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Sonnet G3 Card Correction

In the review of Sonnet’s G3 card for “non-upgradeable” Macs in issue 5.05 there is a mistake regarding Vimage’s card for the same models. The Vimage card comes with a heat sink (no fan) installed. It in no way interferes with the memory slot on a Mac. We have the card in our 6360 and it works just fine sans fan. It does have a cooling fan/heat sink which is to be installed instead of the stock sink if the card is to be installed in a clone with no pre-installed fan .

James Mills
raviduck@mindspring.com

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iCab: A Browser You Can Like

Just read your column about iCab, an alternate browser. <http://www.atpm.com/5.04/paradigm.shtml> I too am much encouraged.

“[…] I see it as a way I can vote for a standards-based Macintosh product, in the face of less-inspired loss leaders from the corporate giants.

“[…] Perhaps it is still possible for two guys in a garage to overthrow entrenched standards. At the very least, we now have evidence that speed and stability are not the only areas where Netscape and IE can improve.”

Yes it is possible (and it is not even in America <g>). If you have not yet come across it, and sadly there is not yet a version for the Mac, I draw your attention to <http://www.operasoft.com> whose browser Opera runs double lickety split on a Windows PC, downloads onto a mere 1.44 MB floppy, and they report it is now the standard browser in Norwegian school classrooms.

From the Opera Web pages:

    Currently Opera is for Windows, but more operating systems are on the way. We are 
    working on Linux/Solaris/Unix/X11, MacOS, Epoch32/Psion, BeOS, OS/2 and Amiga. 
    For more information about the progress on your operating system please see our 
    Project Magic

    . . .

    Many have questioned the Mac project in the light of iCab, and the progress this 
    browser is making. We are aware of the fact that our Mac project is very late 
    compared to other PM projects, but as you can see, since we switched to the current 
    team, considerable progress has been made, and more modules will be finalized 
    shortly. All in all, we still have to be patient, but the current status is very 
    encouraging nevertheless.

So all is not lost, even against the “lost leaders” :-) who, for example with MS-DOS and Win9X, are good at defining a standard, but not at setting one.

David Hills
dlh@radarsun.jpl.nasa.gov

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Mac Speech Recognition

I am having great difficulty getting information about speech recognition/dictation software for use on the iMac. A product being developed by Voice Power Pro has been identified but there appears to be some confusion as to whether it has finally been perfected for use on the iMac. One Stop Shop has told me that it is readily available in the UK, but trips to the sites that I was referred to have come up empty for one reason or another (e-mail sent back, etc).

A perusal of the Voice Power Pro site provides two conflicting messages: on the one hand, ready for release at the beginning of April, and on the other, not yet released. What I would appreciate is some idea of the current status of the software and ongoing updates. I write many clinical reports and would be greatly benefited by such a dictation software. I am impressed with what I have seen of Dragon’s Naturally Speaking software but I understand that it is only compatible with a PC (especially with Dell), and have been told that Dragon is not developing anything for use on the Mac.

Salvatore Guido
salvatoreguido@earthlink.net

Dragon Systems has just announced that development for the Macintosh version of Naturally Speaking is underway, for completion by the end of the year.

Apple offers a very limited speech recognition solution:

<http://www.apple.com/macos/speech/>.

However it is only aimed at limited voice control of your computer, not dictation.

VoicePower Pro is being developed for the iMac, but it will need a little more time (although their Website incorrectly states that the new version will be ready in March):

<http://www.voicepowerpro.com/>

MacSpeech is currently developing a speech recognition system for the Macintosh and they should be done in the near future:

<http://www.macspeech.com/>

Furthermore there are rumors that IBM is porting its solution to the Macintosh OS.

<http://www.software.ibm.com/speech/>

However right now these are just unconfirmed rumors. Hope that helps.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts about our publication. We always welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and praise at <editor@atpm.com>. Or, if you have an opinion or announcement about the Macintosh platform in general, that’s ok too.