Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Review

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(More customer reviews)Star Trek 25th Anniversary Signature Series

Made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the cult classic Star Trek, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary rings true to the original television series and pays it homage without being just another generic space adventure. In this game and its sequel Star Trek: Judgment Rites, Interplay Productions successfully recreates a world worthy to be in any Star Trek fan's fantasy by combining adventure elements with a starship simulation that does not skimp on inventive game play.

"Captain's Log, Stardate 6022.9. We are on route to the Sigma Zhukova system to engage in mock combat exercises with the U.S.S. Republic. Though the U.S.S. Enterprise's primary mission is peaceful exploration, the galaxy holds many surprises. All defensive systems will be set to minimum power and the ship's computer will simulate damage."

You are in charge of the Enterprise, the most famous ship in the history of Starfleet Command. It is up to you to right the intergalactic wrongs, protect the Federation, and boldly go where no man has gone before in a series of missions that test both your wit and command.

While this game is first published in 1992, it has stood the test of time as an example that other license based games should be. Instead of a game in which you simply rehash events that have been modified into a playable format, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary presents you with all new scenarios that run in the same vein as the original television series. Although the game graphics are clearly unspectacular by today's standard, they serve their purpose well. There is never any question about "what is going on" or "who is doing it". The graphics are cartoon like, but they do not detract from the atmosphere of the game. Since the characters are sprite based, they sometimes become blocky and choppy when walking toward or away from the screen. The different background scenes are drawn in good details, though generally they all are very static looking (lack of moving water in a stream).

The digitized voices are available only on the Enhanced CD-ROM version. Playing the CD-ROM version is playing out as an episode of Star Trek. All of the original cast's voices are captured, and the interaction is just as fast paced and humorous as it is ever. The Enhanced "cinematic multimedia" CD-ROM version also contains additional sound effects and background music as well as a special extended version of the "Vengeance" episode not available in the original Floppy Disk version. The voice cast includes William Shatner (James T Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr Leonard McCoy), James Doohan (Montgomery Scott), George Takei (Hikaru Sulu), Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), and Nichelle Nichols (Nyota Uhura). While there are a few glitches with the speech enhancement (the occasional character speaking with the wrong voice), the overall execution is nearly flawless. Even with a 2X CD-ROM drive there is no significant delay for the speech to load. The sound effects are also true to the original series. Unfortunately, the background music is unable to take advantage of high end wave table soundcards. Still, the enhanced version is a vast improvement over the original version, which only sparsely uses the PC speaker for the rare music and sound effects.

Publisher: Interplay

Year: 1996

Media: CD-Rom

Operating Systems: MS-DOS

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Success in Spanish with Speech Recognition; Record / Playback; School, Home, Business Travel Review

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(More customer reviews)All you'll need to succeed! In next to no time this amazing lanuage tutor will have you talking like a native! That's the key! Most foreign language courses just don't really help you nail pronunciation; this one does. It actually can take you from speaking Enlish only to being bi-lingual; and in only 12 realitively easy lessons!

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Viavoice Translator 1.0 Prog Pack Eng French Italian German Span Review

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(More customer reviews)I just installed the French translator from the software to my ipaq 3955, using a 128 MB Secure Ditital card on the back.
Installation was very smooth and easy.
The vocal translation quality is so good that the native Frenchwould have no problem understanding at all.Now you can easily communicate with the French who refuse to speak English.
The beauty of the software is that you can actually hear the words that you otherwise would be unsure of their pronunciations.
I cannot imagine a better way to sharpen your language skill than this, barring actually going to France for a long time.

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Product Description:
IBM ViaVoice Translator provides convenient text and text-to-speech (TTS) translation of words and phrases on selected Compaq iPAQ handheld computers. ViaVoice Translator is designed for both business and casual travelers, with a simple interface that enhances ease of use. The portable format is ideal for use in travel situations. With on-the-go translation in the palm of your hand, you can quickly and easily share your translation results with other people.
Through ViaVoice text-to-speech technology, ViaVoice Translator also provides audio translation results. You can hear your translated text as well as see it on your iPAQ screen.

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Tell Me More Spanish Premium Version 7 Review

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(More customer reviews)I primarily use what Auralog refers to as the "Dynamic mode." This is an adaptive method that actually does a pretty good job of gauging what you've grasped and on what you need to work with more.

