This might be one of the most incredible applications I have seen to date for BlackBerry. Sakhr Software have created an application called Mobile Speech to Speech Arabic Translator for BlackBerry, that does exactly what the name says. Check out the above YouTube clip for a demonstration.
The Spoken Translator makes communication between English and Arabic speakers easy with the following features:
1. Users freely speak English or Arabic sentences into their BlackBerry.
2. Users see the translation displayed in Arabic and English script.
3. Users can hear the translation played out loud.
The application uses a technology developed by Sakhr called natural language processing (NLP) technology. The app has far-reaching implications for business as well as consumers. Enterprise users will be able to communicate with employees in the field who don’t speak English and tourists will be able to navigate Arab countries much more easily.
Sakhr Software has announced it will showcase its Mobile Speech to Speech Arabic Translator for BlackBerry at the LandWarNet Conference in Fort Lauderdale, August 18–20, 2009.
Canpages is a Canadian business directory, very similar to 411. They’ve recently launched a free voice recognition search application for the BlackBerry. The application lets you speak a search request into your phone and then receive the results in text—leaving your hands free for other more important activities.
The app lets you speak the area or location of the business you’re searching for into your phone or you can simply search for a business “nearby” using the phone’s GPS capabilities.
Although the app is a good idea, it’s strange that it’s SMS-based. SMS applications are usually reserved for feature phones and “dumb phones”, while the BlackBerry should be emailed based. I guess this is for the BIS folks who don’t like email.
[UPDATE: The applications is not SMS based – rather, it actually uses 3G and doesn’t rely on text or email. You don’t need to request the app using SMS, although it is convenient. You can download the Canpages application by opening a browser on your Blackberry and going to canpages.ca/bb. From there you are able to download the app directly and it works great. It’s also available through Blackberry App World on your phone.]
To download the application for free to a BlackBerry text “blackberry” to 898411.
[ED NOTE: I'm having trouble getting the number to accept the text from a BlackBerry Storm 9530. Comment and let me know if you've had more success with this. The news came from a trusted PR company so I know it's legit.]
Vlingo speech recognition software is trying to change the way you interact with your device. They see a powerful device that can be made even more powerful by making it totally hands-free. Well today they’ve announced version 3.0 of Vlingo, offering a rich feature set that really adds to their product.
Using the power of voice, Vlingo already enables users to send and reply to emails and text messages, search the mobile Web, dial the phone, look up contacts, and launch built-in applications — just by using their voice. With Vlingo 3.0, users gain an enhanced text-to-speech read-back feature for easy hands-free confirmation of what was spoken, the ability to speak action requests such as “send”, and support for wired headsets as well as many Bluetooth headsets.
Vlingo gives BlackBerry users the ability to power the most popular features by voice. They can simply press the side “convenience” key on their handset, which lets them speak commands into the smartphone. Vlingo 3.0 gives a user’s voice the ability to:
• Send and reply to text messages with users who also have Vlingo
• Web search
• Dial the phone
• Send a “note to self”
• Facebook & Twitter status updates
• Tell A Friend
• Optional read-back of the full text or email message that was spoken
• Speak action requests such as “send” or “search”
• Launch native and third-party applications
BlackBerry users can get additional voice capabilities, including the ability to send and reply to text messages and emails to anyone for a one-time charge of $17.99.
Existing users of Vlingo 2.0 can continue to use Vlingo 2.0 at no additional charge.
Vlingo’s speech recognition technology is behind the recent release of Yahoo! oneSearch. They also offer their own search app called Vlingo FIND, which searches locally and includes maps. They’re developing an app that will add speech recognition to pretty much every aspect of the BlackBerry: calling, emailing, text messages, memos to self, and more. WES, of course, would make a perfect venue for release…
Yahoo! has teamed up with Vlingo (not to be confused with Vringo) to offer speech recognition in their mobile web search app. If you’re in the US on a Pearl, Curve, or 8800-series BlackBerry you can snag it here. It worked pretty well in my brief test, getting most of what I said right even when I sort of mumbled, although it seemed to have a little trouble with background noise. There are plans to make it work on more devices and in more countries too, so hopefully more people will be able to get their hands on it soon.
Yahoo! has teamed up with Vlingo (not to be confused with 
