There are actually two things that I wanted to test out for this post. The first one is a Logitech ClearChat Pro USB Headset that I found on Deals.Woot.com for only 10 bucks. It was just delivered to my porch about 20 minutes ago. The second is the Voicepress.it plugin for WordPress which was just released not too long ago.
So far the Logitech headset works pretty good, it just doesn’t fit my head very well. I guess because my head is long and skinny and because I just shaved my head so I have no hair to fill in the gaps. 😀 The headphones are nice & big and cover my entire ear and the microphone seems to work pretty well too. I’ve only just opened them but I like them so far.
As for the VoicePress.it plugin, I’m still thinking about how I feel about it. This entire post was dictated using the plugin but you don’t get to see all of the errors that the plugin created because I cleaned them up by hand. I’ve used Dragon Dictate for the iPhone and for the PC and I’ve also used Macspeech Dictate for the Mac, so I’m not in unfamiliar territory when it comes to dictation software.
There are a couple things that this plugin need to fix. One of the most annoying things for me so far is that if you stop talking for what seems like just two seconds, it stops recording and you have to hit the button again to finish up your sentence. I would much rather there be a button to tell it to stop so that you have more time to think about what you’re going to say. Also, for some reason VoicePress.it doesn’t seem to work in the HTML section of the WordPress editor and only in the Visual editor.
As far as word recognition goes, I think the plugin is good, considering that it’s free right now. Just like with most most of these types of software you still have to speak a little slowly and very clearly for it to dictate properly.
I’ve recorded the next paragraph so you can see how it works and how you need to speak to it for it to dictate properly. You’ll noticed that VoicePress.it dictates very well, but also note that I had the final paragraph written down before recording it so that it wouldn’t shut off on me in case I stopped talking.
I’m happy with the Logitech headset, even though I’ve only used it for about 15 minutes so far, but I will update this post if I notice anything about it I don’t like.
As for the VoicePress.it WordPress plugin, I like where its heading but I probably won’t be using it much to dictate my posts since I can type around 40 words per minute anyway, without having to edit much. If you can’t type fast enough though, or just hate typing, this plugin is perfect for you. It’s also kind of a bummer that the plugin only works when editing WordPress in Google Chrome right now, but compatibility with other browsers is in the works.
This isn’t my final test for the plugin though, I’ll keep using it for a while to give it a proper test. I do have to admit that the plugin is working increasingly better as I’m reaching the end of this post and as I’m becoming more familiar with how the plugin works. I don’t have to talk as silly as I did in the video at least. 😉
I also have a beta invite key so that you don’t have to wait to get accepted. Visit the Voicepress.it site, enter your email and use the key: VP-WWW-AIMLESSDIRECTION