As Mike recently pointed out, Adele is a phenomena who popularity exploded this year because… she has a great voice and the songs are great! She’s had a rough time lately however thanks to throat surgery and a silent recovery.

After a polyp was removed Adele was told not to speak for a month. According to an upcoming interview on 60 Minutes, Adele, who loves to talk, found the silence more difficult than the actual surgery. Fortunately for her she lives in the era of smartphone apps. As she explained,

I had an application on my phone that you type the words into it and then it speaks it.

But there’s more. You see, most text-to-speach apps offer G-rated language and Adele is a self-professed potty-mouth. … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It has been over a year but Gear Chat is back and we’re talking tech. In this first episode Thomas and I talk about the Samsung Galaxy Note, the Series 7 Slate tablet and what configuration of Apple computing products is best. Future episodes will include Gaming and eBook segments and much more. We also want to hear from you! What content do you want covered? What questions do you have? Would you like us to do the podcast as a live, call-in conversation? We want to know.

Happy listening and, as always, thanks for sharing via Twitter and Facebook.

Have you ever had a YouTube video or audio segment you wanted to transcribe but didn’t have the patience to sit and manually type out what the speaker/s said? I ran into just such a situation yesterday and, instead of it taking hours for me to listen, pause, type, listen, pause, type etc I was able to transcribe the two YouTube videos I needed in under ten minutes. Here’s how…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

We had a copy of Dragon Dictate for Mac to give away. CES 2012 is over and it is belatedly time to pick a winner…… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Regardless of what executives from Google and Microsoft say, people really DO like using intelligent voice technology with their smartphones – and the massive success of Siri on the iPhone 4S proves it. Android has an adequate built-in voice recognition engine, but now Nuance brings their amazing technology to Android with the release of Dragon Go! free on the Android Market!
Here is the info from Nuance:

Nuance today announced that its revolutionary Dragon Go! app is now available for Android on the Android Market. Dragon Go! gives consumers direct access to over 200 of the most trusted and reliable destinations for mobile content simply by using their voice

The other day David, our Gear Diary automotive guru, emailed with some bad news. Yes, it seems he welcomed the New Year with a serious shoulder injury. Here’s what he wrote (I feel his pain as he typed each letter…)

I hope this is not an omen as to how 2012 is going to shape up for me but I am having to go on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury I sustained on New Year’s Day… It is my right shoulder and prolonged time typing and using the mouse really aggravates it… This may be the perfect time to test out Dragon Dictation, huh?
David

I’m sorry to hear about the injury and hope… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

This isn’t the first time we’ve looked at an alarm clock that not only speaks the time but understands when YOU speak. No, two years ago we reviewed the Moshi Travel Alarm Clock, and before that we took a look at the bedside version of it. Despite some limitations both worked fairly well. Yes, voice commands were limited, but once you learned HOW to speak to the clocks they did respond properly most of the time.

Fast forward two years, and a new batch of voice-controlled alarm clocks are hitting the market. They come from a company called ivee and are now referred to as “personal assistants”. ivee claims they… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I love Siri on the iPhone 4S. As I have written previously, it has changed the way I use my iPhone and, in fact, the way I do much of my writing. Thanks to Siri I’m better at consistently setting up reminders for myself. Thanks to Siri I’m able to make new appointments on the fly. And thanks to Siri I am rarely typing on my iPhone any longer. Yes, Siri’s voice recognition is so good that, so long as I speak clearly and slowly and follow the guidelines I have previously shared here on the site, I am now able to do the vast majority of my first draft writing with my iPhone and Siri. Siri is huge and its power and importance will only grow over time. After all, the service is still technically in Beta!

