Avatron's Air Dictate uses 4S, Siri for wireless dictation
updated 10:00 pm EST, Thu December 22, 2011
Turns iPhone into transcription mic for Mac
A clever new idea from wireless iOS app developers Avatron allows iPhone4S users to leverage Siri and turn their iPhone into a speech-recognition microphone that does automatic dictation directly into any Mac app that is open and accepts text input, such as Pages, Word, TextEdit or Mail. The $1 app, called Air Dictate, requires a Mac on the same network that is running a free "receiver" application and has the target program already open.
On the iPhone 4S, users simply launch the Air Dictate app, choose their target Mac from the Bonjour-generated list of nearby computers, press the microphone button and begin speaking. Pressing the button again will stop the dictation. The dictated text will be converted by Siri's dictation engine (licensed from Nuance, makers of Dragon Dictation) and be sent to the open application as though it had been typed on the Mac.
The program is said by the company to work only with the iPhone 4S and may not be compatible with versions of Siri that have been hacked on to other iPhone models. The Air Dictate Receiver program requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later. Avatron also makes wireless Print Sharing, Air Sharing and Air Display programs for Mac and iOS.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2011
Does it work???
Maybe when macnn introduces new items like this the wording should be "claims to Turns iPhone into transcription mic for Mac."
'Tried out Vocal App and Vocal for Mac to do the same thing and that was a disappointment.