“Households worldwide have access to thousands of TV channels and dozens of service provider choices.  Vlingo aims to simplify TV chaos by providing a simple, intuitive method for discovering the right content from among all those choices, making the experience enjoyable for users and avoiding the frustration of limited, hard to use remote controls,” said Chris Barnett, EVP Markets at Vlingo.  “The Vlingo Virtual Assistant for TV is designed to modernize that thing your grandfather once called a ‘remote control’. Everyone deserves their own assistant and Vlingo’s new TV product offering will make this a reality on TVs this year.”

Vlingo’s Virtual Assistant for Smarter TV will allow users to perform the following tasks with their voice:

• Browse and find: Users can search and discover content by actor, genre or director using Vlingo’s newly developed dialogue manager which engages users with interactive browsing
• Watch shows: “Watch the Price is Right” or “Find western movies starring Clint Eastwood”
• Record programs: “Record Modern Family tonight at 8pm” or “Record the game on ESPN next Monday night at 9pm”
• Rent and buy movies: “Rent The Fighter on Netflix” or “Play Rocky Four on-demand”
• Basic controls: “Switch to on-demand”, “Put on ESPN”, “Go to Netflix” or “Turn up the volume”
• Social media communication: “Facebook update: Joe is watching Lost on Hulu”

For TV manufacturers, set-top box makers, and service providers interested in a preview and partnering with Vlingo, please visit http://vlingo.com/partners.

On December 20, 2011, Vlingo announced the signing of an agreement for Nuance to acquire Vlingo. While the acquisition is expected to close during calendar 2012, no specific closing date has been determined. Vlingo will continue to deliver its products and services as an independent company until the deal closes.

About Vlingo

Vlingo creates voice-powered products and solutions that simplify how individuals connect to the people, places and information that matter most. Through a seamless integration of speech recognition, natural language processing, and its proprietary Intent Engine, Vlingo technology powers its own line of smartphone applications, as well as custom solutions for partners in the mobile, automotive and smart TV industries. Founded in 2006, Vlingo is backed by Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners, Yahoo! and AT&T and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, go to www.vlingo.com.

You can Download Vlingo on the AppStore Here

When Apple launched Siri last month it sparked the desire for many to turn their mobile phone into a personal assistant.  Siri is great, but only for those people lucky enough to get their hands on an  iPhone 4GS.  Many hoped Apple would offer a version of Siri for older iPhone models, but Apple has since announced that it will not make Siri available for iPhone 3G, 3GS or 4 owners.

This leaves millions of people who don’t want to spend the money on an upgrade, or are locked into an existing contract, longing for a Siri alternative.

Fortunately, we have good news.  Vlingo has offered iPhone customers a voice-powered Assistant for years, and its full functionality is available for everyone – iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S.   Better still, Vlingo is free for all on the Apple AppStore.

The Vlingo Virtual Assistant can help you do many of the things that Siri does, like…

• Send messages (SMS or Email)
• Search the web
• Find local businesses
• Get directions
• Voice dial

Vlingo can even do tasks that Siri cannot, like update your Facebook status or send out a Tweet, all with a simple voice command.

You can Download Vlingo on the AppStore Here

No need to take our word for it, though.  Here are some actual user reviews from the AppStore:

Watch out Siri! *****

by Parks Dekle

“Definitely gives 3GS and 4 owners a reason not to upgrade. Thanks Vlingo!”

Great! *****

by Envaz

“Siri like for free!”

Works great *****

by Wilson Cirilo

“Searched for something like this after watching siri at the keynote…Its pretty much alike…”

Feature phones and smartphones fill the pockets and purses of men & women everywhere looking to connect with friends, family members or co-workers while on the go.  Would you like an easy way to quickly make a phone call without having to filter through hundreds of names and numbers in your address book? How about a virtual personal assistant?

Using voice recognition to call your contacts has never been easier (or safer!) when using Vlingo’s Virtual Assistant. Whether you are using an Android, BlackBerry, iPhone or Nokia device you can simply say “Call mom”, call Tommy mobile” or “call pizza” to instantly place a call to anyone in your address book or Vlingo’s infinite cloud-based address book.

Take a minute to download Vlingo and have your virtual assistant start calling!

Emailing with your mobile phone can be slow or even dangerous if you’re behind the wheel.  Using the iPhone voice to email feature offers a great alternative to typing.  And with the Vlingo Virtual Assistant, sending emails on your iPhone is as easy as speaking a few simple commands.

Your iPhone is now more useful than ever with the Vlingo Virtual Assistant.  Updating your social networking status on Facebook and Twitter is just one of the many great, free features Vlingo offers.  Check out our demo video of how Vlingo for your iPhone makes getting things done on the go super fast and simple.

Using voice recognition to call your contacts has never been easier on iPhone and is just one of the many free features offered by the Vlingo Virtual Assistant.  Check out our demos of how quick and simple it is to get things done on the go with Vlingo.

Vlingo has adapted its technology and functionality to bring its Virtual Assistant to all Galaxy S II devices worldwide.

With Samsung Voice Commander, many of Vlingo’s current features will be available to Galaxy S II owners, like social updates, messaging, email, handsfree communication via InCar, voice dialing and search.

Additionally, Vlingo created new features around voice memos and music search unique to the Samsung Galaxy S II device.  Users can also initiate commands simply by double-tapping the home screen button, making it easier than ever to get things done while on the go.

Check out the on-stage demonstration from the event last night in the video clip below.

For carriers and OEMs interested in partnering with Vlingo go to http://www.vlingo.com/partners.

Vlingo will also be at Mobile World Congress on February 14 – 17, 2011.  Click here to set up an in-person briefing.

Let us know down in the comments what you think about this groundbreaking new partnership between Samsung and Vlingo.  You can also view more Vlingo demos on our website.

But today we’re going to take a second to offer up some pointers for getting the most out of our newest feature on Android, the Vlingo ActionBar.   The new ActionBar allows users to access all of the functionality available on the Vlingo Virtual Assistant by typing commands instead of speaking.  This enables you to use Vlingo even when it isn’t convenient to talk to you phone.  Like when you’re at a noisy restaurant or a quiet coffee shop.

As you all know by now, it’s tough to explain what we’re all about.  So we built a little video to show you a few cool demos related to the ActionBar.

Android Users – We’d love to hear what you think.  Are you liking the new ActionBar?  You find it easy to use and helpful when you’re on the go?  Any changes you’d like to see?

Please share your feedback with us in the comment section.  Thanks so much!

Android Users,

Since launching our virtual assistant on Android way back in May, we have had some pretty exciting updates. In August, we made Vlingo totally free to download on Android Market. In October, we introduced the InCar feature, the first and only completely hands free way to message, call and get directions when you’re on the go. Now we have a holiday treat that may be our biggest update yet: codenamed Oyster.

As much as I’d like to spill the details, I’m not at liberty to say any more. But if you want the scoop as soon as it’s available you can:

We’re so excited we had to let you in on our secret. As much as we could, at least.

Talk to everyone very soon!

Cheers,

Team Vlingo

We’re very happy to report that a new Vlingo for iPhone release is now LIVE in the App Store.  The latest version of iOS introduced a few quirks that we’ve been able to fix.  The update released today includes:

** Please Note: You must be running iOS 4.1 in order to download the Vlingo update**

Thanks to all who reached out via Twitter and Facebook the last couple months, alerting us of any issues you encountered.  We appreciate the feedback, and just wanted to let you know that we were listening.  The app should be all shined up for your speaking pleasure.  Enjoy!

Cheers,

The Vlingo Team