FreeSpeech 2000: Well Worth the Cost

SUMMARY

FreeSpeech 2000 PRO: Friendly interface, helpful video tutorial, integrated foreign language recognition. CON: Requires ongoing training, voice-based editing and formatting still cumbersome. VALUE: Most useful for basic tasks and multilingual users. $110 (with Plantronics SR1 headset); $170 (with Philips SpeechMike) Philips Speech Processing 800/851-8885 www.speech.philips.com

Talk can be cheap: At $110, Philips FreeSpeech 2000 is a really good deal. You get Pentium III­optimized dictation software that works in English and five foreign languages; multiuser options; voice playback; and a comfortable and sturdy Plantronics SR1 headset. Competing packages from Dragon and Lernout & Hauspie cost up to $50 more--without the foreign language capability. And FreeSpeech 2000 improves substantially on FreeSpeech 98, especially in accuracy and ease of use.

Unlike Dragon's Pentium III­optimized Point & Speak, which simply won't install unless it detects a Pentium III processor, FreeSpeech 2000 works--albeit sluggishly--with older CPUs. The minimum system requirements are a Pentium MMX-166 CPU and 48MB of RAM.

Training my preproduction version of the software took 20 minutes, and initial accuracy was so-so. FreeSpeech goofed on lots of common words--for instance, interpreting "thank you" as "punch you" and "international" as "ginger national." But accuracy improved as I corrected flubbed words on the fly.

I also schooled the software in my Irish-accented Italian, and was impressed by how well it handled dictation in that language.

The software's command-and-control features helped me open programs and cruise around the desktop with impressive speed, but navigating within an application proved to be tiresome. For example, when I said "save document" in command mode, the program usually treated my order as dictation.

For editing text, I appreciated the new EasyEdit mode, which plays back dictation and provides a simple dialog box for entering corrections. But editing by typing remains less frustrating by a wide margin.

FreeSpeech 2000 ably handles basic tasks such as e-mail, short correspondence, and desktop navigation--especially if you work in several languages. But hang on to your mouse and keyboard for relatively complicated operations like formatting text and doing heavy editing.

Also, unless you really can't stand being tethered to a headset or are prepared to submit to plenty of additional training, don't bother spending the extra $60 for the version that comes with Philips's SpeechMike. This plastic, electric shaver­size device with a built-in trackball and microphone replaces both a mouse and a conventional mike. But the SpeechMike's initial accuracy was much inferior to that achieved by the basic package's headset.