Dragon for Email Dictation App Now Available for BlackBerry Smartphones

on 21 Apr 2010 10:22 AM

I remember way back when I had one of my first PCs and I discovered Dragon Dictate. I was amazed that I could just speak and the PC would recognize (mostly) what I said and put it into text. Well I've been wowed again with the release of Dragon for Email. Never has it been easier to speak your emails to your BlackBerry. Just talk away and Dragon for Email will transcribe your speech into a text email on your device. The app integrates directly with the native email client, and you can speak names for the address line, subjects and email body. You can also reply and forward emails using the app. Dragon for Email is available in the US free for a limited time. You can download it directly from BlackBerry App World.

More information and download of Dragon for Email >>

Filed Under: News & Rumors, BlackBerry Apps; Tags: Dragon for Email

73 Comments

Posted by pdb23103 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I have used Dragon dictation software on my PC in the past, with decidedly mixed success. However, given that this app is being offered for free, it will definitely be worth trying out. It would be great if it actually lives up to its claims regarding the ability to dictate emails directly as many of us are not especially adept at typing!

Posted by wdfly Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

i deleted it as i don't want to send my contacts to a 3rd party site that i'm not familiar with. if it didn't have to send these contacts i would have kept it.

Posted by beckerfj Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Unless I misread it, I thought you had the option during setup.

Posted by JRSCCivic98 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

PRIVACY POLICY
In order to improve recognition accuracy and to dictate names into the Address Field, Dragon for E-Mail will only upload names from your address book when permission is provided…no emails, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal information are uploaded. This information is not used for any purpose other than improving the usability of the application. Dragon for E-Mail will also utilize the data in spoken messages to continuously improve and provide high speech recognition accuracy. All data are processed and maintained in secure data centers according to stringent privacy and security standards.

That's their Privacy Policy, which dictates that EVERYTHING you dictate (pun intended) is uploaded to Dragon. Gee, I hope no government personnel decide to use this app. :rolleyes:

I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired of BB apps that constantly need to upload personal/confidential data to work. Come on!

Posted by sparkerc Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

When it asked you to send the contats, there was a "No" options. Only means that you can't dictate the To field. I didn't want to send them mine either. So far, it seems to be working pretty well. Sometimes it gets the punctuation correct... sometimes it doesn't have any at all, but it is getting the words about 98% correct.

Posted by JRSCCivic98 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

You're misunderstanding what the program does and what it sends. It not only sends your contact info (which, yes, you can turn that off), but it also sends what you say in ANY field... meaning that it can send the text (i.e. entire email) you just dictated to the cloud per the Privacy Policy and the way the program works. Do you honestly think that a 132k app has the ability to turn spoken words into text without some kind of server/database backend? I think not...

Posted by CronVandy Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I have the same app on my iPad, works flawlessly.

Posted by CronVandy Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

It's works well enough. It translates the speech pretty good. But since I use Quick Launch on my convenience key, I tried to set it to the camera key instead.

Now the camera key brings up the voice dialer, after exiting then the camera app comes up. I wont accept this behavior.

I'll do a reboot.

I changed Dragon to use the left convenience key. It looks like the voice dialer application, which I believe is made by Nuance, is connected to the Dragon for Email application.

I've got it working so that QL and Dragon are BOTH on the left convenience key. Dragon only works when in emails and QL in any other screen.

The only problem is the voice dialer app opens at the same time as QL.

Posted by HavPlenty Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

...will DEFINITELY try for free!

Posted by devGOD Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

another app that wants to control over your convinence key. there is only 2 freak'n keys whats up with these developers demanding that you use one for there app.

Posted by daveu772 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

What,no sprint love. Why?

Posted by TimmyTwo2 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I agree, come on where is the Sprint love??

Posted by jwhelan Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I hope they make it work with BBM!

Posted by NinjaRose Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Only email support

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Free for a "limited time". Then what, $9.99 to continue using? I will give it a try, but I fear that they may get us hooked and then stick it to us. Sure, call me cynical....maybe it's just my cold talking today.

Posted by Kaveros Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Can't even get the setup completed on my Tour. I assigned it the right-side convienience key, but in the test where you're supposed to say "Dragon for Email," I could never get past that part. I even tried it in a quiet room, thinking maybe the background noise was messing it up. No dice. Delete. Sorry, Nuance Communications.

Posted by jletendre Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Couldn't get past the setup so I had to delete it.

Posted by djspray Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I was having same problem with my Tour. I rebooted, then install went fine. It works great. I hope its free for a while.

