App Review: Vlingo

As smartphones get smarter, people seem to be getting lazier. First, we had old school phones that required three button presses to get the “C” letter on the screen, then phone manufacturers thought it would be smart to offer full QWERTY keyboards, but that just wasn’t enough for the lazy, but often times intelligent smartphone users. Things like the Swype keyboard were invented to make texting and using the keyboard on one’s phone faster and easier. But now it’s time to again change the way we operate our smartphones. Goodbye to the days of having to use your hands to input what you want to do on your phone. Now you can use your voice to operate 95% of the Vlingo app.

As smartphones get smarter, people seem to be getting lazier.

It’s a lazy man’s delight with voice capability that makes human fingers a thing of the past. Its sole purpose is to search and do pretty much anything via voice command. Occasionally you are required to hit the “speak” or “cancel” button, but for those rare occasions you can just use the edge of your deep fried corndog stick or something.

The main menu of Vlingo is your gateway to the other voice world. You can send a text message, call someone, find a place to eat, find a business to complain to, search the world wide web, update your Twitter or Facebook, open other applications, get answers to life, get directions, book a damn hotel, hail a taxi, buy a movie ticket for the latest 3D flick and finally… hear voice messages. I’m completely serious; those are all home menu options that Vlingo will accomplish right off the bat. If you’re feeling incredibly lazy, you can nudge the “speak” button and just bypass all of the categories and details and dive right into whatever the heck you’re trying to do. The only downside to that is an extra 3 to 5 second wait time for Vlingo to figure out what you’re asking of it.

What makes Vlingo so damn important is how fast and accurate the audio search really is. I tried searching for random things in a silent room as well as an extremely loud room while running in circles and nine times out of ten it got every word right, with the occasional of and if mixed up, probably an error on my part due to my deep, dark voice combined with my heavy breathing! Discovering the world of Vlingo is like the first time I bought a bag of Dove chocolates. It’s an adrenaline rush and a game changer. The fact that you can do literally anything online with Vlingo is almost intimidating. From this point on we are going to have to be careful as to what we say in the comfort of our own mobile phones for we do not know who is listening on the other end of Vlingo.

Discovering the world of Vlingo is like the first time I bought a bag of Dove chocolates.

One interesting option in Vlingo that could probably benefit from system integration is the idea of opening other applications. Right now, you can literally say, “open Dolphin web browser,” and it will open up Dolphin at the drop of a dime; but what I am more interested in is possibly figuring out a way to have Vlingo always aware of what you are doing. So maybe someday in the future you could say, “launch Dolphin web browser, minimize and send text message to Nick Nunziata saying hey, isn’t GUY.com just the snazziest website around town?” Can you imagine the possibilities of seamlessly implementing Vlingo into the phones everyday functions without having to reopen it whenever you wonder it another application or function?

Vlingo also comes with a beta option called Vlingo InCar, which is pretty much a hands free and simplified version of Vlingo for your everyday commuting needs. Instead of having a menu with tons of options the Vlingo InCar menu beaks it down to call, text, navigate and SafeReader. All work wonders together and make for a completely safe and hands free experience. The SafeReader comes in handy a lot more than you think it would. Its purpose is to read to you aloud your incoming text messages, which you can then reply to by speaking what you want to say and who you want to say it to.

Even though Vlingo InCar is considered in beta, I didn’t find any bugs or glitches with it and I plan on using it wherever I go from this point on. If you’re worried that your phone is going to go into sleep mode or whatever, just simply say, “Hello Vlingo,” and you are greeted with a sexy “hello” by Mrs. Vlingo herself, which means the app is alive and not sleeping!

There are few things a person needs in life. Things like the internet, food, drinks, sex and Vlingo. It’s an essential for anyone claiming to own a smartphone. If you want to make your busy life a little easier to manage than download Vlingo. It’s a free app that I wouldn’t have any problems buying. It takes the simple idea of voice command and injects legal software steroids into it.

It’s a free app that I wouldn’t have any problems buying.

Say goodbye to the days of having everyone in your car sit in total silence as you struggle finding the nearest A&W/KFC restaurant combo store (God himself knows how rare those little gems are). Vlingo is the most complete and useful voice friendly app around. It effectively understands and analyzes your voice to give you the results you need! The InCar beta option is just another tool to help ease you into that finger surgery you always wanted but never needed. I can only see this app becoming more important in the future with enough software upgrades and hopefully integration with the Android and Apple software.

Quick Hits:

Controls:
Your voice is the main weapon, with your finger on standby for tapping.
Time Suck:
Great for a quick search or a long car ride that requires navigation.
Replay/Addiction Value: 
High, depending on how lazy you are.
Polish:
Easy to read and navigate due to the slick dark layout.

Rating: 4.5/5