For a short time typinator is free. It’s one of many macro apps that allow you to have prefigured phrases that are automatically typed. You can get it from here.
ShareJan 14
When you plug in a second monitor to Macintosh computer, it may display an exact copy or ‘mirror image’ of what is on your first display. This is called mirroring. This is fine if you are doing a presentation and you want to see on your laptop screen exactly what is on the projector, but it’s not very useful at home to have the same thing on both screens. If you’d like to see different things on each screen, so the second screen gives you more desktop space, you need to turn mirroring off. Here’s how.
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I have previously reviewed MacSpeech Dictate but here are some tips on how to use it well. Continue reading »
ShareOct 20
My brother is living in Vanuatu here, and he is after a very low power computer to run on solar panels in their library. So I’m running a competition to see who can find the lowest power computer. It can be a laptop, or desktop, or any variation,
Specs:
- Must have a full size keyboard at least 27cm wide.
- Screen must be 12 inch or larger.
- Must be able to run Ubuntu linux or OSX or Windows.
- Must be able to be networked to a printer
- Must have a USB slot for a USB thumbdrive.
- Must run off 12V or 240V
One month. Entries close 20 Nov.
Winner recieves a free Vanuatu Shirt posted to them. (We may even do a shirt for the best computer and a shirt for the best monitor if they are found by 2 different people)
Contribute to the search by adding a comment below!
ShareOct 12
I’ve been using 1Password for about 2 months now, and I must say, it’s great and you should get it for free while it’s still available. It’s hard to explain what a password manager does until you’ve used one – it basically remembers all your web login names on every blog and website you visit, all your credit card details if you want it to, the different names or addresses you use for different websites, and remembers them according to the site you are on. It can even remember multiple logins for the same site if you use two different login names. It’s like a very clever version of the built in keychain. Continue reading »
Jul 08
In case you haven’t yet realised, Apple Memory is different to normal PC RAM, so if you go to a cheap PC shop or ebay and buy some memory it probably won’t work in your Mac. Continue reading »
ShareMay 07
This Logitech presenter is great. After using the ATI remote wonder for a year or so, and a Microsoft cordless mouse also, I’ve done a bit of research, and came up with these little units as the as the best in my opinion. They are $79 at Officeworks and have all the features you need…
ShareApr 28
EARLIER REVIEWS on MACINTOSH HOW TO
When Macspeech Dictate was first released I gave it a negative review. I have left the reviews of earlier versions here as a reference – you can read them below….
The most up to date review is here.
28th April, 2008 Macspeech Version 1.0
Ever since I first used Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 4 in 2000, I have been waiting for it to be released on the Macintosh. Well it’s finally arrived, it’s called “MacSpeech Dictate”, and it’s powered by Dragon. Unfortunately there are still a few hiccups. My advice is if you have been using voice recognition already – Viavoice or iListen, then make the switch – it’s an improvement. But if you are not currently using speech recognition, wait a little longer. It’s not quite there yet, and the adjustment to speech recognition combined with some bugs makes for a steep learning curve.
Now in terms of dictation and recognition, MacSpeech 1.0 Dictate is fantastic. The accuracy is very impressive and it does not take much training. In fact I think I was reading stories for about five minutes and then I was ready to Dictate. It’s also a very stable application, unlike IBM ViaVoice which was frequently crashing.
It integrates very easily so that you can dictate into any Macintosh program. IBM ViaVoice was meant to do this but in reality whenever you were dictating into anything other than the ViaVoice speakpad it was tediously slow.
So what are the problems in 1.0?
Firstly there is a bug in it so that if you correct anything with your mouse and keyboard, it gets out of sync and loses it’s place, and you can’t keep dictating.
Secondly, it doesn’t train itself from your mistakes.
One of my favourite features of Dragon NaturallySpeaking was the correction window where the program automatically learnt from your mistakes. When it mis-recognised a word, all you had to say was ”correct that” and type in the correct word, and Dragon NaturallySpeaking would automatically train itself so that whenever you spoke that word again it would get it right.
When Macspeech Dictate makes a mistake it just keeps misrecognizing the word, and you can’t re-train it. The manual promises that this correction feature will come in an update – let’s hope it’s soon.
Conclusion – Macspeech Dictate Version 1.0
If you have been using ViaVoice or iListen, then you will be blown away by the accuracy of Macspeech Dictate – it’s simply the best voice recognition software for the Mac.
On the other hand, if you have come across from the PC using Dragon NaturallySpeaking you will be taking a step backwards due to the lack of automatic correction, and the buginess of the software.
It’s a very nice piece of software, but with its current lack of features and bugs, it should be a beta version. In my opinion, it’s worth $100, $200 if you really need it, but at $300, it’s way overpriced given it’s problems.
NOTE: All these features that I mentioned needing improving have been fixed in version 1.3 and even more features have been added to 1.5 Macspeech now automatically learns from it’s mistakes so it trains itself as you use it. Also editing your text after you have dictated is much easier. And it’s much more stable.
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