This is highly configurable language learning software in that you can choose to isolate your program to Comprehension, Expression, Vocabulary, and Grammar or choose Complete, which gives you a mixed bag. You can also choose to have the instructions in English or go totally immersive and get the instructions in Spanish. You also may choose European Spanish or Latin American Spanish though the primary focus is European Spanish.

There is a built in dictionary, translator, grammar explainer and links to numerous on line sites although the Club Auralog site is sporadic.

Tell Me More is Flash based so you must have Flash installed on you system. But they used it well and I really do have fun using the program.

My experience with customer support located in Arizona has been excellent which is a relief since Auralog is a French company.

One note, if you are a rank beginner - don't know one word of Spanish - scared of foreign language type, you might be better served if you start out with all the pictures in Rosetta Stone. But if you have a bit of knowledge and are serious, Tell Me More is definitely the fun and interesting way to go. And ultimately well worth the investment.

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American Girls Premiere 2nd Edition: Create and Produce Your Own Plays Review

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(More customer reviews)The American Girls Premiere had bad graphics and was not very exciting.The voices to choose from for your play were unrealistic.A small child would be very frustrated with this game because some of the instructions areunclear.Older children would probably enjoy this game,though.

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Product Description:
Create your own plays with The American Girls Premiere CD-ROM. Everything you need to write, direct, and produce an entire play on your computer is included. Choose which American Girl will star. Set the scene with beautiful historical backdrops and props. Write the script with help from the story starters. Record the voices with your friends. Direct the action and finish your play with selected music and sound effects.

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Learn Italian Now! 9.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)You will NOT learn a foreign language by one of these programs.The vocab is way too limited, and neither the Version 8 series nor the Version 9 series addresses past or future tenses substantively.I have purchased six of these over the past couple of years, four Version 8 (German, Irish, Latin, Hebrew) the other two Version 9 (Spanish, Italian), and for some idiotic reason, the Version 8s are SUPERIOR to the upgrades.The Version 8s have more texts and thus more variety.LatinNow Version 8 is probably the best program I have seen from this company, good texts of various grade levels, plus you can fresh up on your Roman mythology!
These "tapes", and that is basically what they are, computerized language tapes, are only going to be useful if you plan on dedicating time for rote memorization of grammar and vocab outside of the program.These programs can be good to help supplement textbook study, as we need to hear the language and grammar for it to sink in.If you think any one of these programs in and of itself is going to make you fluent, you're very sadly mistaken.I would recommend finding them cheap and working on them while you eat breakfast, then spending 15+ minutes a day per language w/ grammar, vocab, writing (ie thinking w/in the language), out of a textbook.That way you can cover your bases, if you are the self-guided student looking to master a new language to get a head start on college credit or to learn it just for the heck of it.
Also, the Hebrew keyboard layout is atrocious and barely functional.I assume this might be a problem w/ all non-Latin/Germanic alphabets, like Chinese and Russian.This makes the games worthless--and the games are probably the best part of the program.

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Product Description:
Learn Italian Now! 9.0 Deluxe takes you from beginner to confidentspeaker in no time. Listening and speaking activities, grammar tools, andvocabulary games build a solid foundation, while real-life video content letsyou interact with native speakers. Learn Italian Now! also adds online featuresthat create an interesting and authentic atmosphere, making learning Italianfast, fun, and highly effective.
Learn Italian Now!'s four stimulating titles include: Fundamental Italian,Survival Phrases for Italian, Conversations in Italian, and Around Italy withGabriella and Piero. GrammarPro!, the software's comprehensive grammar tool,adds more than 10,000 words, extensive tutorials, and grammar quizzes to yourdesktop. Installed, GrammarPro! integrates seamlessly with all four LearnItalian Now! titles to provide detailed grammar analyses with just a click ofyour mouse.
Online features, fun interactive games, and conversations and phrases round outthis deluxe suite. Practice your pronunciation using the integrated speechfeatures, then record your voice and replay your conversation. Learn at your ownpace by deciding when you need translation. The software even includesGlobalWriter98 for Microsoft Windows users and a handy screen saver.GlobalWriter98 is a word-processing tool that helps you write in more than 100languages.

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Delaware St. John Collection Review

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(More customer reviews)I really love these games and will play them again and again and will be looking forward to any new Delaware St. John games.

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Product Description:
Delaware St. John is a young man with a gift for communicating with the dead. With the Delaware St. John collection, explore the rotting remains of a haunted hotel, an abandoned town with a secret past and an amusement park where an accident killed more than a hundred people.Communicate with the dead and use your brains so solve the clever puzzles to unwrap the mysteries to discover the secrets to Delaware's past.

