In this issue:

Announcements
Comparing Digital Recorders
SpeechMike Air Released
Fall Special - Get Secure
Getting your Dragon 10.1 Upgrade
Buzzwords
Tech Tools & Tips
Contact Us

Announcements

Happy Birthday to Us!

On October 25, 1993 Renee Griffith founded Zephyr-TEC as a part of her vocational rehabilitation return-to-work plan. Renee became hand-injured in 1991 as an accountant at a Bay Area software company, suffering from DeQuervaine's disease bilateral (carpel tunnel for the thumbs). As a direct result of her Work Comp self-employment plan, she purchased Dragon and founded Zephyr-TEC. Zephyr-TEC became the first training company in the world wholly dedicated to teaching the use of speech recognition software, specifically Dragon, to injured workers so they could return to their computer jobs. Zephyr-TEC was also the first certified California Post Secondary school to teach Dragon to vocational rehabilitation clients and we set the bar for all others who might want to train Dragon for return-to-work or vocational rehab.

Over the years, Zephyr-TEC has expanded its products and professional services. Today, Zephyr-TEC can provide Speech Feasibility Studies, installation, integration, customization, training and support services -- all around the Dragon speech recognition product. We've expanded our clientele from injured and disabled workers to doctors, lawyers, educators, students, business professionals, virtually all walks of life and jobs.

In 2002, we added the very powerful, world-class, enterprise-level digital dictation solution, WinScribe Digital Dictation, for those clients who require a more feature packed, integrated solution for their dictation and transcription needs. And best of all, we can combine WinScribe with Dragon! If you want to control your dictation/transcription workflow, WinScribe is the only solution you should consider!

Zephyr-TEC would like to thank each and every one of its loyal customers for their continued business and wonderful referrals. To those of you receiving this newsletter who are not yet our customers, please consider giving us the opportunity to help you Harness the Power of Dragon or get your dictation workflow on track with WinScribe!

Thank you from all of us at Zephyr-TEC!

Welcome Johanna!

Zephyr-TEC is pleased to welcome our newest Account Executive team member, Johanna Zaremba! Johanna will be working with prospects and customers in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Johanna's background includes working with medical offices, clinics and hospitals as well as their office staff, administrators and doctors. We are delighted to have Johanna on board with us. If you'd like to contact Johanna, you may do so at 949-769-1327 (direct) or by e-mail email at jzaremba@zephyr-tec.com.

Comparing Digital Recorders
Buttons, Buttons, how many buttons?

Olympus is our favorite brand of recorder for use with Dragon - partly because their recorders are high quality, partly because their software is efficient and powerful, but also because they have a wide variety of choices and features that can fit the needs of most clients. But those choices can be bewildering, so we thought a comparison between the various currently available models would be useful.

	Olympus DS-50	Olympus DS-2400	Olympus DS-3400	Olympus DS-5000
Cost	$199.99	$299.99	$399.00	$499.99
Size	11 cm x 3.8 cm x 1.7 cm	11 cm x 5 cm x 1.7 cm	11.5 cm x 5 cm x 1.7 cm	11.5 cm x 5 cm x 1.7 cm
Color	Black	Grey	Black	Black
Battery Type	AAA x 2	AAA x 2	AAA x 2	AAA x 2 (includes rechargeable Ni-MH)
Battery Life (recording)	32 hours	32 hours	30 hours	28 hours
Battery Life (playback)	15 hours	15 hours	14 hours	10 hours
Rechargeable	No	No	No	Yes
Docking Station or Cable	Cable	Cable	Cable	Docking Station (recharges batteries)

They are all about the same size, with the DS-50 a bit narrower. The battery life is fairly similar, though only the Olympus DS-5000 comes with rechargeable batteries. And if black is too depressing for you, you're stuck with the DS-2400.

Here we start to see more differences, with the higher-end recorders offering more features than the lower end recorders. If security (for instance, access to the medical information you've recorded) is important, then the Fingerprint ID feature of the DS-5000 may very well be something you would want to look at.

Similarly, if you need a certain organization for your recorded files, the ability to program a button to produce a "new file, same info as the last" could be very valuable - imagine a situation where you are reviewing several x-rays from the same patient, for instance. It's unlikely that you would hit the limit on the number of recordings, especially if the workflow involved transferring the recordings to a computer for transcription or speech recognition.

Some key differences show up here, in that the DS-50's memory is not expandable. And note that the recording times listed here are for the high-sample rate modes, which you need to use if you are planning to run the sound file through a speech recognition engine. Also note that the Pro version of the DSS Player software allows you to build a workflow from beginning to end of the document creation. You can automatically download files, convert them, send them via email or to FTP, and so forth; many of those features are missing from the non-Pro versions of the DSS Player software.

As always, price is important. And if you're just looking for a recorder to make some notes to yourself, go cheap - you don't need the extra buttons or features or software capability. But if there's a feature you need, like a slide switch or the ability to have your recordings automatically e-mailed to your secretary, you will need the top of the line DS-5000. And security concerns, especially for medical professionals, are becoming even more prevalent, and the DS-5000 is definitely the best there.

