Songs from the Little Bird

Mac voice recognition (video link, includes sound) has been built into the system since 1993.

I used it years ago, but it was much more primitive then and not ready for prime time. My wrists are now very, very grateful that I have activated it.

What it can do:

Switch between programs, play/pause, use voice commands for copy/paste and move up/down.

Create voice aliases for your most-used files and programs. (Say "Google Chrome" to open Chrome, e.g.)

Assign voice commands that trigger any keyboard shortcuts.

Create application-specific commands for macros or other application function.

With Universal Access > Enable access for assistive devices turned on, you can use your voice to select menu items, browser bookmarks, browser tabs by speaking their names.

What it can't do (yet):

• Take dictation / transcribe everything you say. For that, you need third party software.
  
• Answer questions, Siri style. For that, go to google.com (which you can set as a voice bookmark) and click the microphone icon.
  

Ways I'm using it:

• Web browser navigation. Boy howdy, web browser navigation. (E.g. "sepdet friends" [checking dreamwidth], "new tab" or "was that an earthquake?")
  
• Closing all the windows I've opened, quitting all the applications I've left running.
  
• Cut and paste.
  
• Flipping between programs.
  
• Opening files I use for work.
  
• Activating macros.
  
• Nearly everything I used to use the mouse or trackpad for.

Custom commands/macros I've made:

• "Photoshop" "MS Excel" because who bally wants to say, "Open Adobe Photoshop CS5" or "Switch to Microsoft Excel"
  
• "Scroll north" "scroll down" because apparently I'm so congested that "move up" and "move down" sound about the same. Bleh, sinuses.
  
• "View next tab" for command-right-arrow to flip between tabs in my browser. OMFG useful.
  
• Also, in speech settings, I went into the "commands" area and turned off exact matches so that it'll take "close this" for "close this window" and "what's today?" for "what is the date?"