I can't really believe that Dictate is still going, given the accuracy of its transcriptions - at least for me. Maybe it all works better in Italian (the developer's native tongue)? Still, Dictate as an application has not only been receiving regular updates, but it now has a companion 'notes' application as well. And, interestingly, there's a reference to an 'improved in-app updating system', looking ahead to Nokia's impending freeze of the contents of the Symbian-facing Store.

The changelog for Dictate v2.7.0, plus a note from the developer:

• New function: Open notes and Take note (Try it!)
• Improved in-app updating system
• Agenda/Appointments bug fixes

This may be the last update for Dictate via the Nokia Store because Nokia will stop developers to update apps from January 1st. But Dictate is proud to annouce that will be able to update itself thanks to an alternative way. Thank You All for your support to the development of Dictate!

I have to say that, well intentioned though Dictate is and despite admirable perseverance from the developer, the system's back-end use of Google voice transcription just doesn't seem to work well enough. If I use Google voice dictation on an Android phone the results are excellent, with very few mistakes. Whereas Dictate here rarely gets any words right for me, making it pointless.

The new companion application, VoiceNotes, is listed as:

VoiceNotes is an app to help you taking notes just with your voice! It recognizes and writes down what you say, and (obviously) what you write.
Supported Languages:
Italiano, English (U.S., UK), Spanish, Mexican, Argentin, Portogues, Brazilian, Polish(v2.6), Swedish(v2.6), Turkish(v2.6).

It can be used standalone, but the main intention is to kick it off from within Dictate, of course. Launching it does take four seconds or so, which might be a showstopper even if the transcription worked properly. Here's a walkthrough:

A somewhat confusing disclaimer: a) it's still not clear what video access points have to do with this, b) Distimo? What exactly gets sent back to this tracking service? c) still using Google's servers without permission, effectively....!

Buying the new companion app, ready for 'take a note' to work...

Note titles can't be dictated - they have to be typed. Which, at least, is more reliable than using the voice recognition. Ahem. I don't think ANY of these words were in the sentence I was trying to dictate.... (right) the notes database used is internal to VoiceNotes, sadly - this is the view in the Symbian Notes app. I do hate it when applications go their own way like this, leaving the user with multiple data sets for the same purpose....

You can buy VoiceNotes for £1 here in the Nokia Store, plus Dictate is also £1 here. Is it just me getting erratic results from Dictate and VoiceNotes? Comments?

(via Symbian Tweet)