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Vlingo Beta (Voice Typing)

Just received an email with the Vlingo beta apk. I have not tried it yet but since this forum has helped me a ton, I figured I might be able to return the favor. Below are the instructions directly from the email:
Installing Vlingo for Android
1. Check the Unknown Sources item in Settings > Applications
This is required since Vlingo is not yet in the Android Market
Unknown apps screen
2. Open the Browser and browse to *********
NOTE: Please do not share this link with anyone else
3. When the file is finished downloading click on it and then click the Install button
4. Click the Open button when you see the Application Installed message
Add Vlingo to your Home Screen
1. Press and hold in an empty space on your home screen
2. Click Widgets (or sometimes it will be called Android Widgets)
Pick widget
3. Scroll down and click Vlingo
Add Vlingo to your keyboard
Speak anywhere you can type
1. Open Settings > Language & Keyboard
2. Check Vlingo Keyboard
Enable keyboard
3. Press and hold in any text box on your phone and click Input Method
4. Click on Vlingo Keyboard
Setup keyboard
5. You can now press the microphone icon (Speak button) to speak to any text box.
Known Issues
* Vlingo requires Android version 2.0 or higher to work
* While Vlingo should work on most Android 2.0+ devices, Vlingo has only been fully tested on the Google Nexus One and the Verizon Droid

Thanks!
This is a really great App. I really missed not having this when I switched over from the iphone.
.

you are aware that the default AOSP keyboard has this option right? as well as the newest HTC ime keyboard?, and the latest better keyboard?

dmc971989 said:
you are aware that the default AOSP keyboard has this option right? as well as the newest HTC ime keyboard?, and the latest better keyboard?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the default keyboard does do text to type, but Vlingo lets you open apps, call people and a lot more stuff. It is pretty cool.

The Vlingo voice recognition seems to work better and faster then the stock stuff.
What I really like is the voice search widget, it works really well. You can use commands like "find wal mart in Denver Colorado" and it will give you all the results on a map with details and you can call etc.
Works better then the other apps available IMO.
.

jpeepers said:
What I really like is the voice search widget, it works really well. You can use commands like "find wal mart in Denver Colorado" and it will give you all the results on a map with details and you can call etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The voice search that's built into the navigator app does that as well. I can say "Navigate to Wal Mart", it brings me up a list of Wal Marts in the area, and fires up google navigation to guide me there. It's also location aware, so if I simply do a voice search on "Marriott", it brings up the google result for the nearest Marriott hotel to my current location.
Another cool little app is Choice Dialer. It's very good at voice dialing, but it also lets you do things like "Schedule an event for next Wednesday at 2 PM", or "Play music by Motley Crue"....
Definitely going to give this app a try. It'll take A LOT to get me to give up Swype as my regular keyboard.
Regardless of whether I end up using this particular app or not, with all the laws being passed about cell phone use while driving, voice recognition is no longer just a "neat toy", it's becoming a necessity. So I applaud anyone and everyone who is working to advance the state of the art in this field.

I have not been able to install it. They don't specify if there is an Android version requirement, which I am guessing there is. I am running 1.5.
Ceger

Ceger said:
I have not been able to install it. They don't specify if there is an Android version requirement, which I am guessing there is. I am running 1.5.
Ceger
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says right in the OP that it requires Android 2.0 or higher.

subliminalurge said:
Definitely going to give this app a try. It'll take A LOT to get me to give up Swype as my regular keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 to that. I love Swype. Best app I have dled by far!

Finally got a chance to play around with this app this morning.
Observations so far... The keyboard seems pretty good, although I won't be replacing Swype with it. Voice accuracy seems solid. It doesn't handle "Navigate to" very well. If I say "Navigate to Wal Mart" it just brings up nearby wal marts in google maps. On the built in voice search, it fires up navigation and handles the request properly. Given that this is still a beta, it could be that they just haven't tweaked it to take advantage of Android's capabilities yet.
Seems about the same speed as google's voice search.
But now the deal breaker. I've been getting frequent "unable to connect to server" errors this morning. I've verified that my data connection is working fine. This may be a beta, but they have versions for other handsets that are in production, so the beta thing is no excuse for their servers being down.
All things considered, this seems like a solid effort, but I don't see where it brings very many advantages to the table in comparison to the built in voice search. And if their servers aren't reliable, I can't really justify putting it into daily use no matter how good it is.

swype keyboard for life, but this vlingo could go somewhere, my only problem is, it didnt give me the widget.
i uninstalled and re-installed. nothing.

keyofhappy said:
swype keyboard for life, but this vlingo could go somewhere, my only problem is, it didnt give me the widget.
i uninstalled and re-installed. nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd. The widget's working fine for me.
In truth, it doesn't really add much. You can get nearly the same result by just putting the app icon on your home screen. The widget does eliminate one extra button press, but for some unknown reason they made it 4 spaces wide.
Not enough functionality to justify losing that much screen real estate, IMHO.
EDIT: Ah, you can set it to come up when you long press the search button. Accomplishes the same thing as the widget, and doesn't use up 4 spaces on your screen.