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Men of War Review

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(More customer reviews)Men of War is the third in a series of poorly-named WW2 real-time tactics games, following Soldiers: Heroes of WW2 and Faces of War.I say "tactics" rather than "strategy" because this is more of a sub-genre of games where you don't manage bases or worry much about resources; rather, the focus is on in-depth tactics and keeping your men alive while killing the enemy.I played Soldiers (the first game in this series) and found there to be a number of problems that kept me from enjoying it, particularly the finicky control scheme, horrible user interface, and gruesome difficulty that was more frustrating than gratifying.This time around, however, Best Way has got it right.

The main difference between this game and other WW2 strategy games such as, say, Company of Heroes, is that this is is an organic battlefield; it doesn't feel static, but dynamic.Every one of your soldiers has their own inventory, can sneak, or can be placed under AI auto-movement in order to cut down on your micromanaging.The game has both massive clashes with hundreds of soldiers, tanks, artillery howitzers, and special ops units, and stealthy night-mission commando raids where you surgically cut into your opposition.

To illustrate, one of my favorite missions begins with you sneaking four Russian commandos around behind German lines, placing bombs on guns and sweeping minefields.There are more guns than can be destroyed, so you have to think ahead and decide which guns, whether machinegun nests, mortars, howitzers, or anti-tank cannons, must be destroyed for the battle that will follow when the sun rises.When you're ready, the next morning's battle begins as you charge infantry across trenches, battle with tanks, and perform precision bombing runs.The mission continues as you fight through mountains, mined roads, and finally a German base; and it's totally up to you the player how to accomplish your goal.

There are some very rough edges, but they can be forgiven when you realize how fun the game is.The voice acting is the worst I have ever heard in my life (with the exception of one voice actor out of around twenty), the difficulty is pretty rough at first (though you can slow down the action to about one-third speed, which helps in single player), and there are a few unit animations that are shoddy, but overall this game has become my most-played in the last year.I would recommend this to anyone who likes RTS games, and even to many who don't.

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Product Description:
Get ready for an intense, realistic war game that will have you on the edge of your seat. Men of War turns your PC into a war machine and takes you back to the height of World War II in Europe and North Africa with stunningly detailed graphics and authentic sound effects that will make you feel as though you were there. With hundreds of accurately reproduced tanks, guns, APCs and more -- all with sound effects recorded under actual operating conditions -- you'll take on the role of the Allied forces, Soviets, or German soldiers for an incredibly realistic interpretation of the war from three different perspectives.


Travel back to the height of World War II. View larger.

Reinterpret the war through three different perspectives. View larger.

Play with up to 15 others via LAN or Internet for exciting multiplayer action. View larger.

Realistic graphics will have you feeling like you were really there. View larger. Realistic Graphics and Gameplay Features
Men of War's cutting-edge graphics engine produces stunning visuals and accurate details of the WWII era that include highly detailed WWII environments, authentic war machines and guns, and incredible explosions. Other smaller details greatly increase the realism of war, including "war fog", breakable ice, visible damage to vehicles, glare effects, water reflections, adjustable camera angles and much more.
To make Men of War seem even more life-like, a host of features were added for improved combat. The damage system quantifies the brutality of various weapons for a more realistic result -- in other words, the bigger the gun, the greater the damage and explosion. Weapons and vehicles include: automatic rifles, machine guns, jet grenade launchers, jeeps, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, armored cars and many more -- all of which are modeled after the real thing.
Every soldier and vehicle has its own inventory of weapons, repair kits, and other items. You can swap your inventory between vehicles or soldiers, and you can even recover inventory from fallen comrades or the enemy.
Play as the Allied Forces, Germans, or Soviets
With three separate war campaign scenarios available, it's like having three separate games in one. You can play as either the Allied Forces, the Soviets, or the Germans for a totally different objective and strategy for each campaign.
The German campaign takes place between 1941 and 1943, and you take on the role of German soldier Gunther Borg. Your journey begins with an air drop on Crete which has been captured by enemy forces, and finally leading up to the large-scale attack by Allied Forces.
The Soviet campaign begins in 1941 near the Rostov area. Your main objective is to assemble troops to defend strategic targets and stop the Germans from reaching Moscow.
As the Allied Forces, you'll battle your way through Algeria and Tunisia in Operation Torch as you try to defeat the Germans in North Africa. The central character is Terry Palmer, a former anti-war journalist, who bravely fights on the front lines in enemy territory to try and defeat the resistance.
Online Multiplayer Battles
Play with up to 15 other people via LAN or Internet through various missions, including modes like "capture the flag" and "high-value cargo". In addition, the comprehensive ratings and stats system keeps track of your successes and failures, so that you can show-off your exceptional strategy and skills to become the best of the best.
Men of War takes you back to the height of World War II with authentic war machines, awesome gameplay features, and incredibly real graphics that let you battle your way through 19 massive single player missions and a slew of multiplayer combat missions that take you right into the heart of the battle.
System Requirements Minimum Recommended OS Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Vista Service Pack 1 Processor Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz or AMD Athlon 4400+ Memory XP: 1 GB RAM, Vista: 2 GB RAM 2 GB RAM DirectX Version 9.0c+ Video Card 128 MB gfx card (GeForce 5900/Radeon 9600 or better) 256 MB gfx card (GeForce 8600/Radeon 2600 or better) Media Required 6X DVD-ROM Drive

