragon Premium 13.0, Student/Teacher Edition [PC Download] (Discontinued)

I would really like this product to work better for me. I bought it in June of 2016 and for several months it prompts me to update the software, which is buying a whole new product. I thought the $99.99 was an investment and I don't think I should have to re-buy this every year to work. I don't understand why it won't just update like any other software. Anyway, it gets in the way of my outlook, slows my brand new ThinkPad computer and quite often, I can't get it to stop listening, which can be problematic, especially if someone walks in my office unannounced! I tried to find a contact, but it is not listed on my Amazon account on who to contact and my email is deleted. I guess I'm writing this review in case anyone else is thinking about the purchase, but doesn't want to take a chance spending this much. I loved it for the first 6-9 months, but it is very time consuming to get working lately.

I am a senior in college, majoring in English. I just break my wrist during the last month of my very last semester. So far, I have found the software to be a lifesaver. There are technical aspects that I don't understand, but for all intents and purposes is extremely useful for paper writing and conducting emails to my professors. I panicked in the emergency room when I found out that I was going to be in a cast for the next 6 to 8 weeks when the doctor suggested the software to me and told me about the student discount. The discount works fine and verifying your school is extremely easy as long as you are an actual student. Within 18 page paper due and a matter of weeks, I find it very well worth the money and am so glad that it was recommended to me.I also work as a freelance copywriter and copy editor and I have had no issues using the software for my work either.There are words that are sometimes mistaken for others, but I do not see that as a software flaw, rather a reflection of my own speech, which the software seems to be learning.I highly recommend it for anyone who is busy and needs to take notes without typing (such as my doctor), has injured themselves and cannot type, or maybe even those who have difficulty with spelling.

I have an earlier version of this software but have had problems with conflicts when typing (it hijacked my keyboard!) so I had to disable it. I bought this version for my son along with a digital voice recorder to be able to tape and convert his college lectures to text. Wouldn't it be great if he could come back from class and have the magic of electronics "type" a "perfect" copy of the class lecture for him? Even a semi-perfect one? It sorta said you could do that, but was not very explicit in the marketing materials. This isn't even close and is definitely not ready for prime time for that purpose. It does transcribe directly from audio files, but the accuracy is pretty bad. No, really terrible. We tried it with some "test" files, like an audio of the Gettysburg Address, a book on tape and a tape recording of the evening news. Yes, he can train it to his voice, but it would be a lot of work (this was supposed to save time, not create more work), and it's not going to work at all with the dozens of professors he'll have in college. The only way to make it work would be if he were to dictate as he listens to the lecture tape AND train it to his voice. Maybe that would be a worthwhile learning experience, but he's not buying it. Maybe he'll use it for something....probably not. In the meantime, Dragon you need to improve voice recognition as much as OCR technology has improved character recognition over the past 10 years.

You pretty much have to use Internet Explorer if voice is your only way of controlling the computer. Unfortunately, the Internet Explorer 11 add-on causes the browser and Dragon NaturallySpeaking to freeze/hang and max out my CPU upon opening random webpages, even the Bing search results page. I'm looking forward to the Google Chrome extension from voice computer. VoiceComputer costs like 100 bucks extra, but it's worth it, if this is your only way of using the Internet. (I have carpal tunnel. I can only imagine the anger, frustration, hopelessness, etc. that Nuance's software makes me feel would be multiplied 10 or hundred times if I was quadriplegic.) On some computers, I've read that it is impossible to install. Luckily this was not the case for me.I have never called Nuance for support before. From what I've read online, their support is terrible. I think there are already a lot of reviews that go into the many failings of the software. The unfixed bugs. Nuance seems to have a monopoly on good working voice recognition. Fortunately, the voice recognition on iPhone and android seems to be getting pretty dang good. I can only hope that the leadership at Nuance will change or a competitor will emerge using these competing voice-recognition platforms.

I thought I would try the new version after using vs. 12. It was a mistake to buy this because it is more difficult to learn how to use, and there aren't very many new features of use. The text-to-speech is HIGHLY problematic and won't read pdfs, or even read back selected text on a word document. Just buy the old version 12 or 10 and save some money!

I downloaded this onto my brand new Dell PC with a terrabyte of HD and double the system requirements, and all it did was clog up my machine, and refused to install. 5 minutes later, it told me that my 'download token had expired'. And of course it is 'non-refundable'. Now it won't let me uninstall or delete, and it is running 3*gig* in some hidden application where I can't shut it down... basically destroying my new desktop.

This is pretty awesome. I am taking notes for school at about 60 words a minute and able to do 17 pages of notes in 3-4 hours. Only complaint is if you have background noise and other people talking it seems to unlearn your speech a bit. The third day I will use it, I will for sure reset the microphone and see if that speeds it up. You can pretty much dictate 3 sentences before having to pause to check for mistakes and it will be pretty much right on.