Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Vlingo voice recognition now in Apple’s iPhone store

By Galen Moore

Vlingo Corp. announced today its voice-recognition application for the Apple iPhone is available on Apple Inc.’s App Store. The Cambridge company’s voice-powered application enables users to turn spoken commands into Google searches and send status updates to Facebook and Twitter.

Vlingo’s “breakthrough” voice-recognition technology takes the simplicity of the iPhone’s touch-screen interface to a new level, Vlingo CEO Dave Grannan said in a release Wednesday.

Venture-backed Vlingo launched in 2006. Investors Charles River Ventures and Sigma Partners participated in the company’s $6.5 million series A round. The two Massachusetts firms were joined by Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) in a $20 million Series B round announced in April.

In June, Burlington-based Nuance Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAN), a competitor in the voice-recognition space, sued Vlingo, alleging patent infringement. That suit is still pending in Texas district court.