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Sub Command Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a hardcore sub-sim gamer, among other types of games. For hardcore sim gamers I rate this game 3 of 5. For casual gamers I rate this game 0 of 5, IF YOU ARE A "CASUAL GAMER" DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS GAME. I give this game an average of 3 only because of a very hard learning curve and a manual that is in .pdf from and too large to bother printing.
Graphics: Excellent for a sub sim.
Realism: Too real (a bit too much micro-management, sonar contacts sometimes a bit too ambiguous, too many available russian weapons).
Sound: Excellent, but needs a few more controls for volume of individual types of sounds, incoming sonar and contact engine noise for instance.
Voice acting: Excellent. Does not get tiresome quickly.
Mission breifing: Excellent.
Gameplay: Good. Difficult (this is a good thing for hardcore gamers), could use better "Auto-crew" AI, especially in the sonar department. No difficulty levels except a half dozen options for "auto-crew" and fast reload times (also reinforces the "too real" concept).
The very hard learning curve means THIS GAME IS NOT FOR CASUAL GAMERS, regardless of the developer's claims. It took me about 25 hours of play just to get familiar with all the necessary controls and procedures. During this time, I was sunk once by another ship, and heavily damaged a dozen times due to running into icebergs or the surface ice pack. Don't get me wrong, this is an excellent sim. It's just that they could've made it a little easier to play. The three short tutorial missions do not cover nearly enough procedures for normal "auto-crew" gameplay. You WILL have to read the manual included as .pdf file on disk, or you WILL give up and put this game away forever. It is a big help to be familiar with the details of real submarine procedures (as I was) before playing this game. This game will allow you to switch between stations and give orders while the time is paused! This is very handy, especially for beginners. There are more contacts than just military, and not all military contacts are your enemy or target. This is a refreshing change from the sub-sims I have played in the past, where you knew if you found a contact you could immediatly fire opon it.
My main gripes about this game are:
1. MAIN GRIPE: The "auto-crew" at the sonar station: Is too slow, and often designates (many) multiple trackers for the same contact. Some contacts are called out once and never again for a long time, and these do not appear on the "nav" view or the weapon control view, therefore you cannot fire at these contacts. It also will sometimes re-assign an incorrect designation (ship or sub class) for one already correctly assigned by me with 100% confidence. I have seen a ship re-designated as an enemy torpedo! This would be okay if the ship did launch a torpedo, and the torpedo tracking continued, but this was not the case. The ship continued to be designated as a torpedo without another contact being reported. Running the Akula (russian) sonar is too tough to do yourself, and turning off the sonar "auto-crew" can be a fatal mistake for any sub, you need the station manned at ALL times. After about fifteeen minutes of good contact, many contacts are not yet designated (type) by the sonar "auto-crew". When I interceeded it was easy to find the designation of these contacts. Why didn't the sonar "auto-crew" designate these (NOT EVEN SURFACE/AIR/SUBMERGED type)??? By the time the sonar "auto-crew" designates a contact, surely they will have pinpointed you (if enemy).
2. Some single Player Campaign missions are unbelievably hard. I cannot believe ANYONE who did not cheat could win the "Escort NATO SAG" mission (Seawolf) without knowing ahead of time where the enemy was!
3. Air contact are not designated as such by the radar "auto-crew". I did the medivac mission and the helocopter which I was expecting was never designated as an air contact, even with my radar on! What would happen if I was surfaced and an unknown aircraft was approaching?!!!
4. When the fire control "auto-crew" is on, I cannot fine-tune the torpedo and missle presets. When I turn the "auto-crew" off at this station, the torpedo just fires in the exact CURRENT bearing of the target (or possibly just straight ahead), and if the control wire breaks when fired, it will miss. This happens even when you turn on the fire control "auto-crew" when designating a target, and then turn it off before actually firing the weapon (this is my usual tactic). Once the weapon is fired, you cannot adjust the running depth, activation point distance, "ceiling", "floor" (max. depth allowed), and type of detection (active/passive). These are called "presets". Also I cannot find a firing direction preset to adjust for the torpedo or missile, even with the fire control "auto-crew" off.
5. There is no "auto-crew" for the passive radar contact designation, i.e. contacts can be designated (identified) with 100% confidence by passive radar, and you have to do this yourself manually (and thus too much micro-management).
6. The game is too buggy!Was apparently released before it was sufficiently debugged. Version 1.01 (patch) is still way too buggy, and EA says they are ending bug fixing this month (Dec.'01)!
7. No printable documentation of the default "hotkeys", even though their use is not necessary (except for the P for Pause).
Hardcore sub-sim gamers should be delighted with this game if they can endure the very long steep learning curve.

