Messages Now Offers Shared Conversation Backgrounds

So we have Siri and I’ve been playing around with Alexa (don’t tell Grace!) but now I have Dora, too. Dora is the computer from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls which were some of my favorite Sci-Fi as a kid.

I was helping a customer that has pretty bad arthritis and struggled to use the keyboard. I was straightening out her email and getting her off of AOL (something we do often!) and noticed how difficult it was to type a simple email. So, I showed her dictation on the Mac and wow, it was like a light just got switched on. Dictation has come a long way and if your are on Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan, Apple’s enhanced dictation works wonderfully.

Dictation will not be a satisfying experience for you if you have a lot of noise in the room, i.e. other people talking, music, etc, but if you are working alone in a relatively quiet environment it can be a great tool not only for dictating that email but you can also use spoken commands to direct your Mac to take action.

Setting up Enhanced Dictation

* Open System Preferences, then click on Dictation & Speech. Turn on Dictation and set up your options.

* Click *Use Enhanced Dictation*. This will download a 1.2GB file so that you can dictate without internet connection.

* Choose your language and dialect. Some languages, such as English, have multiple dialects.

* Choose the keyboard shortcut you will use to signal that you’re ready to start dictating. The default is pressing the function Fn key twice, which I find convenient but you can customize it.

* Choose your preferred microphone from the pop-up menu below the microphone icon. Normally, you use the internal microphone but if you are using a headset or external microphone you can choose that.

Using Dictation

* Go to a document or other text field and place the insertion point where you want your dictated text to appear.

* Press the keyboard shortcut for starting dictation. The default shortcut is Fn Fn (press the Fn key twice). Or choose Edit > Start Dictation. When your Mac is listening, it displays a microphone with an input meter that rises and falls as you speak.

* Speak the words that you want your Mac to type. Use dictation commands to add punctuation, formatting, and more.

* To stop dictating, click Done below the microphone icon, or press Fn, or switch to another window.

The more you use Dictation, the better it understands you. Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent.

I will go into some of the more enhanced features like Dictation Commands in next week’s Kibbles & Bytes but I can tell Dora to Open an App, select text, move up or down and much more. I think you will like dictation on the Mac, give it a try!

So by now, it might be clear that I am a bit of a headphone junkie. I’ve come to the conclusion that I can collect and use headphones like I do bags and purses! In my world I can never have enough, so I jumped on the opportunity this week to test our the new “**Hellas**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002177 and “**Reimers**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002181 from Urbanears.

The Hellas are an over the ear bluetooth headphone. It took a few minutes to get them paired with my computer. My only complaint about these headphones is that I found the touch-less buttons to be a bit clunky to use. The sleek design means you can’t physically see the buttons, so it take some practice and time to learn where the buttons are. However, there are a ton of other features with these headphones that make them extremely appealing. They are incredibly lightweight, comfortable to wear and they have good sound to them. I think my favorite feature about these is that the fabric on the headband and the earpieces are machine washable. You can actually wash the fabric and return your headphones to new condition. As I just started to use these the other day I have not actually tried to wash the fabric, but as more and more people are working out with over the ear headphones this is a huge selling point. Another hidden feature is that there is a built in microphone, so if you are using these with your iPhone, you can take calls without having to remove your headphones.

Also part of the active line are the Reimers. They deliver on fit and comfort while providing some great sound! I am impressed with how far ear buds have come over the years. What’s interesting about these headphones is that while they are in the active category, they are actually a wired set of headphones. However, Urbanears added several great features to ensure these headphones can stand up to the intensity of any workout. They have two clips for securing them to your clothing and they feature reflective cabling to light up during early morning or late evening runs. They use a new earlock technology that ensures they stay in during your workout, so no more fears of them falling out during sit-ups, push-ups and the like. I admit I am just a runner, so some of the more intense workouts I’ve not tried these, but judging by how well they stayed in for runs I am confident in saying they will stay put! Last but not least, they feature standard iOS controls we have all grown to expect out of headphones.