VERSION 9.0 UPGRADE NOTES
Upgrade pricing:
Preferred 7/8 to 9.0 upgrade at $99 each
Professional 7/8 to 9.0 upgrade at $299 each
Medical 7/8 to 9.0 upgrade at $449 each
Legal 7/8 to 9.0 upgrade at $449 each
Preferred 7/8 to Professional 9.0 upgrade at $695 each
Preferred 7/8 to Med or Legal 9.0 upgrade at $995 each
Government and educational orders:
Please contact us for your government or educationalOrders can be placed by phone (650-747-0275), by fax (650-747-0291), or by post to our mailing address at:
discount, which will be applied to your purchase.
1stVoice
P.O. Box 428
La Honda, CA 94020
We have an order form on our web site, which can be printed, and then faxed or mailed to us, or copied into an e-mail to place your order. This form is available at http://www.1stVoice.com/upgrade.html
Nuance, the new owner of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking product line, appears to have done their homework for this new release. Speed, accuracy, stability, and ease-of-use appear to have all been noticeably improved. The accuracy in particular has really gotten better -- in test usage here, we were better than 99% on some passages. Raw accuracy is the most important consideration for most users, and they have done it right! We are recommending upgrade for our customers.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.0 will install only over existing installations of versions 7.0 or 8.0. If you own version 6.0 or earlier, and will need to purchase a new copy of the software, as the upgrade path will not work for you.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9.0 will only install on computers with a minimum CPU speed of 500 MHz, loaded with 256 MB RAM. The real world requirements are significantly higher, and we recommend having at least 1.5 GHz CPU and 512MB RAM, with 1 GB RAM being vastly preferable. Voice recognition alone works well on 512 MB, but the computer in general, and other applications, will slow down quite a bit.
We have definitely noticed that the improved accuracy in Version 9 requires more horsepower - for example, a 1 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM machine that ran Version 8 fine is quite slow on Version 9. Time for new computers!
Please contact us for advice on upgrading your existing hardware, or purchasing new. Our contract with Micron PC allows us to provide high performance, high reliability desktop and laptop computers at lower than factory direct prices. Please see our website for more details or contact us with equipment questions.
As always, new software versions have new features, some of which you
may be able to live without. When you purchase your upgrade or new
copy from 1stVoice, we include our recommendations for setup and operational
options, to provide you with the most efficient and streamlined use of
this product. Software upgrades are designed to go smoothly, but
there are inevitably some frustrations involved anytime you change your
hardware or software configurations on your computer. Always back
up your data (speech files, vocabulary, commands) to a safe location before
attempting any upgrade. Also, be prepared to spend some time getting
familiar with the new features of version 9. This may involve some
decreased productivity while you get used to the new software, but in general,
we can say that Version 9 is QUITE impressive.
As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Feedback
from users is forwarded to the developers at Nuance, so they can make their
next release of the product even better. Your comments are always
forwarded without your identifying information, unless you request otherwise.