Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008 -- 11:59 a.m. -- on my couch
A lot of you have been telling me about Vlingo, a new voice recognition app for the iPhone that seems to combine the best of all worlds ... a little Google, a little TwitterFone and a little SayWho.
I love the concept. I love the look. But here's a piece of advice to everyone out there ... don't try the voice recognition when you've had a bad cold for 2 weeks. I searched for matzoh ball soup (iWife makes the best!) and got "Johnsonburg lawsuit," whatever that is.
But I blame my voice and stuffiness for that, not the app.
That said, it's a nice app. There's a Twitter and Facebook update tool that I plan to try when my voice is better. I can see myself using that! The fact that you can also use it to look up your cell phone contacts (can't do that on Google's app) and search the Web, well, that's pretty awesome. Oh, and it uses Yahoo and Google for search -- and you can use it to search Google Maps.
For a more in-depth review, please take a look at what Michelle Maltais over at the L.A. Times had to say here.
And please continue to let me know your thoughts in the comments or over on Twitter.
Vlingo is free and in the App Store now.
Thanks for calling.
4 Comments
David said:
I just downloaded it and gave it a try ... I'm already in love.
The ability to speak a short update to twitter ROCKS .... but finally being able to SAY to my phone "google the air speed of an unladen swallow" and actually get an appropriate response is surely proof that the era of hand-held computing has arrived.
SCOTT'S REPLY: I agree. It really picks up what you are saying. I can't wait until this cold clears so I can really give it a go.
MfS said:
Vlingo worked pretty good for me. After letting it "learn" my Address Book, it worked with the first name & number I gave it. Haven't tried the search yet, as I really like Google's iPhone app for that...it works flawlessly. But am looking forward to using Vlingo for map stuff, and maybe even as a Ping.fm replacement for Facebook/Twitter updates.
SCOTT'S REPLY: I agree - and I've said that my voice is off because of my cold, but speaking an entire Facebook or Twitter update could be tougher because there are more words to get exactly right. But the functionality rocks.
Kyle Hebert said:
Vlingo is faaaaaaaantastic. I've had an impressive amount of success on searches and Twitter updates. I know Apple won't allow 3rd party access but sure can't hurt to dream........voicing text messages (apparently Vlingo does this on Blackberry).
SCOTT'S REPLY: That would be pretty incredible!
Brad said:
Agreed- would love the voice texting ability.
SCOTT'S REPLY: Voice texting. How wonderful it would be.
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