Posted by NinjaRose Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

There was an outage today. I had the same problem. Resend your service books and pull the battery. Will work after this.

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

So does it HAVE to be on a conv key or could I just put it in my QL menu?

Posted by msanford Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

does App World have and consistently exercise its ability to block immensely useful applications in my country and carrier. Seriously, now!

Posted by kjjb0204 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Used vlingo plus for a while. Allows websearching, sms, mms, facebook update, dial phone, twitter update. Also allows speech-to-text in any typing field, whether in browser, another app, etc. Safereader was just added too, so it can read the first 30 words of a new email or text so I don't have to look while driving. Until Dragon can do all of that, I'll stick with vlingo.

Posted by garment69 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Half the time it works fine, the other half when I press the side key it takes me out of my email and into a Drogon for email screen where it just hangs. Rather typical for BB apps.

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Bricked my Tour. Reload Software Error 552.

I know I can get past this and just remove it using DM, but still. Of course, it could be the number of apps I have.....

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I guess a good thing coming out of this is that I usally just run DM on my home PC. I have been meaning to put it on my netbook too just in case....for situations such as these.

Loading the English/No Media Manager version right now.

Posted by visortgw Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Yes, "too many apps" is a too well-known issue on the Tour with OS v4.7.1.61, but it has been resolved with OS v5.0. :-)

Posted by joski Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

what a cunt, only for verizon and at&t. i hope the paid works for any carrier or that's about as gay as skype. aoooooo

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

nice language joski

Posted by gordtm Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I wonder how this compares to Vlingo?

Posted by dupa87 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Why doesn't Canada ever get any love...for God's sake...we make the damn phones!

Posted by Snypa Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Will def give this a try 4 sure !!

Posted by Teddyp6 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

May be worth a try.

Posted by ChefMorry Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Can't get it past the say "dragon for email" screen. Any suggestions?

Posted by looooopy Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

It did same thing to me. You have to make shure u set the conveinence key to nothing.( at first i set it to dragon email thats wrong)

Posted by webmastir Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

then 30$ afterwards. nope.

Posted by garment69 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Seriously? 30 bucks? Good god, does the insanity ever end!! This is free on Android by the way.

Posted by meyerink Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Here is another useful app that I cant try.

Posted by w_bovine Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

At first I couldn't get past the setup..the part where you speak "Dragon for E-Mail." I rebooted the phone. Tried again and was able to successfully finish the setup. Now I'll have to see how well the program actually works.

Posted by mi_canuck Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

does this work only with email or with sms too? i'd have more use for the latter...

Posted by npunk42 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Most folks speak very differently than they write. I would hate wade through a bunch of "speak" from my less than elegant email contacts.

Posted by Dendrite Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I use Dragon on my PC. I was skeptical but this works nearly as well on my Berry as it does on my PC. Accuracy is surprisingly good. Agreed too bad it's only for email as it would be slick for SMS as well. Yup, I'm waiting for the bad news also: What's this going to cost us after the "free for a limited time" plays out? I'd pay a one time fee of $5 or maybe $10 like any other favored app but it's not worth a monthly subscription fee. My 0.02 would be to have a free basic version (email only) and then offer a "premium" version that covered more and charge for that. We'll see...

Posted by jlb21 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Funny, when I was doing the apploader trick to remove the app, it didn't list Dragon. But then I chose to remove at least one app, NFL mobile, and when I went "next" it said it was removing Dragon for email. Huh.

As long as I get back, I can then just reload NFL mobile.

Posted by CustomGrain Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I'd never use anything like this for email but sms woukd be handy.

Posted by 07outback Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I am totally suprised that Dragon did not include support for SMS inthis app.

Posted by blixtrande Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Just downloaded and installed - wow, what a freebie!

Posted by Rampant-Lion Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

When I go to App World, it says "Covers all devices". Apparently my Curve isn't part of "All devices". Bummer.

Posted by WolfDreamer Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

"This application is not available on your device or for your carrier."

And that of course, would be my 8530 Curve on Sprint...

Oh well... Better luck next time?

-Wolf-

Posted by corshanpay Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

I can understand that it needs to be on a convenience key since you need to be able to press a button to have it listen when you are in the text entry field. Kind of like a push-to-talk deal. It does understand what you say very well, though. I just wish it did other stuff than just email, though. It would be nice if it was as capable as Vlingo (which does not transcribe very well and needs to send your audio off to a server to translate it.)

Posted by g0dchaser Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

No Sprint....rubbish! >:-(

Posted by elite1 Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 662 days ago

Why not? If there's some valid reason, please add it to the App World listing.