IBM ViaVoice 10 Pro USB

One of the best new features allows you to adjust the sensitivity of a microphone to make working in the office environment more feasible. Unfortunately, you still have to talk into empty space, allowing all your colleagues a rather too intimate insight into your communications. Plus, you still feel stupid gabbling at the screen.

This is where another first for this version comes in. As you already could with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, ViaVoice Pro (not the Standard version) now allows you to transcribe dictation from several digital dictaphones. This means you're no longer tethered to the screen while you craft your words, and travelling executives can send files back to support staff for transcription. Inevitably, there's some loss of accuracy as the data crosses between dictaphone and PC, but with a little care in remembering the recording is destined for voice-recognition software the output is still useful.

The Pro edition also features direct dictation into popular Windows apps, customisable navigation macros and advanced control over Internet Explorer, but the Standard edition still supports direct dictation into Microsoft Word, which is all many people will need it for. And despite its £25 price, it includes stereo headphones too, albeit without a USB adaptor. You can also buy ViaVoice Pro 10 as an upgrade for £33, but this doesn't include a headset.

Sadly, ViaVoice Pro 10 USB isn't the breakthrough we'd hoped for. If you're determined, you can make it work, but that was true for all the previous versions too.

Author: Stewart Mitchell