Yet as I drove around the state going from lifecycle event to lifecycle event today I suddenly realized that as important as Siri is, it isn’t the biggest improvement I’ve found. What is?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

We reviewed the Andrea SuperBeam phones last week and were impressed. (You can read the review here.) The headphones have an MSRP of $149.95, but we found them discounted to just $117.96. That’s a great price on headphones that make VOiP and voice recognition a pleasure.  Buy it here. [affiliate link]… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you are into voice recognition, then you need to have a good microphone. It’s a basic fact of life. Yes, you can use the built-in microphone on the MacBook Air (for example), and you’ll probably get good results. But if you want great results you’ll need something that’s going to help filter out the background noise; that means a good headset. Among the issues with such headsets? The best of them have boom microphones that make you look like a Bell telephone operator. Sure, this is all about getting the work done and dictating your text but what if there were a way to not look quite as dorky? That’s what Andrea’s new headphones make… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Apple may have a bit of a problem on its hands if a new report from Goldman Sachs (Via www.bgr.com)is accurate. According to a new report, sales of the iPad 2 are slowing even as we come into the holiday shopping season. There are, of course, many possible reasons for this. Among them might be the fact that people are waiting until the holiday season is closer (read Black Friday) to make a purchase and yesterday’s release of the Amazon Kindle fire which is just $199 as opposed to the $499 buy in to get the least expensive iPad. Still, regardless of the reason(s), if this slowdown is actually happening it is a problem for… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

From the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary: Is there someone in your life who would benefit from speaking their text rather than typing it? If so, here are five gifts with which you can’t go wrong.

The key to accurate voice recognition is wearing the right headphones. Andrea Electronics SuperBeam Phones are just the thing. We’ll be reviewing the headphones over the next few days but they are already impressive. As the company explains

SuperBeam headsets deliver Hi-Definition sound for all your social media and multimedia applications. The unique integrated array microphone system is designed for use with Andrea’s patented beam forming and digital noise reduction audio software, providing “Boom freed” convenience. SuperBeam also provides 3D

Yesterday Nuance released Dragon Express in the Mac App Store. At an introductory price of $49, the application is a less expensive way to get Nuance’s voice-to-text transcription on your Mac than the $200 Dragon for Mac. (It only runs on OS X Lion and if you haven’t upgraded to it you should.) It would be easy to think of Dragon Express as Dragon for Mac Light and, on one level that is what it is but, after using it yesterday, it strikes me as more of a port of Nuance’s Dragon Dictation iOS app. Just as the iOS app lets you dictate and then send the text to another application, Dragon Express lets you dictate into its own window and, when done, send it elsewhere. That certainly makes it less convenient than the full, $200 Dragon for Mac, but there is a reason one might choose Dragon Express and I’m not talking about the lower price. You see, while Dragon for Mac tends to be a bit of a resource hound and can slow down my computer at times, Dragon Express seems incredibly “light” and is something that can be left running in the background all the time. As such, it will be ready and waiting for you whenever you need it.

Let’s walk through the setup process.

The download is over a gigabyte so you are going to want a fast connection and some free time. When it finally has loaded, the first screen asks if you want to use the internal microphone or a USB headset. This is a departure from the past when the Mac’s Internal microphone could only be used with voice recognition software by employing a work-around. Of course, you aren’t going to get the same degree of clarity over the internal mic that you would were you using a noise canceling headset but the convenience of not needing a headset is too much to pass this option by. AND, I am having no issue getting accurate transcriptions via the internal mic.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve used a number of Andrea headphones for voice recognition in the past, and I’ve always been impressed. The company’s SuperBeam Phones are a departure from previous models, and I’m really loving the design choices that went into creating them. They are sleek on-ear headphones that drop the microphone boom, but still offer great voice quality.

Here’s what the company has to say about them:

SuperBeam headsets deliver Hi-Definition sound. Our unique integrated array microphone system is designed for use with Andrea’s patented beam forming and digital noise reduction audio software, providing “The Freedom of Voice”. SuperBeam also provides a new audio

Siri and Evernote work together beautifully, and all it takes is a little bit of preparation. In fact, if you use Evernote regularly, then you probably already have taken the steps you need to take to make it work. You see, each Evernote account comes with an email address that can be used to send notes by email. That’s the key. Here’s what you need to do.

First, make Evernote a contact in your address book with your incoming Evernote email address. You can add the email by going into Evernote > Settings > Evernote email address. Launch Siri and say “Send email to Evernote.” Next, dictate your email and send it off. The message will show