Weeks after
announcing that its flagship voice-powered application worked with Blackberry smartphones, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said today that iPhone users can use the product to update Facebook (
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Alert) and Twitter statuses just by speaking.
Officials at
Vlingo Corporation say their iPhone (
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Alert) application – available in the Apple App Store – also lets users of the popular mobile device search the Web, dial contacts and access Google (
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Alert) Maps with their voices.
According to Dave Grannan, vlingo’s chief executive officer, the company targeted use on the iPhone because the device offers an innovative multi-touch user interface that is fundamentally transforming the wireless industry.
“We’re proud to debut our breakthrough voice recognition technology on iPhone, taking simplicity one step further by reducing much of the reliance on typing, making mobile data and applications easier to find and use,” Grannan said.
Vlingo officials have put together a demo video
here.
By integrating its product with devices such as the iPhone and targeting location-based services and social networking features, vlingo is lining itself up to serve what many telecom insiders call the future of mobile device use. Pictured right is an iPhone screen showing pizzerias in greater Boston, including in the city’s Italian North End area.
In a recent
interview with TMCnet, John Burry of
Mobui Corporation said that companies are looking for interesting ways to implement LBS functionality to make people’s lives easier.
Also, Burry says, the mobile industry will focus increasingly on social networking sites, such as Facebook.
Vlingo officials say their iPhone application works across multiple applications on the device, giving users access to the most commonly used features by using voice.
Importantly, users can send Facebook and Twitter status updates without typing.
“Vlingo also automatically embeds a Web browser so users can easily access the mobile versions of Facebook and Twitter to keep track of their friends’ updates,” vlingo officials say.
For Burry, the mobile device has and always will be ultimately about communication.
“These days, communication goes way beyond voice into texting, video exchange, and instant messaging,” Burry told TMCnet. “Expect most of the innovation that happens in mobile to be around finding ways to make it easier for people to connect with one another, especially through social networks.”
Pictured left is an iPhone screen that someone is using to update their status.
For vlingo, one advantage of the voice-powered program is that users don’t need to change how they speak or memorize a list of commands so they can say what they want, how they want, and vlingo captures the results – word for word.
“Vlingo’s breakthrough speech recognition technology provides users with a simple way to access almost anything on their handsets,” company officials say. “With the most accurate system on the market that gets even better as more users join the community, vlingo gives users the ability to freely mix typing and talking with no limits on what they can say to command the device.”
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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael�s articles, please visit his columnist page.