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Product Description:
Take charge of the most deadly modern-day submarines in the world in Sub Command. Command three distinct submarines across two unique and challenging campaigns. Utilize cutting-edge technology to navigate the world's oceans to locate, track, and destroy enemy convoys. Or park your sub off hostile shores to deliver Tomahawk missiles to inland targets. Whether diving, scouring, or surfacing, you'll control the smartest, stealthiest, and most feared subs in the water today.
From the makers of 688(I): Hunter/Killer, Sub Command is one of the most realistic submarine simulations ever. Take control of the most technologically advanced submarines in the world--the Seawolf, the 688(I), and the Akula. Each sub contains authentic naval systems such as sonar, radar, and target motion analysis. Test your skills in missions straight from the headlines as you fire Tomahawk missiles at enemy structures, rescue crippled subs, rise through the polar caps to communicate vital information, and much more.
Multiplayer mode extends the action by giving the option of playing cooperatively or head-to-head over the Internet on EA.com's matchmaking system for endless hours of submarine warfare. With the game's new, easy-to-use interface, controlling a submarine has never been easier for the advanced or casual gamer. With enhanced sound and 3-D graphics engines, you can experience more than 250 3-D objects, from Russian trawlers to France's Mirage fighters, and the exacting sound modes will pull you into a realistic battle experience like no other. You won't just hear depth charges, you'll feel them.

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Power Loc Technologies Destinator USA & Canada Review

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(More customer reviews)The maps and rout planning are superb!

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Product Description:
Destinator USA & Canada provides you with a quick way to find precise direction to anywhere in North America!

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Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)I had to start version 9 without the user files from version 7.Even without the user files version 9 more quickly adapts to my needs.I can dictate faster and there are fewer mistakes.This reduces the time it requires for me to write a letter or produce a document.For these reasons I'm quite satisfied with the purchase.

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Product Description:
Item #: 97802C. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred gives small business users and PC enthusiasts the power to create documents, reports, e-mails and more - all by speaking! Fast, easy and amazingly accurate, it's over three times faster than typing. Just use your voice to dictate and edit in Microsoft Word and Excel, Corel WordPerfect, and virtually all Windows -based applications. You can even dictate into a handheld device when you're away from your PC, or use a Bluetooth microphone! It's never been easier to use - no script reading required, so you can get started right away!
Product Description
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred - ( v. 9 ) - version upgrade package
Category: Office applications
Subcategory: Office applications - voice recognition
Version: 9
License Type: Version upgrade package
License Qty: 1 user
License Pricing: OEM
Language(s): English
Localization: United States
Platform: Windows
Distribution Media: CD-ROM
Package Type: Retail
OS Required: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP1 or later, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP1 or later, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 or later
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Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 9 Upgrade from Medical Review

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(More customer reviews)I am dictating this description using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.5 medical edition under windows Vista.The voice recognition for advanced medical terminology is generally outstanding: For example: "Angiofibroplastic hyperplasia," "bone morphogenic proteins," "bipolar hip arthroplasty," "percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty."Most of the trouble comes with simple words such as homonyms: "C.", "See" and "sea".I have used this product on my office computer, a Dell desktop with 500 MB of RAM and two GHz single core CPU running windows XP,and the performance was intolerable until the RAM was upgraded to 2 GB. You have the ability to adjust the trade-off between speed and accuracy. For medical applications, accuracy is of paramount importance and setting the program for maximum accuracy slows it down considerably.

