Mobile Organizer

Last Modified: November 23, 1999

In November of 1998 at Comdex, Dragon Systems announced a new revolutionary product called Dragon NaturallyMobile. Dragon NaturallyMobile was never very popular. It was aimed at users of Symantec ACT! and sold through limited distribution channels including Web base sales and a bundle with Symantec ACT! which appeared in a few retail stores. During 1999, Dragon Systems extended the Dragon NaturallyMobile concept by adding support for multiple contact managers and personal information managers. This second version of the product became available in the summer of 1999 under the new name, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is a revolutionary product from Dragon Systems which extends the concept of speech user interfaces far beyond what has been done before.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is based around the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder. Before Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, using the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder was very simple. First you would dictate into the recorder, and then you would return to your computer where Dragon NaturallySpeaking would transcribe all of the recordings into one big text file. This was very useful if you were dictating a draft document or a long e-mail message, but many people want to record shorter items when they're away from their computer.

For example, you may want to create two or three reminders which you want added your task list along with a couple of different e-mail messages. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile (the version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking which comes bundled with Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder), you could dictate the reminders and e-mails but you would have to manually transfer the information from the Dragon NaturallySpeaking editor window after transcription was finished.

But Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer solves this problem by taking the concept one step further. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer you can dictate reminders, schedule appointments, create e-mail messages, etc. and have that information automatically added to your contact manager or personal information manager software.

The concept is very simple. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer comes with the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder. Whenever something occurs to you which you want to add your contact manager or personal information manager, you can press the record button on the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder and dictate the item. Over the course of a day or longer you can record multiple items this way. Each time you click the record button on the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder, it creates a separate file with that recording.

Then when you get back your computer, you connect the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder to your serial port and start Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer. With a click of a single button on the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer user interface, all of the items on your recorder are automatically downloaded to your computer where they are recognized and then classified based on what you recorded. The information is then presented in the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer window for your review. What you complete the review process, you click another button on the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer user interface and all of the items which were transcribed are sent into your contact manager or personal information manager.

With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, you can create the following types of items:

• To-dos (also called tasks), for example by saying "remember to pick up my laundry" or "create a task for a week from next Wednesday to confirm my airline reservations"
• Meetings, for example by saying "meet with Roger tomorrow at 3 p.m. to talk about new product ideas" or "schedule an international sales meeting from 3 p.m. until 5:30 for next Wednesday. The agenda will be discussion of foreign language versions of various products."
• Calls, for example by saying "call Paula the day after tomorrow to ask for about getting a product sample"
• E-mails, for example by saying "send e-mail to Jim and Janet about Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer. I saw a demonstration of your product and was interested in learning where I can purchase one..." or "send draft document to Jim subject for your information"
• Notes, for example by saying "I just met with Joel and he gave me a demonstration of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer. I need to go to Dragon Systems Web page for more information" or "create a note I would like to remember this text for later"
• Files, for example by saying "create a file called draft document dot text this information will be added to the end of the file into already exists"

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer works by using new natural language technology to figure out how to classify each item that you dictate, after each item has been transcribed. To Mobile Organizer looks at what you dictated and classifies it as one of its known types (tasks, meetings, calls, etc.). It also extracts the appropriate date and time information, contact names, etc.. There is no need to memorize explicit commands, almost anything reasonable that you dictate will be understood and classified by Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer.

To use Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer you go through the following process:

Step 1: dictate one or more items into your Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder.

Step 2: connect your Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder to your personal computer, start Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer and click the Get Items button.

Step 3: review the results of the recognition, performing corrections as necessary and also review the classification of each item making changes if desired.

Step 4: click the Store Items button to store the information in your contact manager or personal information manager (except for e-mails which are sent and files which are saved on disk).

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer currently works with the following contact managers and personal information managers:

• Symantec ACT!
• GoldMine
• Microsoft Outlook
• Lotus Notes
• Palm Desktop

Support for the individual products vary somewhat because of the capabilities of each product. For example, with the contact managers (Symantec ACT! and GoldMine) Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer can automatically classify things like notes with the appropriate contacts. This makes it possible to, for example, walk out of a meeting with a client and dictate the results of that meeting into the recorder. Then when you connect your recorder to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, those dictated comments will be filed for you under the appropriate contact with the date and time that the recording was made.

With something like Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes, the support for notes (also called memos or journal entries), is weaker. And with the Palm Desktop, sending e-mail is not supported although you can identify a separate e-mail package to use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer.

(Version 1 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer which was called Dragon NaturallyOrganized, only supported Symantec ACT!. If you purchase Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer in the store, make sure that you are getting the latest version which will support all five popular contact managers and personal information managers.)

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is a great product. Assuming that you have already trained yourself to speak clearly (this is speech recognition after all), Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer allows you to send e-mails, record tasks, etc. were ever you happen to be simply by speaking into your Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder. No more do you have to worry about losing information because you failed to write it down, or because you were too lazy to write it down. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is worth it for sending e-mails alone, but the additional capabilities of interfacing with your contact manager or personal information software make it a truly an exceptional product.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer got off to a rocky start. It took a long time for retailers to start stocking this product and is still difficult to find that many stores.

Do not confuse Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile. The basic mobile product includes a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking preferred plus the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder, but no additional software to talk to your contact manager. If you pay the extra money to buy Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, then you get everything which comes with Dragon NaturallySpeaking mobile (including a complete copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Edition and the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder) press you get the Mobile Organizer user interface which allows you to automatically send information to your contact manager.

I was the inventor (and lead engineer) for Dragon NaturallyMobile and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer. However, I will attempt to to be relatively unbiased in my advice for this product.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is a great product, but only if it serves a purpose for which he needed. One of the most common problems for people who use contact manager software is entering contact information. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is not a good product for entering contact information. Speech recognition in general is not good for entering contact information because it has difficulty with unknown names and places and it is difficult to enter e-mail addresses by voice. If you are looking for a product which will align you to enter business cards quickly and easily, may I recommend a business card scanner.

On the other hand, if you already have most of your contact entered in your contact manager or personal information manager and you are looking for a way to keep your information up-to-date, they Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer may be just for you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is designed for people who tried to maintain contact or personal information on their computer, but are often away from their computer so they substitute writing the information down on pieces of paper. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, you never have to remember to send somebody in e-mail, but an appointment in your calendar, or add a task your task list. You can simply dictate those things into your pocket recorder as soon as they occurred you.

As with all speech recognition, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer is not 100 percent accurate (gasp). In fact, the accuracy you will receive with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer will be less than dictating live into Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Some of this has to do with the fact that the Dragon NaturallyMobile pocket recorder is not as good an input device as using a close talking headset microphone. But some of this has to do with the fact that when you are not watching the screen, you tend to be more sloppy in your speech patterns.

If you are willing to talk clearly into your recorder, then you should find Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer to be a welcome productivity enhancement tool. That is if you can find it in the stores :-)

Latest Version Information

As I dictate this, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer version 4.0 has just become available. Version 4.0 fixes some minor problems, and has been designed to work with Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 4.0. I do not know how well the stock rotation in stores will occur. If you buy Dragon NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer from the store, you may be getting the earlier version (3.52). If this is the case, then you can upgrade for the Dragon Systems to version 4.0.

This web page (http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/MobileOrganizer.html) was last modified on November 23, 1999. The contents of this page are (c) Copyright 1998-1999 by Joel Gould. All Rights Reserved. See Copyright Information for more details.