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User Name stormjenkins--2008
Member Since 2004-11-05
Total number of Feedback Posts: 10
Total number of comments: 1
Last 10 Feedback Posts by stormjenkins--2008 [ Search for All ]
MacSpeech Dictate 1.3 (Mac OS X)
Excellent application & wireless mic 
I have been very surprised by some of the malicious feedback and reviews of MacSpeech Dictate that I have seen on some sites. I bought the application the first day it was available and then the Revolabs xTag microphone shortly thereafter. Most of the negative comments I have read about Dictate complain that it is not as good as its Windows counterpart. Having never been reduced to using a WIndows computer for anything more than a paperweight or doorstop, I don't really care about the Windows counterpart. Though this first version does not have all the features I would like, those that it does have are well implemented and I can't see how the setup could have been any easier. The transcriptions are surprisingly accurate and its ability to address word contexts is remarkable. I bought it because I have nerve damage in my right arm and typing has become very painful. I do a tremendous amount of writing and this problem was presenting me with serious potential consequences for my career. Dictate has totally solved this problem. Not only am I again able to write until I drop, freeing me from so much typing has helped my arm to heal and I am in much less pain. The software works with all applications seamlessly and delivers on every promise the company has made. The xTag wireless microphone that MacSpeech sells as part of one of the packages, is great. I have never run the battery down while using it and it also has an earbud port, allowing me to use it for voip telephone calls, as well as Skype. If you need an application to do speech recognition, you can count on Dictate to deliver on everything the company says it will do. Don't miss this opportunity to enjoy the benefits of reliable speech recognition by buying into what the critics are complaining about. MacSpeech will certainly continue to add new features and I look forward to them, yet in the meantime I am very happy with what it does do and I would not go back to working without Dictate if they paid me ten times what I paid for it. This was one of the best Mac products I have ever bought. Unlike a lot of gadgets, which I love to buy, you'll keep on using this one, even after the novelty wears off. Storm Jenkins [alert admin]
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Sunday, April 05 2009 @ 01:32 AM PDT
HistoryHound 1.9.2 (Mac OS X)
Yes the indexing could be more customizable. Aside from that it seems that the simplest applications are often the most useful. I have thousands of web sites bookmarked and until this app, I had no way of finding anything without tons of guesswork and a lot of wasted time. History Hound is one terrific piece of software and the price was certainly reasonable. It is definitely one of the first applications that I'll reinstall every time I reformat a drive. Aside from paying for it, this is one of those applications where you should email the author and simply say "Thanks!" [alert admin]
Sunday, January 13 2008 @ 06:06 PM PST
Remote Buddy 1.0RC1r2 (Mac OS X)
When one of my Macs arrived with a remote, I downloaded several trial versions of different utilities to find ways to use it and wasn't impressed and gave up. I then heard a MacCast podcast with the guy from HDTV podcast, who raved about remote buddy and explained some of the things I could do, so I bought the full version and put some time in to play with it. WOW. The amazing thing about Remote Buddy is that is finds all kinds of files and offers them up so elegantly that I put all my other solutions in a drawer and now use Remote Buddy for everything. I use EyeTV, as I have a Mac Mini and a 20" monitor as my television in my bedroom. I even hardwired a USB touchpad across the room and onto my bedside table so that I could shut down the computer when I was ready to hit the sack. Remote buddy makes watching all my video content and running my X10 automated house so easy! Remote Buddy is now on my ten best list. Buy it. Play with it! Only suggestion is that they hurry up and get a PDF manual to download and print out. [alert admin]
Monday, February 12 2007 @ 11:56 AM PST
TiVoDecode Manager 2.0 (Mac OS X)
I've downloaded each release of this program only to constantly think they were close but just not there yet. This version 2.0 has now really delivered. I was able to do some cumbersome workarounds to get my Tivo files viewable, but the quality was bad and the effort was way too much. I tried version 2.0 of this program today and was amazed at how clean the functionality is and how amazing the video quality was of the converted file. I generally use EyeTV but there are times I want to record and save two programs being broadcast at the same time and end up using Tivo for one of them. TivoDecode Manager is a winner of a program. It is an embarassment to Tivo that they didn't provide such a program to all of us long ago. You can rely on this application to be simple to use and provide you excellent quality files. JOB WELL DONE! [alert admin]
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Monday, January 01 2007 @ 06:18 PM PST
PhoneValet 4.0.3 (Mac OS X)
This is one of the first pieces of software I immediately reinstall after I buy a new computer or reformat my drive. I don't think it has ever crashed on me. I installed a Nortel phone system in my office. It's the best office telephone system on the market, yet compared to what you can do with it, PhoneValet, kicks butt. I am rather technically adept and am always an early adopter of new technologies, but I haven't been able to get my Nortel's features figured out or stable. I am about ready to rip it out and set my whole system up on PhoneValet, which I have been using in my home office for years. PhoneValet is so easy to setup and use, yet it's features are among the best documented of any software/hardware combos I have owned. It's so much better than any telcom services or any major phone system. You can't go wrong with it. [alert admin]