For those of you upgrading from previous versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the version 9.5 medical upgrade allows you to upgrade from versions 7 or 8 "medical" or "professional", but not medical versions prior to version 7 nor the "standard" or "preferred" editions of any previous version. Warning: For the version 9.5 medical upgrade to install over version 7, version 7 must be physically installed on your hard drive.The install program will not recognize the version 7 medical CD inserted into your CD drive as a qualified upgrade product.It will, however, recognize the version 8 medical CD as a qualified upgrade product.

Overall, this is an excellent product, but not as good as a medical transcriptionist.You still have to do a fair amount of correction to your dictation, which takes a substantial amount of time.For me, it is still faster than typing.For those of you who can type well, this product may be less attractive. The voice recognition is far superior to the native windows Vista voice recognition program.

Addendum: After further evaluation, I have to downgrade the rating of this product to 2.5 stars. The amount of correction required (<1-2%) seems low, but is enough to nullify any gain in productivity. What this product does is still amazing, but it can't do it as well as a good transcriptionist. In a litiginous world where you are held accountable for your notes and you don't have time to review everything, this is an important consideration.

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Product Description:
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 9 enables healthcare professionals to complete clinical notes instantly and at a fraction of the cost of manual transcription. Each physician that uses Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 9 can save tens of thousands of dollars per year! Its never been faster or easier to use, and its amazingly accurate - up to 30% more accurate than the prior release. Use with any Microsoft Office application, or any Windows based Electronic Medical Records solution. Packaged with 14 pre-configured medical specialty vocabularies, and allows you to create other custom vocabularies to maximize recognition accuracy. Includes tools for network deployments, such as support for Citrix thin clients. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 9 means lower costs and better patient care!

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iListen (Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)When the time came to write this review, I unfortunately came down with a case of laryngitis and therefore found the review quite a bit more challenging! I then worked on trying to get the program to deal with my hoarse voice... but iListen came through pretty well, and I wrote this review with very little use of the keyboard.

IListen is, quite simply, a powerful, comprehensive voice recognition and command system for the Macintosh. It uses a system of recognizing sounds and putting them into context to create words or commands on your Mac (horrific oversimplification). I have played around with systems like this in the past, and I'll admit that I have been less than impressed with the results. The voice recognition system that comes with OS 9 and 10 certainly didn't hold up to hard use (and doesn't have a dictation mode, anyway) and my interest in a robust system is more than a passing interest, in that my work requires me to dictate large quantities of text at very high rate of speed. Accuracy and ability to easily correct my errors are also paramount to me, and so it was with great interest that I loaded up iListen and set about trying to use it for simple home applications.

Set up of the program was very easy, and with a little bit of messing around with system preferences I got the program fully working. There is a somewhat lengthy initial period of training the program to recognize your voice, which consists of reading chunks of text into this system so that it can learn your particular style of speech. Interestingly enough, the program is also capable of assimilating text documents you have already made to try and learn your style of writing.The more time and effort you put into the training period (both initially and along the way, any time you like), the better the program does with your speech.IListen has several modes of function, including a dictation mode, a spelling mode, and a command mode. There is a great deal of customizability to the system, and you can certainly add extra words, your own macros, and your own phonetics. The program is engineered to recognize natural, full-speed speech:no awkward pauses or exaggerations - you just talk, fast as you like, in your normal speaking style.You can use iListen to dictate documents in virtually any program, and you can even just use the program to command your Mac in a hands-free manner. There is quite a bit of learning involved in getting all of the available commands down, but the program is surprisingly flexible, and I'm confident that with frequent use it will continue to just get better and better at its job.

Ideally, I would love to challenge this program by taking it to my office, seeing an entire schedule of patients, and then dictating all my encounters for that day into the program at my regular full-bore speed, just to see how well it handles my mumbling, my medical jargon, and my particular and at times unconventional syntax. Unfortunately, there are some privacy laws that are going to get in the way of that experiment, but in the future I certainly could see myself getting a hand-held Dictaphone and plugging it into a computer at the end of the day, correcting my dictations, and then printing them so that they can go back into the chart that day! (And for quite a bit less than the cost of transcription, the fees for which are sizable.)After some initial growing pains, I must say that I have been impressed with the results this program can produce. Even with a fairly rudimentary training period, the accuracy of the program is reasonably good, even now as I sit here and dictate this review, recovering from laryngitis.

