Nuance PowerMic III Microphone for Dragon (Non-Healthcare), 9 Ft Cord, Dictate Documents and Control your PC – all by Voice, [PC Disc], Black

I bought this microphone about a year ago. I have experienced every frustration that a human being can endure with microphones for Dragon in the some 20 years I have struggling to enter the voice-to-text paradise. This is about as good as they get. I have a condenser now that is better. I want to apeople to price. There is a Fifine microphone Fifine microphone on sale here for 59.95 that comes with a stand that is every bit as good as thisI am adding this. If you listen to Vladímir Putin (have patience now) in this disgusting “help” of Ukraine. ( my history with this subject goes back to the 1970s but that’s another matter. ) You can compare Dragon advertising (five star) and it’s truth in advertising and support (two stars) to the invasion of Ukraine to Dragon advertising and its explanation of the murder picnic to the Russian people’s knowledge about Ukraine to the Customer Service involvement. Everything is hyperbole. Everything is the miracles that every bit of American advertising depends on. Life in America has a solution for your frustrations right around the corner and it will soon be available on Amazon.I quote from the opening of the description of the product right here on the Amazon website: “Achieve new levels of dictation speed, ease-of-use and productivity. For professionals such as police officers, doctors, lawyers, insurance adjusters, social service workers or anyone who is tasked with high levels of dictation or often works away from the office, Nuance PowerMic III is ideal.” I can’t say this is a lie. It’s become the way of the world to distort, to put it mildly, what you have to cure the ills of the world. I am something of an expert on Dragon. I’m not sure it was even called Dragon then—it was when the company operated out of a little store in Beverley (sp?), Massachusetts. It would’ve been Dragon 2.1 or something. The deception started because nothing but the IBM stand-alone computer had enough power to operate it. They knew that. But! Like Amazon hawking face identification to the police departments, it was using the public as free testing grounds. Everything in the opening two sentences above is the word I have come up with to describe the rhetorical devices used to swell the latest technological piece of equipment to make your life better. The word is lieth. Half lie but based on truth somewhere. Some frustrations. 1) I used to pay $99 for the DVD and could put it in as many machines of mine that I wanted; now, if you pay the$500 they want, they make it so god-damn difficult to get the promised usage fulfilled, you’ll go nuts trying to get it done. Then the accuracy thing. It depends on what you’re talking about. Try this: “Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” Extreme you may say. OK. Fair enough. Not everyone who uses Dragon is trying to justify a war—not easy. But I am a writer. I don’t expect miracles. But yesterday, I spent 3 hours using five different microphones and four computers ( one virtually new) to try to get this book moving along. I used to have a secretary, so I never had to try to make a fair copy of a book using voice before. It seemed like a wonderful solution. Yesterday result: About 100 words or about one word every two minutes. This whole technology thing is ultimately a big rip off. If you’re writing two-sentence memos using two syllables of less per word, it is indeed a miracle. And although I am 80% paralyzed ( so I can relate), some people can’t type etc. so it’s a great help for them. However, it is dismayingly hyped. It needs better everything. Every Dragon, etc., microphone, headphones should be rated by people who are like me and able to do a completely independent evaluation. For example: a scale of one to ten as to how well, how quickly, and with what equipment you are using to produce a 95% error rate dictating the Get a burger as dressed. Scratch that. The Gettysburg Address.

We love how clear these are and how easy they are to use! The sound quality is amazing! These fit perfectly in your hand and the perfect weight and quality!

From Amazon, I purchased the Nuance PowerMic III for Dragon 15 at ~ $350, along with ~$300 Dragon Professional 15 software. The only software I could find to download was for the PowerMic II. Some of the buttons on the PowerMic III did not work, nor could they be programmed. For example, the tab backward button did not work. So I called Nuance. Due to poor connection with the Nuance support team and other challenges, I was not able to adequate communicate with the Nuance technical support team. because I did not understand them. They repeatedly wanted my customer service number. I asked where I could find this number. They did not know. I explained my problem with the buttons. I was told this was a known problem of this device, and it would hopefully be fixed with the next updated software. Again, this is a $350 piece of new equipment. I asked for an estimate when I might receive the update. I asked if it would be 10 days, 10 weeks, 10 months, or 10 years. They refused to commit. Based on this call, I suppose I might be waiting a decade or so before my $350 device works as promised. The technical support people recommended I use my keyboard, which since Dragon 15 works with the computer mic, sort of negates the need for a separate $350 mic. Given I spent > $500 spent on a a Dragon mic and software, I would have preferred the mic buttons worked.

I purchased this powermic III to dictate notes from home. Our EMR is Epic with Dragon Medical built in. The mic functions perfectly and captures my voice accurately for dictaction. However none of the buttons are supported and have no functionality. Attempting to configure/assign buttons with Dragon via Options does not make them functional either. The "next field" "previous field" buttons are extremly helpful navigating through our note template. There is no way to force assign the buttons on the Powermic through Windows 11 either. Not having the functinality is a deal breaker for me... if I have to press F2 to navigate the required epic note fields then this Powermic is worthless. I could just use any mic I have. Secondly, windows recognizes this mic device as a "Powermic II" and NOT a "Powermic III." Someone else noted this in another review. Older reviews from 2019 show that the mic works as intened so not sure if this is a newer windows (I am using Windows 11 Pro) issue. I also do not have a physical version installed on my home work computer; just using it with Epic with Dragon via citrix receiver. Hopefully this helps someone else trying to acheive what I needed.Edit:I got the power mic buttons to function. I use Epic/dragon via citrix receiver. You need to download the citrix receiver extentions (will also give you the functionality for phillps mic too) for dragon onto your work/home computer if you are using dragon via EPIC and citrix. Works perfectly. I found them myself but you may need to talk with your IT folks in your system.

Bought used version. Happy with it. Accelerates productivity.