voice recognition

It looks like Google's search app might be getting a little competition. Vlingo, a new voice-powered search application was just released into the App Store. The app has been available for RIM phones for some time, but has now been ported to the iPhone. Like the Google app, it can recognize spoken English words (and works best with an American accent ). Unlike Google's app, however, it can search both Google and Yahoo engines.

Now that people in several locations have had a chance to test it's speech-to-text abilities, a few interesting and unusual trends are being found. For example, the Google app has a North American accent bias. Users in the UK have been noticing that the app has a difficult time understanding their accents.

Google has released the highly anticipated update of their Google Mobile App that includes the ability to search Google by talking your search into your iPhone. It also adds location-aware results for searching for things like movie show times. The update is available as a free update in the App Store. Video after the break.

Google's planned launch of their voice search app for the iPhone this weekend didn't happen as promised, causing speculation that Apple may have put a stop to it themselves. We waited all weekend to see it, but it was a no-show. Google even took down the demo video from YouTube.

Microsoft said a while back that they were looking into adding their voice search software to the iPhone, but the NY TImes says Google might be beating them to it. Rumors are circulating the net that Google is planning to release a free voice search app for the iPhone, possibly some time later today.

A cool new voice recognition app was released into the App Store today. It's called Vocalia, from developer Creaceed, and it lets you search your iPhone's contacts without the need to contact the internet You just tap the app, speak the name of the contact, and it will automatically open it for you. Vocalia is available for $3.99 (€2.99) until October 18th, when it becomes $7.99 [App Store].

Those of you familiar with the time-old rivalry between software companies Apple and Microsoft probably appreciate the significance of the fact that Apple has created their own software development platform in the iPhone and iPod touch. The App Store is a hit, and everybody wants a part of it, even Microsoft, who recently unveiled plans for their own iPhone app, TellMe.