Overall, I found the program to be quite flexible and customizable, and greatly capable of learning from its mistakes. Its initial recognition rate is quite good, and the percentage improves with more time and effort put into training the program. And mentally, the "widget factor" is quite substantial, but in all seriousness the implications of programs like this are potentially important in fields that involve dictation and voice commands. Obviously people who can't use their hands and fingers have had use for programs like this for quite some time, and those possibilities are exciting as well.

Initially, I thought I had found the program to be buggy in getting correction mode going properly, but found that I simply had not set the System preferences properly (as the instructions had stated), and after setting the universal access preferences properly, I had no further significant problems in using this program. I tested the program on a high end G5 Macintosh with plenty of physical RAM, and I found performance to be excellent; I'm not sure how iListen would fare on a slower system, but I've seen user reports on the net that indicate that its performance is satisfactory on G3 PowerBooks.

Although I have not used any competing products (e.g., Via Voice), I rate this program highly and would recommend that anyone with an interest in putting voice recognition to work for them give iListen a try.One caveat, though: iListen requires a quality microphone (preferably a headset) to function optimally; I bought a Telex H-851 microphone use for this review, and I've found its performance to be very good with iListen.The MacSpeech website lists compatible microphone hardware, and as of the time of this review, the iSight is not among the compatible devices listed (I think its microphone is not directional enough to work well with iListen).

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Product Description:
The top selling speech solution for Mac OS X let you dictate into practically any application on Mac OS X. You can dictate, command and transcribe - all in one easy to use package. It's so easy to use - simply talk!.

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Prody Parrot: Verison 2.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)If ever they bring this amazing product back, buy it, just not from this vendor since they send the manual and the CDROM but I can't get past the setup screen because they didn't send the serial key to install the package. I've been deceived.

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Product Description:
The ingenious Prody Parrot 2.0 talks and interacts with users, taking the form of an animated parrot on the desktop that serves as an Intelligent Assistant for the PC. Users can ask Prody to navigate PC programs, monitor favorite stocks, notify them when e-mail has arrived, browse the Web by voice and play games as well. The versatile Prody can even call friends and associates over the Internet using its built-in Internet telephone. Prody Parrot also has the power to act autonomously on the user's behalf, taking messages, issuing meeting reminders, warning of unexpected events on the stock market, and reporting new events or weather. The useful and highly practical Prody Parrot not only assists users with their daily business activities, but also entertains them with games, jokes, and songs. When users need a break from long, tedious assignments, Prody is well-prepared to discuss movies or play games. Users can also ask him to quiz them on any of several topics, including state and country capitals, fine art, classical music, or U.S. Presidents. Prody can even take users to see Dr. Sbaitso, a talking psychiatrist, for a private and enjoyable chat room-style session designed to help them work through their problems and concerns. Should users grow tired of interacting with Prody Parrot, they can simply tell him to be quiet or take a break, and he'll immediately fall silent. Prody Parrot 2.0 works on any Pentium-166MHz or higher PC with Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0. It requires at least 32MB of RAM for Windows 95/98, 32MB of RAM for Windows NT, 65MB of free hard disk space, and works with any full duplex multimedia audio hardware (Creative Labs' SoundBlasterTM Live! Audio is recommended).

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ViaVoice 98 Medical Vocabulary Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This product is a MUST for anyone in the medical profession who is responsible for writing any document associated with their work!!The terms used in our profession are truly unique.Most, if not all, voice recognition devices are not programed with our technical, complex terminology.Much easier than "teaching" a traditional software program and much cheaper than hiring a personal assistant.Great for the professional who "burns the midnight oil"...and there are a lot of us.Make your work life much more enjoyable...we LOVE to practice medicine, but hate the paperwork!This software "eases the pain like a couple of aspirin".

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Product Description:
The extensive vocabulary of this add-on allows users to dictate a patient's history; patient symptoms and complaints; general examination findings; radiology, pathology, and laboratory test results; course of action taken; and details of follow-up therapy.
If your practice has an existing patient management software program, you can dictate your reports with ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary and export the information directly into your current software system. Also use ViaVoice Medical Vocabulary to dictate and print form letters.
You can design forms and templates to customize letters to patients, letters to insurance companies, follow-up therapy forms, report templates, and referral letters. Dictate patient information into predefined templates, and you're ready to print a letter, fax a prescription to a pharmacist, or electronically transmit a patient's report to a referring physician.

