Not one to be outdone by Yahoo! OneSearch, it turns out the Windows Live Search application for BlackBerry is also packing voice recognition, letting you pull up mobile searches just by speaking into your mobile. I’ve been making progress with vlingo lately, which features Google and Yahoo! searches built in as well, but one of our readers went so far to say “it has replaced half of my applications overnight, literally.” Tall words, but Live Search does feature GPS maps and navigation, movie showtimes, traffic, weather, and a bunch of other handy features. One-stop shops for BlackBerry software are becoming hot commodities, and voice recognition is the soupe du jour. Head on over to m.live.com to give Windows Live Search for BlackBerry a shot, or go to Live Search Mobile for more info.
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I talked with Vlingo CEO Dave Grannan prior to their announcement of Vlingo last week, and was pretty pumped for the product – after all, voice activation on your BlackBerry is a pretty awesome idea. Although the launch has encountered a few bumps, and I’m still training Vlingo like a naughty puppy to recognize my authority, our talk still gives you a run-through of what Vlingo is about and what kind of future features we can expect in the future. I for one still hold a lot of hope for the application, even though it’s not running perfectly just yet.
Although our faith in voice recognition has been a wee bit tainted after trying to get vlingo to work for the last week, Google recently announced that you can now make voice-activated, local searches using Google Maps on the BlackBerry 8110, BlackBerry 8120, and BlackBerry 8130. It sounds like the app is still a work in progress, but no doubt once it’s been polished and fine-tuned, we’ll start seeing it on devices other than the Pearl. I really do like the idea of all these new voice-based services, but the more you have to wrestle with them to recognize you properly, the more you’re inclined to just use the dang keypad. You can find more info on Google Maps Voice Search, or head on over to m.google.com/maps on your BlackBerry to get started.
You’ve seen some of their fine white label work with Yahoo!, but Vlingo’s going it alone with their new application which promises to control pretty much everything on your BlackBerry through voice. All BlackBerrys come built in with a voice dialling app, but Vlingo is going to do a lot more than just that… You’ll be able to text and e-mail by dictation, open applications like Calendar and Maps, search your address book, and make web searches using Vlingo. One very cool feature Vlingo’s packing is Note2Self, where you can pull the classic “Note to self: Pick up laundry. Groom cat. Begin plans for global domination”, which then get tacked onto your tasks, or sent to yourself as an e-mail or text. Super-awesome. I’m really excited about the possibility of third-party apps plugging into Vlingo, too. Tune in to our next podcast to get the full down-low on the new software.
Click this link to download Vlingo for free or head to m.vlingo.com on your BlackBerry.
After stumbling on a story about a recent Sony acquisition, I learned about Gracenote, which does a lot of work with digital music files, and apparently plays nice with BlackBerry. Back in the day I used to use Winamp which used Gracenote’s CDDB system to gather up information like album and genre to tack onto my files. You might remember hearing about Sony Ericsson’s TrackID program, which recognizes music that you just hold your phone close to, and is clearly powered by Gracenote. iTunes will be a great converging point for Gracenote and the BlackBerry Bold, but I’m really hopeful to see the other services Gracenote offers, like lyrics lookup, music discovery, and handsfree music navigation. Around CES time, it sounded like RIM was being troublesome about getting the service onto BlackBerrys, but I think it’s safe to say everyone would love to have this software preloaded on every device.
Now here’s an interesting service. Telus just announced Outlook Voice Access for their hosted Exchange server, which lets users dictate, listen and forward e-mails through their BlackBerry, as well as a bunch of other web-based Outlooky options, like access agendas, documents and contacts. Hosted Exchange is a fine option for SMBs, and this new Outlook Voice Access is some fine icing on the cake. You’re looking at $14/month for the professional plan, plus another $10/month for BlackBerry syncing, but there are a few other BlackBerry voice services through Telus that might be worth looking into. For more details, head on over here.