Ooh, another annoyance...
They use yahoo rather than google for searches. No place to change it in the settings.

Another observation...
Google's voice recognition cuts me off after a fairly short time. Vlingo has let me compose some pretty lengthy emails all at one shot, whereas creating the same message with the stock voice recognition required me to do it in 4 or 5 chunks.
This almost makes writing email on my phone easier than my desktop with the full sized keyboard.

Do you have to be using it as the keyboard, or can it be used as a stand alone talk to text, or for opening programs and what not?

Negrito said:
Do you have to be using it as the keyboard, or can it be used as a stand alone talk to text, or for opening programs and what not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do not have to use the keyboard part of it. Everything else will work just the same without using its keyboard.
Mike

crazymike1234 said:
2. Open the Browser and browse to *********
NOTE: Please do not share this link with anyone else
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol nice
10chars

regaw_leinad said:
lol nice
10chars
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey...It said do not share the link. It didn't say anything about the file
Mike

Yet another feature of Android that is only in webs' wet dreams. After overall year after announcement, still no API's for the mic, amazing.

crazymike1234 said:
You do not have to use the keyboard part of it. Everything else will work just the same without using its keyboard.
Mike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. Got it installed and played with it a bit. Me likey! Thanks for sharing.

Amazon FREE app of the day: FlexT9 keyboard. A Must Have

I can see that Amazon loves giving away free apps, which I don't mind at all.
link for more info.
Another app you should download
link

Just a warning:
Take a look at their EULA. Clearly states that they collect the information that you type and they cannot be held responsible what is done with this information... Just a little shady.

gbarayah said:
Just a warning:
Take a look at their EULA. Clearly states that they collect the information that you type and they cannot be held responsible what is done with this information... Just a little shady.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every keyboard saids that.

gbarayah said:
Just a warning:
Take a look at their EULA. Clearly states that they collect the information that you type and they cannot be held responsible what is done with this information... Just a little shady.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curious if you could explain where you got this information? The EULA posted on Nuance's website (http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/android/EULA-flext9.html) does clearly state that
"As part of the Service, Nuance also collects and uses Speech Data, as defined below, to tune, enhance and improve the speech recognition and other components of the Service, and other Nuance services and products... 'Speech Data' means the audio files, associated transcriptions and log files provided by you hereunder or generated in connection with the Service."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but as far as I can tell this is exactly the same thing Google does with Voice Search, Google Talk Voicemail, etc. They go on to explain that only Nuance and third parties directly under their supervision will have access to such data. Sounds like business as usual to me...

this is an amazing keyboard, beats skype in all aspects

Love this keyboard. I've used Swype for quite a long time and this is much, much better.
.....

I really like how I can easily switch between swiping and typing. Swype and other swiping keyboards don't do this nearly as well as Flex T9.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

I picked up FlexT9 too.
I'm a swype user now and I really want to like it. I do think the keyboard layout itself is better than swype. Feels more responsive and it's definitely much easier to tap out words on it then it is on swype's.
Coming from swype though, I've have things that I'm used to, like swyping ! or ? to the space bar, Sywping the swype icon to 5 to get the numeric keypad and Swyping up after the first character to capitalize.
Those are pretty minor though. A couple of things I really don't like about FlexT9 though are that you can't click on a wrong word to pull up other choices for that word. You have to deleted it and re-swipe it. I think how, with swype, you can type away and then go back and quickly fix a few wrong words at the end like that. Also, I don't like how it won't let you swipe in the url bar. I use Dolphin and use the url bar to enter search queries more than I do urls. That's probably my biggest issue with FlexT9. I have to also get used to hitting space bar at different times from swype. I think if I swype something on swype and then the next I want a number after a space (like I want to write "this 1"), with swype it's swype "this" then hold "1". With FlexT9, you have to hit a space after swiping "this" That'll just take a little getting used to.
The last thing is that, like Swype, it automatically enters anything you type in manually into the dictionary. I hate that. I wind up with hmmm and grrrr in my dictionary. Then, let's say, for some reason, I can't get it to swipe a word and I have to type it and I mis-type it (very common on swype), I get that added. Like if I type out "thief", but I type "thied", then thied is forever in my dictionary. I clear data on swype monthly or so, but that's not a good solution. Why can't they both just add a check box for "automatically enter typed out words into the dictionary". Done, simple.
I've given up on FlexT9 and come back a couple of times. Not sure if I'll clear the hurdle to switch from swype.
Anyone have any idea how responsive they are to changes? I did receive an email back starting they'll review my suggestion. What kinds of things have been changed in recent updates?

