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Vlingo
SAN FRANCISCO–By many estimates, texting while driving is unsafe, which explains why 30 states currently have laws on the books restricting the act. And yet data suggests that those laws do nothing to actually prevent users from testing while driving.
That’s where Vlingo comes in. The service is aiming to keep users’ hands on the wheel and eyes on the road with its new InCar feature for Android. The functionality, which will be available exclusively on Sprint handsets through the end of the year, adds a read-back feature for texts messages. So now you can not only speak texts through Vlingo, but it will also read the replies out loud.
In addition, Vlingo has integrated Google Maps so that you can get directions without ever having to touch or look at your phone. The service has also thrown in an extra feature, dubbed Vlingo Answers, that lets you speak a question (such as “what is a good French wine?”) and then receive an answer back aloud. (During the demo, it was pretty amusing to hear the app try to pronounce French words, but it did an admirable job.)
Since this is an audio-only feature, the image here doesn’t do it a lot of justice. Luckily, Vlingo has posted a video that nicely-illustrates the InCar functionality. Check it out below.
