Vlingo: new killer app for iPhone

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my Twitter stream or my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


Vlingo is a killer app for the iPhone and Blackberry. It starts to solve the main issue I have with the iPhone: I can hardly use the tiny virtual onscreen keyboard. With Vlingo, for some key uses, I no longer have to.

You can choose ‘Maps’ and tell it to search for a place. Choose ‘Search’ and ask Google or Yahoo a question. Choose ‘Phone’ and have it search your contacts by name. Choose ‘Social’ and have it update your Facebook or Twitter status. Or just choose ‘Home’ and have it search what it guesses you’re after.

Unlike voice search in Google Mobile App, with Vlingo you must press a button and speak into the phone’s mic rather than simply lift the phone to your head to start and remove from ear to end. But unlike Google mobile app, Vlingo works astoundingly well! It had much better comprehension much more often for many obscure tests that I ran. And it works very fast. And is free.

If you have an iPhone or Blackberry I highly recommend checking it out. The iPhone version is available on the App Store (pending notoriously flakey app release schedules), and the Blackberry version is at http://vlingo.com

  • Iphtashu Fitz

    I actually prefer the vlingo method to the Google method for using the app. My issue with the Google app (aside from the fact that sometimes it doesn’t recognize that I’ve held it up to my ear) is that I have to constantly move the phone from my ear to in front of me to see the results. If I have to repeat myself (I’m in a noisy environment, I mumble, cough, etc) then I have to shift the phone from my ear to in front of me multiple times and that annoys me. Simply holding the phone in front of me, pushing a button, and speaking is a lot easier and quicker as far as I’m concerned.

  • Iphtashu Fitz

    I actually prefer the vlingo method to the Google method for using the app. My issue with the Google app (aside from the fact that sometimes it doesn’t recognize that I’ve held it up to my ear) is that I have to constantly move the phone from my ear to in front of me to see the results. If I have to repeat myself (I’m in a noisy environment, I mumble, cough, etc) then I have to shift the phone from my ear to in front of me multiple times and that annoys me. Simply holding the phone in front of me, pushing a button, and speaking is a lot easier and quicker as far as I’m concerned.

  • http://kenberger.com Ken Berger

    @Iphtashu- excellent point.

  • http://kenberger.com Ken Berger

    @Iphtashu- excellent point.

  • http://topenergy.ltt.rwth-aachen.de/wiki/index.php/Concepts_That_Assist_Make_Vacationing_Less_Of_A_Problem linked internet page

    linked internet page…

    Ken Berger’s blog…

blog comments powered by Disqus