@lexluthor: I pretty much have the same feelings with you on trying to like FlexT9 after using Swype. It's so hard to get used to swiping without inserting Swype's shortcuts. If only one of those keyboards would take the good qualities of the other... but might be a bit difficult as I think Swype figures things out location based along your swipe line; whereas FlexT9 takes a guess at your swiped letters and does a predictive dictionary match. That's why if you trace "ELEP" on FlexT9, you can get ELEPHANT as a word choice.
BTW, if you double tap on words with FlexT9, choices pop up. Don't know how you're not seeing it. This is with the version of FlexT9 from the Amazon free app day.

Does anyone know how to get this keyboard in Canada? I've wanted to try for a while but can't find it in android market and amazon app store isn't available here...

I paid for this a while back and haven't seen any updates for it for quite a while. It let me install the (now free) Australian version from the market, it still can't understand the Kiwi accent though
Edit: No, turns out it just hasn't been updated in months.

knightnz said:
I paid for this a while back and haven't seen any updates for it for quite a while. It let me install the (now free) Australian version from the market, it still can't understand the Kiwi accent though
Edit: No, turns out it just hasn't been updated in months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says it was updated June 2nd. Nothing in the changelog though and from the comments it looks like the only thing that changed was the permission to read contact data... odd.
I still want to try this though, I've heard good things about this. It won't show up in the market app and if I try to install online it will say not supported in my country... so how to get it
EDIT:
Okay so apparently there is a free version available in Canada but it's in French.
Can anyone upload the free Australian version apk? (English is pretty much the same .. right?)
Thanks

Anyone have the Apk or not?

Keyboard security question.

I just downloaded my first keyboard app from the PlayStore and went to install it, but then I got a warning message about a bunch of stuff that this keyboard is able to know what I'm typing, including credit card numbers, text messages and so on ...
I got ripped for $12,000 once a few years ago because I bought something online and someone got my credit card numbers. Bank investigation, blah blah blah, took ages before it was all sorted. Now I'm a bit paranoid about this sort of thing.
Is there another app maybe, or some setting that can stop a keyboard from recording what I type?
I know I could just go back and use the standard keyboard that came with my ROM, but now I'm sus on that too. Is this a common thing with Android, or all devices these days. Is it something to be worried about, or is that just how it is and its really nothing to worry about?
The keyboard I got from the Playstore is called Kii Keyboard. It seems popular with heaps of users, but still I thought I'd ask first.
Thx

I haven't had a lot of experience with different keyboard apps, just with SwiftKey. I think Google is trying to keep people aware when they install these keyboards of the risks of what "could" happen. If you are downloading a very popular app from a reputable source on the PlayStore, I would think that its chances of being safe are pretty high. Google is pretty good about taking down apps if they don't meet certain requirements. Thankfully I have never had any problems using SwiftKey, maybe try that one! Also, as far as if there is a setting to keep the keyboard from paying too much attention to what you type, I think that would be working against any features that help enhance the keyboards predictive text. I know with SwiftKeys, I love how much better my predictions have become over time. I'm not sure how possible that would have been with something working against it. Just a thought though!

Yeah I also had this attitude for trying new keyboards, because of the permissions they asked. But after someone told me that the standard keyboard uses the same permissions, I was willing to try it. In the end you could also edit the permissions of the app (if you're rooted), so that it's 'safer', but I think you'll miss out on some of the predictive text options.

Major issues when typing in certain forms, please help.

In certain text boxes in the browser I'm experiencing a really annoying issue, basically when I type a bunch of stuff in then make a mistake and start using the backspace key to erase, stuff that I perviously typed comes up in place of stuff I erased. It happens even now that I'm typing here. What's up with this issue? Any way to fix? I noticed it happens more often when I use swype typing. Stock keyboard on stock Xperia Z3.