If you are going to use Dragon for transcription, we would recommend using a lollipop microphone for better sound quality with any of the Olympus recorders. They are quite cheap ($25), and produce significantly better quality recordings in most recording environments. You can order here, from our web store.

Hopefully all that information gives you a better idea on what the differences between recorders are, and what fits your needs best. Of course, if you have any questions or want to discuss your particular situation, please give us a call at

1-877-493-7497

SpeechMike Air Released
Same wonderful SpeechMike - with no wires!

Zephyr-TEC is pleased to announce the release of a new Philips SpeechMike - the SpeechMike Air. This wireless version of the world's most popular hand-held microphone looks to have a number of nice features. It will come in both push-button and slide switch models - both ergonomically designed to be used with only one thumb, and has a trackball for mousing around the screen. It will feature a high-quality microphone and speaker, for excellent playback and the usual high quality speech recognition.

The connection with the base station is Bluetooth wireless, with a range of about 30 feet. The batteries are rechargeable, but you should be able to dictate for about seven hours before needing a recharge. And the LEDs on the front of the microphone display useful information about whether you are in record, overwrite, or insert mode while recording.

The new SpeechMike Air will ship with the usual set of accessories - docking station, AC adapter (with changeable pins for different power sockets), rechargeable batteries, and the new updated SpeechMike control software that allows for much easier button configuration.

However, we have not gotten final confirmation of the price or final ship date. We're expecting it to be $499.99 with shipping starting around December, but that could change. Definitely something we are looking forward to!

Fall Special - Get Secure
So much security from one little finger

One of the big issues with modern technology is data security. With the advent of so many small, interconnected devices (laptops, phones, recorders) - what secures your data? With computers, of course, there are all sorts of passwords, so even losing your laptop may not be a security breach. But what about your recorder?

That's where the Olympus DS-5000id comes in. This version of the Olympus DS-5000 (see the comparison article above) comes with the normal password protection on all DS-5000s, but also adds a Biometric Fingerprint Lock Function to lock down the recorder and keep your data safe and secure. If you are storing secure information (such as patient medical information) on your recorder, this could be the extra level of security you need.

And this month, it's on sale! Get the Olympus DS-5000id, normally $599.99 for the same price as the normal DS-5000 - $499.99! You can order here, from our webstore, or give us a call:

1-877-493-7497

Getting your Dragon 10.1 Upgrade
Not as easy as it should be ...

This spring and summer, Nuance released an incremental improvement to Dragon, upgrading all versions to 10.1. If you haven't yet upgraded, you probably should think about it.

Note that all of the upgrades will uninstall version 10.0 and install version 10.1 - there should be no effect on your speech files, but it is always wise to back them up before making changes to your software.

To get your upgrade if you have Professional or Preferred, you can go to this link and fill out the little form. You will need your serial number (from the envelope that version 10 disks came in). Nuance will then e-mail you a link to download version 10.1.

If you have the Medical or Legal versions, the upgrade is not available as a download, and you must call Nuance Customer Support at 1-800-654-1187 to request your copy. You will need to give them your serial number, and there is a cost of $9.95 for shipping and handling for them to ship the DVD to you.

And of course, if you have any questions, please give us a call:

1-877-493-7497

Buzzwords
Not sure what it means? Well stay tuned ...

With all the constant change in the field of dictation technology, we thought it would be useful to explain a few buzzwords from speech recognition and digital dictation and then give actual definitions. Here's a few more:

WF: Microsoft's Windows Workflow Foundation, which is a component of the .NET 3.0 Framework. It allows programmers to incorporate workflow schemes outside of the various components of the program - for instance, one workflow might define that a document goes to an editor after speech recognition processing, while another might just send the document back to the author. It's expected that this will be a major component of future dictation systems.

WCF: Microsoft's Windows Communication Foundation - another component of .NET 3.0 - streamlines the communications between different parts of a program. For instance, allowing the author to know when the transcription of his dictation is done.

BPM: Business Process Management - this is the strategy of aligning all aspects of an organization with the needs and wants of the clients. Ideally, that means processes can be changed and improved as needed; both of the components above can contribute to this approach.

Still confused? Send us an e-mail at info@zephyr-tec.com and we'll clarify for you!

Tech Tools & Tips
Allowing Dragon to interact better with Internet Explorer

Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes with a host of commands for choosing hyperlinks, radio buttons and other web page elements on Internet Explorer. And while navigating the web by voice is easier than ever, you may have to give permission to the following security pop-up screen over and over again when using Dragon's Internet commands.

For many websites, allowing "mixed content" will stop the security pop-up from displaying.

To allow mixed content, from the Internet Explorer window's menu bar, choose: Tools > Internet Options > Security > Custom level...

Scroll down until you see Miscellaneous options and look for "Display mixed content." Choose: Enable.

Ta da! No more just being a yes-man when working on the web.

NOTE: You may also need to reset the custom settings to Medium-high if they are set to High and you must restart Internet Explorer for the changes to take effect.