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Final Draft 7 Professional Scriptwriting Review

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(More customer reviews)I have never written a review of anything in my life.When Final Draft 7 crashed for the umpteenth time today, I felt compelled to.I am a working screenwriter who has been using Final Draft since version 5.All told, six years.Whatever bug that caused FD6 to randomly crash in OSX HAS NOT been fixed, despite what Final Draft says.At least in Final Draft 7 the crash doesn't render my file "incompatable with this version of Final Draft" -- if any of you out there have had that happen, I deeply pity you, as you understand what it's like to be that maze-bound rat that randomly receives electric shocks.

Throw in the fact that this product is edging toward $250.00 (nearly as much as digital video editing programs), the fact that customer support costs $2.00 a minute -- you heard me right, $2.00 a minute to ask them ANYTHING, no matter how small -- and you get a clear impression of a company that peddles severely inferior software becuase they know they have the market locked.This is, however, NOT THE CASE.25% of people that use screenwriting apps DO NOT USE FINAL DRAFT, becuase there are vastly superior programs out there.As of today, I am a proud member of the 25%.

Thanks to easy .pdf file conversion, anyone can use any screenwriting app they like.

Those that for some reason do decide to purchase this product, I implore you to change your preferences so you auto-save every five minutes, as this is the only way you won't lose a day's work, a week's work -- or God forbid, if don't back up your files -- an entire script.

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Product Description:
Item #: N66902. Final Draft, the number-one selling word processor specifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodes and stage plays, combines powerful word processing with professional script formatting in one self-contained, easy-to-use package. There is no need to learn about script formatting rules - Final Draft automatically paginates and formats your script to industry standards as you write. Use your creative energy to focus on the content; let Final Draft take care of the style. Product Description: Final Draft ( v. 7.0 ) - complete package
Category: Office applications
Subcategory: Office applications - word processor
Version: 7.0
License Type: Complete package
License Qty: 1 user
License Pricing: Standard
Platform: Windows, MacOS
Distribution Media: CD-ROM
Package Type: Retail
OS Required: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows XP, Apple MacOS X 10.1 or later, Apple MacOS 9.2 or later
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Star Trek: Bridge Commander Review

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(More customer reviews)`Star Trek' is one of the largest syndicated franchises in history. With 5 series, nine movies, millions of fans and billions of dollars worth of merchandise, this show is practically immortal: it's not going to cease production for a very long time. Though `Star Trek' hit television by storm, this wasn't the case with computers. Despite more than 10 `Trek' games, none of them truly captured the essence of the show. Also, the combat was mainly comprised of fighter-type vessels: not `Star Trek' at all.
Suddenly, though, in late 1999, the acclaimed PC-game developer Larry Holland and his company `Totally Games' began a project that would ultimately result in not only the best Star Trek game ever, but also the best game period.
Since I have been following this game for nearly 3 years, you can bet I had extremely high expectations, but when I loaded up the game I was so impressed and awed that my next 8 hours were devoted solely to experiencing the magic that `Bridge Commander' is brimming with. With a 700-page storyline written by the famous writer Dorothy Fontana, awesome graphics, wonderful sounds and music, over 15 ships, 6 races, amazingly authentic bridges, a new race and hundreds of other fantastic features, `Bridge Commander' is the most immersing and dazzling game I have ever played. This piece of heaven went way beyond my expectations!
Words can't do justice what both Trekkies, and non-Trekkies feel like as they watch their ship, the USS Dauntless, glide smoothly out of drydock in the first mission! You have your own crew who you can talk to and get to even meet Picard and Data! Almost everything in `Bridge Commander' was taken out from the Paramount archives so you can bet that this game is as authentic as it will ever get! Voice control is optional, as is the ability to construct your very own ships from the SDK which will be released soon!
One sentiment that truly describes this masterpiece is: WOW! If you haven't bought `Bridge Commander' yet, download the demo to see if you like it and if you do, run down to your local pc-gaming store and purchase...ecstasy! I'm an avid gamer and have over 50 pc games: `Unreal', `Wolfenstein', `The Sims', `Medal of Honour: Allied Assault' and tons of others but `Bridge Commander' beats them all by a mile! I simply can't say enough about this game!

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Product Description:
This software is BRAND NEW. Packaging may differ slightly from the stock photo above. Please click on our logo above to see over 15,000 titles in stock.

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