When I recently heard about myEcho (www.myechoapp.com), an app that lets iOS (iPhone and iPad) users dictate speech and have it immediately transferred to a Windows PC, I was intrigued because I thought it might save appraisers time. Could this app be used to dictate commentary into an appraisal report using Apple's excellent speech-to-text recognition? I tried it out myself and here's what I found.
About myEcho
First, what is it? myEcho is a combination of apps on your devices (your iPhone or iPad and your Windows PC) and a service running in the cloud. Using this solution, you use your iPhone or iPad to dictate speech, and it appears immediately in whatever Windows application is open at that moment.
It's considerably cheaper than Nuance's Dragon for PCs at only $1.99 for the app, and offers much of the same capability. Here's a quick demonstration using myEcho and TOTAL on my PC:
How it works
myEcho works in conjunction with Siri on your iPhone or iPad to perform the speech recognition. When you open the myEcho app on your device, and launch the myEcho app on your PC, they're connected to a cloud service automatically. You speak into the app on your mobile device using Siri's built-in microphone, and the app takes the translated speech-to-text and sends that to whichever Windows application, such as TOTAL, you're using while you speak via a Microsoft cloud service.
When the text gets to the app on your PC, it's inserted automatically into whatever application or field that has focus at that time. This could be the Addenda PowerView in TOTAL, or any commentary field directly on the form!
In summary
If you're looking for a way to try out speech-to-text to see if this fits into your workflow, or if you only occasionally need to dictate commentary, then myEcho app may be a great solution for you. At only $1.99, it's a great solution that complements TOTAL's many other time-saving features.
Learn more at: http://myechoapp.com/
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