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Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 01:07 AM PDT
iRed 1.8 (Mac OS X)
So cool, reliable, easy and powerful
If you love gadgets, toys and home automation, this app, along with the tranceiver, is amazingly useful and fun. I have it set up so that I can email my home and turn my air conditioner on, among other things. I do wish they had good integration with the Palm operating system. With iRed, EyeTV, Indigo, Automator, iListen, iTunes and Phone Valet my entire home it totally interactive. Another great aspect of iRed is that it is so easy to use. You can either create an awesome single remote pane, or you can use the more advanced features and create a level of interactivity with your home that you'd think you were in a Star Trek movie. The documentation is just html files and don't really grab your attention. [alert admin]
Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 12:53 AM PDT
MacForensicsLab 1.5 (Mac OS X)
For more than just forensics professionals
I can't count the times I have had a disk problem that stumped everything, and I'd say to myself that I bet the government could recover every darn bit on this disk. I have gone so far as to research what they do that makes them successful. I bumped into some information about MacForensicsLab. It gives a whole new definition to the term file recovery. There are some great consumer programs, like FileSalvage, DriveGenius and DataRescue. I use each of them. Right now I am working on the hardest disk recovery challenge ever and so far MacForensicsLab goes where no man has gone before. Is is so thorough that is takes days to run certain features. That is only becauase it is amazingly thorough. If you have serious file recovery challenges, don't forget to give this a try. That is just one of the many unusual things it does. I'll report back when the recovery is completed, but so far the indicators are all very good. [alert admin]
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Monday, August 28 2006 @ 01:47 AM PDT
Data Rescue II 1.1 (Mac OS X)
Data Rescue Cloning Feature WORKS
We all know that when a drive goes down, you end up running every utility you've got to recover the directory first, then the data. I seem particularly cursed with directory failures on my LaCie 1tb drives. I think it is because they are really RAIDs with four 250gig drives in each of them. I deal with directory problems all the time, as I have 17 Firewire drives on my main system. The one absolute constant thing I do and recommend as a first step is to use the CLONE feature in DataRescue. Very often, if I clone a drive then run a directory rebuild utility on the new drive to which I have made the copy, it works. For some reason, only Data Rescue will do this properly. I have tried CopyCatX, Retrospect, SuperDuper, Carbon Copy Cloner and a couple of others and they never will effectively clone a drive with damaged directory. DataRescue has worked every time I have tried this. Disk recovery is a bit of an artform, and DataRescue and Drive Genius are the two programs I always start with. SImply cloning a drive with it's cloning utility is often all that you need to do to get your data back fully intact. As for tech support, I have never dealt with any software publisher that is more helpful. Their guru has called me from his home on weekends to walk me through solutions. [alert admin]
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Wednesday, July 05 2006 @ 01:21 PM PDT
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Simple and reliable but overpriced 
I have a JVC MC500 digital camera that uses CF cards. I tried several other applications to convert the video files. This is the only one that worked and it's really cool that it outputs an iMovie file ready to go. If it was a $10 piece of software or at least had some more features it would be a fair price. Bottom line is if you are willing to pay $40 to convert the files easily and reliably, then go for it. The ease of use will be remembered long after the price is forgotten. [alert admin]
Saturday, February 11 2006 @ 08:26 PM PST
Drive Genius 1.1 (Mac OS X)
Fixes what others can't even see.
I have seventeen separate drives attached to my G5, while trying to sort through 21 years of archived Mac files, including three drives that were totally D.O.A. No other software could even find the three drives. Drive Genius fixed two of them and I am not giving up on the third. Another pleasant surprise is how fast Drive Genius works. It's one of my top ten programs now and the absolute top program when the fur hits the fan and a drive won't come up. I've been running it with Tiger for a bit over a month and it's been totally stable, never crashing once. [alert admin]
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Monday, May 02 2005 @ 06:32 PM PDT
Last 10 Comments by stormjenkins--2008 [ Search for All ]
Once you get it to install it works flawlessly. I too had problem getting the DMG file to mount. That is a common problem. I dragged the DMG file onto Toast Titanium. When the disk info became active, I hit the "mount" button. Every once in a while you come across a very simple shareware utility, such as LaunchBar and VLC that have to be on your "must install" list. I…
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Saturday, September 02 2006 @ 12:40 AM PDT
