I’m impressed by the accuracy of the Dictation feature on the new iPads. It’s yet another reason to pick the third generation model over the second. I’ve only got two major complaints:
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I uses Apple’s servers to do the conversion, which means it won’t work without a cellular or WiFi data connection. Some may find privacy issues with that too.
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Unlike many dictation apps, it doesn’t convert text until you hit the mike button a second time to end the dictation. That means dictating in short bursts.
Alas, Apple doesn’t seem to provide much online assistance in using Dictation. On about the third or fourth page of a Google search, I finally found two helpful web pages:
The first describes all the intricacies Siri Dictation, which seems to work just like Dictation on an iPad:
blog.crushapps.com/2011/10/more- … dictation/
The list of special terms and formatting options is quite impressive.
And this page gives five tips to make Dictation work better.
gottabemobile.com/2012/03/20 … one-video/
I’ve not found any need to use a separate mike, but it might prove helpful in a noisy location.
Note too that when Dictation isn’t certain about a term, it tags it like a possible misspelling, allowing you to select among options: i.e. ‘their’ or ‘there.’
–Mike