Nuance Acquires MacSpeech

Exciting news from the Dragon team here at Nuance today with the acquisition of MacSpeech. See the post from Peter Mahoney below for more details.

Nuance Acquires MacSpeech

I’m so excited to share with you that this morning we announced that Nuance has acquired MacSpeech, the leader in providing speech recognition solutions for the Macintosh. Upon its introduction in 2008, MacSpeech Dictate earned the coveted MacWorld Best of Show Award, and has since received praise from press and customers alike for its accuracy. As you are may already know, Dictate uses our Dragon speech recognition engine at its core, which is part of what makes it so popular!

This is an exciting time for the Mac community — Mac shipments are up, the new iPad is due to ship in a couple of months, and new apps (like Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search) are being added to the App Store every day, revolutionizing how we work, play and communicate. It’s a perfect time for us to open Dragon’s doors to the Mac community!

I’m sure that folks will have a lot of questions about what today’s news means for Dragon and for Dictate. Rest assured, if you currently use either product, nothing will change in the near term. In the coming weeks, we promise to share updates with you as regularly as possible. In the meantime, check out more about the news here – www.nuance.com/macspeech. On this page, you’ll find a copy of the press release that was issued this morning, as well as a detailed Q&A, and links to important resources.

We are thrilled to welcome MacSpeech to the Nuance family and we look forward to sharing more updates with you in the coming months.
Thanks,

Peter Mahoney
Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dragon

Dragon Mind Dictation “Debuts” at Macworld

We’re on the ground in San Francisco this week for an exciting Macworld Expo.  The opening presentation today featured David Pogue, personal technology columnist for the New York Times and closet talk show host.  David put together an amazing talk that included special guests (Levar Burton!), musical numbers, and even a sampling of “what if” fake iPhone apps, including the Rogue Pogue and even something called the iPreg, which we’ll let you figure out on your own. 

The highlight of the talk for us though was David’s “demonstration” of a new app called Dragon Mind Dictation.*  We all know that Dragon is accurate, but in the future what if Dragon were so good that you didn’t even need to speak for it to recognize your dictation? 

Introducing…Dragon Mind Dictation!  Check it out!

*Note – not a real app :-)

 

REBECCA PAQUETTE

Corporate Communications Manager, Mobile

Need a Personal Assistant? Check Out the New Siri App for iPhone Featuring Speech Recognition from Nuance

How often do we all think “wow, I could really use a personal assistant.”  Well – as of today it’s just an app away on your iPhone 3GS with Siri.   The free app helps accomplish everyday tasks like making restaurant reservations, buying movie tickets, or hailing a taxi – and it’s all powered by the same Nuance voice recognition technology found in Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search!  Just speak to your phone and the Siri app will understand what you say.  For instance, “I’m looking for Avatar movie times.” From there, it’ll execute subsequent actions to pull up movie times in your area and help you buy tickets.   What’s even cooler is that over time, Siri adapts to users’ individual preferences – just like a personal assistant would!

This is an app that we encourage you to check out.  For more details, visit http://www.siri.com/ or just simply download the app in the Apple App Store here.

REBECCA PAQUETTE

Corporate Communications Manager, Mobile

Power of Dragon is Coming Soon to a Car near You – Announcing Nuance Voice Control Automotive

Today we had a very exciting announcement from our automotive business that we thought would be appropriate to share with our Dragon Mobile Apps users – we’re bringing the power of Dragon to the car! Today we unveiled Nuance Voice Control Automotive, an innovative platform that is designed for auto manufacturers to bring voice-enabled connected services to drivers around the world – and it’s based on the same core speech recognition technology that you take advantage of in Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search.   So what can you do with Nuance Voice Control Automotive?  Lots of amazing tasks, including:

• SMS text messaging and email capabilities, allowing drivers to simply speak and send messages while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road;
• Interaction with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook;
• News, weather and traffic updates and the latest sports scores and stock prices;
• Movie theatre locations, film listings and times;
• Dining options in current area or point of destination; and,
• Price comparisons for hotels, fuel, etc.

We’re a mobile society, and more and more we find ourselves connected at all times.  But it’s important to ensure a safer route to staying connected behind the wheel – that’s where speech technology becomes so valuable and why we’ve worked to bring this innovative platform to auto manufacturers.  We expect the first cars with Nuance Voice Control Automotive to start shipping next year – so stay tuned! 

REBECCA PAQUETTE

Corporate Communications Manager, Mobile