I still have this issue on Lollipop, wtf...

Ive had that issue since Kit Kat.

Try another browser, I had that issue before. I prefer the stock browser so I installed AOSP Browser installer from the play store, then installed the kk browser. No issues with it for me now. I hope this helps.

Trying another browser or another keyboard isn't really a fix. I like to use the Sony keyboard because it allows me to type in english and italian without having to manually switch language every time. It also seems to be more precise with the swype compared to Google or Swiftkey, and it has better handling of custom words. Also I like to use Chrome because it's fast, smooth and "just works", like someone used to say.
I made a few posts about it on the Sony forums, because it only happens with the stock keyboard, hopefully they will listen.
Here's also a video I made to show the bug recorded by me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZhG8rqpw1w

I turned off the auto correct. Seemed to work.

Interestingly enough, I noticed this with google voice typing. Invariably it would accurately type for me, but put everything in twice. Craptastically ridiculous to have to erase what you actually wanted typed because the stupid ap would double it up. I have since removed as best I can the blue google ap, don't use google+ at all and I tell the xperia kb to not guess squat for me. The actual term 'smartphone' I truly believe to be as misleading as one could possibly be without calling yourself a liar.

So, has anyone found a fix for this issue? I feel like I'm pretty much the only one so I wonder how is it possible that such a terrible glitch ON STOCK APPS is basically unnoticed.

I used to get this when using remote apps like Unified Remote and typing into the HTPC. Whenever it tried to predict it would go all screwy.
I haven't noticed it in my z3 but I use Swiftkey.

Its a problem with browser, web site, keyboard... Not sony it self...
I do occur this problem but very rarely, because some website uses technology which is not so optimize for smartphones to decode them, or certain browser.

Samsung keyboard randomly capitalizing words

Hi, the stock Samsung keyboard will randomly capitalize words which aren't capitalized while typing. It happens to random words in the middle of the sentence.
Any other users here with the same problem and an idea how to fix this?

spelaben said:
Hi, the stock Samsung keyboard will randomly capitalize words which aren't capitalized while typing. It happens to random words in the middle of the sentence.
Any other users here with the same problem and an idea how to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an issue with how their user dictionary works.. anytime you capitalize something, it saves that word as if it's a 'custom' word to your dictionary.. once I capitalized the word "Habit" when I was texting my wife because of a restaurant called The Habit where we live, now it always capitalizes that word when I swipe it. I've tested this theory and it does operate this way, unfortunately. What you can do is clear the user dictionary in the keyboard settings then it will revert all of those words back to normal.. until you ever capitalize them again. Sucks, but it is what it is.
I have found, however, when you "force" the UNcapitalized version of the word manually (after it auto-capitalizes it) then the next time you swipe or type that word it will be normal.. it uses statistical use data to decide which you use more, and will default to that..

ingenious247 said:
This is an issue with how their user dictionary works.. anytime you capitalize something, it saves that word as if it's a 'custom' word to your dictionary.. once I capitalized the word "Habit" when I was texting my wife because of a restaurant called The Habit where we live, now it always capitalizes that word when I swipe it. I've tested this theory and it does operate this way, unfortunately. What you can do is clear the user dictionary in the keyboard settings then it will revert all of those words back to normal.. until you ever capitalize them again. Sucks, but it is what it is.
I have found, however, when you "force" the UNcapitalized version of the word manually (after it auto-capitalizes it) then the next time you swipe or type that word it will be normal.. it uses statistical use data to decide which you use more, and will default to that..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm pretty sure I never capitalized words like "so", "or" and "and".
Will try your suggestion though, this also happened after I clean flashed a new ROM few days ago. Maybe the cloud dictionary data is messed up and flooded with falsely capitalized words.

If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem with Swiftkey.

flu13 said:
If it makes you feel better, I have the same problem with Swiftkey.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because the Samsung stock keyboard IS Swiftkey

Oh, well that makes sense.
I disabled the Samsung version and installed Swiftkey from the Play store.

Swiftkey
spelaben said:
Hi, the stock Samsung keyboard will randomly capitalize words which aren't capitalized while typing. It happens to random words in the middle of the sentence.
Any other users here with the same problem and an idea how to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just dealt with the same issue. I installed Swiftkey, disabled Samsung's keyboard - all good.

Mine just started doing this also. I'm one of those weird people that believe in proper grammar.