There are recent or planned upgrades for three of the main software packages offered at the DCP. We plan to have them available for our Lab and laptops by the end of the Fall Quarter. Once we have done our own testing, we will be happy to help individuals on campus with training or questions about purchase and installation.
Dragon
Nuance has released Version 10 of the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software for speech recognition. New features include faster processing of dictated text, better recognition of regional accents, and support for the Firefox Web browser. New commands use simple phrases to search quickly for items on popular sites, including Wikipedia, Youtube and eBay. For more details, read the What’s New in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 and Dragon Product Comparison Matrix.
Dragon 10 is now installed in the DCP Lab and is being added to our laptops.
Kurzweil 3000
Kurzweil 3000 Version 11 is now out. New features concentrate on writing assistance, with tools for brainstorming, organizing and preparing final documents. There is also a new Web-based license management system. A series of videos demonstrates the changes:
New Features in Kurzweil 3000 for Windows Version 11.
We are in the process of coordinating orders for the campus.
JAWS
Version 10 of the JAWS screen reader for blind users is in a public beta. The final version is scheduled for release in early November. Improvements include support for Internet Explorer 8, automatic detection of edit fields on Web pages, and a subscription service allowing users to connect two computers running JAWS (for example, to facilitate troubleshooting). For all the details, please read What’s New in JAWS 10 .
We have tested it and will add it to our Lab workstations in our next round of upgrades.
