Hey! The picture looks just like the box I have here! O.K., so after navigating through the site, I found this knowledgebase article: “Error message: ‘The microphone does not appear to be connected’ when using OS 10.2.” It actually has some very good information there, like turning ON the speech and microphone recognition in System Preferences. So I made a trip to friend Google and found: Nuance – IBM ViaVoice Release 10 Mac OS X Edition. But there is no Macintosh version (I should have paid more attention to the discussion about ViaVoice a couple months ago). Backing up and trying the support & download link at the top and searching through their software by name and category got me nowhere. Clicking on the support link took me to their websphere section. I typed in the url and ended up at IBM software through a redirect.

Click the support link in the left panel on the web page. Back to the book: Getting Help Obtaining Technical Support: “A solution to your problem might already exist! Before contacting technical support, check the Frequently Asked Questions database and the Tested Systems list. You may need to restart your compuer after plugging in the mic.” Hmmmm. Check your connections, close SetUpAssistant, and repeat this setup test again. Once again, the message: “It appears that your microphone may not be connected. It suggested I restart the computer after plugging in the USB. It suggested I close the setup assistant and start over. From there it is pretty much a no brainer, going step by step through plugging all the devices in and positioning the headphone/microphone, then going through an initial test to see if all the parts are working. The book assumes the CD will start on its own. I inserted the CD into the macbook slot, decided to actually read the instructions in the book and try tp follow them, and found the first minor glitch.

There are also a few other things I haven’t figured out yet. The package comes with an instruction book and CD, a headphone/microphone combination attached to a USB adapter, and an audio plug to connect the USB adapter box to the audio output port on the computer. This could be a problem for a new macbook. It appears to be the newest version, although I recall hearing something about it not being updated in the last couple years. Somehow I have ended up with a copy of ViaVoice for Mac OS X.

Nuance ibm viavoice