iListen, developed by MacSpeech, is a speech recognition program for the Apple Macintosh. As of 2006, iListen is currently the only program that allows inputing text using one's voice that works on newer Macintosh models. Its only competitor is Nuance/IBM's ViaVoice.

Supported Microphones

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To work properly iListen requires a microphone that produces the right kind of audio signal. MacSpeech says they test a variety of microphones, which they certify for use with iListen.

Mac OS X Core Audio is very picky when it comes to audio input. Many of the microphones that work well for applications like VoIP and Internet Chat will not work well with speech recognition because they do not provide enough signal strength (also called "gain"). MacSpeech notes on its web site that Apple's iSight is not supported because it does not have the noise-canceling properties that are crucial to a successful experience with speech recognition. MacSpeech has a list of supported microphones on their web site.

It should be noted that iListen cannot use a microphone connected directly to a Macintosh's LINE IN port because that port requires a higher signal strength than microphones provide (without external amplification). For this reason, MacSpeech recommends the use of either a supported USB microphone, or a supported microphone using a USB adapter.

System Requirements

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Processor: a G4 or better (including Intel-based Macs); a fast G4 or G5 is strongly recommended for better performance.

USB port (for connecting the microphone)

Mac OS X version 10.1.5 or higher. Mac OS X version 10.3 or greater is strongly recommended. iListen will run on 10.2.x ("Jaguar"), 10.3.x ("Panther") and 10.4.x ("Tiger")

MacSpeech no longer supports iListen for Mac OS 9.

Memory: 512 MB. More than 512 MB of memory is strongly recommended for best performance.

External links

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• MacSpeech company website

Review on Amazon Review by Charles Moore on AppleLinks

IListen