

If you've ever used voice recognition, you know that on plenty of occasions it is simpler just to lean forward and tap out a complex name than to spell it letter by letter Dictate made this a dicey proposition. The problem was bad enough that Nuance, the developer behind Dictate, laid out a "Golden Rule" against ever using the mouse or keyboard while speaking to the program. Or rather, you can, but your document will probably suffer. (Read our review of version 2.0.) The new version, a free upgrade for Dictate 2.0 users, addresses one of the most common complaints about the program: you can't use the mouse or keyboard while entering text with your voice.

Dragon Dictate for Mac, the only viable option for Mac speech recognition, turns 2.5 today.
