This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dragon Dictation. All opinions are 100% mine.

Dragon Dictation for the iPhone can make your life a whole lot easier. I was excited to find that I could quickly email or text some text after speaking it into the app. Of course, I can also tweet the text once it comes up or shoot it over to my Facebook wall. If the app does happen to make a mistake (which is honestly pretty rare), it’s easy to pull up the keyboard and make a correction.

There are any number of ways that you can use this app to help your productivity. Imagine sitting in your car, heading across town to a meeting. You obviously cannot write down your notes while you’re zooming around in traffic. Instead, just click on the Dragon Dictation app and speak your thoughts and notes right to your iPhone. Your hands will stay on the wheel, and your eyes will still be on the road.

Using the app is faster than typing. If you are anything like me, your brain races much faster than your poor fingers ever could. Why bother getting cramps trying to bang out the thoughts in your head on your keyboard? That’s a waste of time, and you might even forget some important detail. Just dictate everything as it comes into your mind. You can always email yourself the entire block of text when you finish. Save it to your computer from there, or even print it!

What other ways to put this app to good use can you think of? How could it help you save time?

The Dragon Dictation App Saves You Time

Things sure are shaking up around the Digg offices this week. On his first official day as CEO, Kevin Rose has laid out a few interesting changes which should vastly improve the popular social networking site. The DiggBar we have all come to hate is going to finally disappear in the upcoming version of the site. Additionally, all previously banned domains will have their restrictions removed – not including those sites with malicious intent.

With surprising candor, Rose admitted that the toolbar was a mistake from the beginning. “Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet. It causes confusion when bookmarking, breaks w/iFrame busters, and has no ability to communicate with the lower frame. It’s an inconsistent/wonky user experience.”

Both of these are positive moves for the site in my humble opinion. I have read thousands of rants regarding the toolbar, and I have a feeling that no one is going to miss it. Do you Digg? Are you looking forward to the changes? If so, you can sign up to beta-test the new version now. If you do, let us know what you think!

• Is Chrome a privacy concern?
• USB storage support is now available for the Xbox 360.
• Trash comes in all colors.
• The FCC has suffered a setback in court at the hands of Comcast.
• Does the iPad belong in the classroom?
• Is there any point in buying the newest Macbook Pro?
• Foxit won’t keep you safe from PDF exploits.
• Can you fix a sticky keyboard after spilling your soft drink on it?
• Is Oracle quietly killing OpenOffice?
• T-Mobile nixes the @Home and Hot Spot Calling services.
• Company data can be stolen via Facebook.
• Who could possibly replace Simon Cowell on American Idol?
• Can anyone tell me why Google Chrome is so popular?
• Are you planning to be a June bride?
• Are you still happy with Windows 7?
• What voice recognition software do you recommend?
• What are your hopes for iPhone 4.0?
• There really are people who still use AOL!

Your computer will “Digg” the hottest new software and apps that we’ve placed on our software center.

Goodbye iFrame Toolbar – Hello Sites Now Unbanned on Digg.

http://live.pirillo.com/ – Is Windows Vista speech recognition any good? Chris has used almost every speech recognition package, and he has yet to be impressed.

The speed recognition software built into Windows Vista isn't that bad. Of course, it isn't that great either. It does a fair job as long as you have a quality microphone and you speak clearly – no thick New York accents here.

The problems, of course, show up when you try to pronounce acronyms or companies such as "Ustream." You need to train the software to understand what you're saying, so it ends up being more of an annoyance than being anything practical.

If you're serious about using voice recognition (or you must use it because of a disability), then really consider getting Dragon Naturally Speaking, a much more powerful software package than what Microsoft includes with Windows Vista.

Want to embed our Speech Recognition video in your blog? Use this code:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gnq-QmHu7r4"></aram><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gnq-QmHu7r4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv), MP3 Audio (.mp3), Microsoft Video (.avi)

Speech Recognition

I’m not blind, folks.

1. ReadyBoost. This feature really does make Vista infinitely more responsive. You must pick up an Apacer HT203 2GB stick or two – immediately. I hate its casing, but I can’t argue with the Apacer’s speed. ReadyBoost isn’t just optional – it’s necessary. They should bundle an Apacer 2GB with every copy of Windows Vista Ultimate, IMHO.
2. Start Menu’s Start Search. Very, very nice. I wish Microsoft would remap the Win+R key combo to it, though. I can tell it’s going to be a time saver for many users – myself included. It reminds me of OS X’s Spotlight. Too bad I hate the rest of the Start Menu.
3. Future Fix Notifications. So, sometimes when Windows Vista crashes, the operating system actually tells you that a fix for the error is coming in a future build of the software. Awesome. No more guesswork! Microsoft Office seems to be enabled with the same feature. A crash isn’t so bad if you know it’s going to be fixed.
4. Windows Explorer’s Details Pane. This is very useful, especially when I can edit information without actually having to open up a properties sheet for a file. It’s not perfect, but this is an example of how I believe Windows Vista will help users understand that certain files have extended metadata. I only wish more fields could be edited (like for Word documents).
5. Windows Explorer’s Folders Pane. Horizontal scrollbars are the bane of my existence. They’ve eliminated them partially from the Windows Explorer. When you navigate the Folders pane, it will auto-scroll for you – never displaying a horizontal scrollbar. Intuitive.
6. Volume Mixer Changes. “Sounds” crazy, but this is a feature everybody wishes they had. You can set volume levels for various programs independently – without touching your default system volume. It’s not amazing, but this is certainly better than what we had before.
7. Task Manager Additions. While truncated fields lack tool tips, at least you can finally right-click a process to “Open File Location.” I’ve needed that more than a few times. The Services tab should also come in handy.
8. Windows Explorer’s Breadcrumb Bar. This one may take a little getting used to, but I’m convinced that this is a much more natural way of exploring the files and folders in my system. Very smart use of space.
9. Richer Drags. When you select multiple objects and drag them around, you’ll see a small box near your cursor which displays how many objects you have selected.
10. Voice Recognition. It’s not perfect but then again one-eight navigation work the helm a lot better than beat the period. I swear not me without. Why is it to me that. Enough of you at varying. I don’t think we think the software will agree with anybody want you or me and I did bring. Not even close. Let’s try that again. Wow, it might have worked at time. Interesting. You can correct sentences on the fly, though it’s not totally intuitive. This entire paragraph was dictated. I wonder if it’s learning my speech patterns?

Okay, so that last one was thrown in for good measure. All work and no play makes Homer go something-something.

Ten Things I Love About Windows Vista

Oh, just press play…

…yeah, I can’t wait.

Windows Vista Voice Recognition