Speech Recognition for iPhone - Free Apps You Can't Live Without

I'm a big fan of the iPhone and I can't believe I've never noticed these apps before.

Simply put, they have changed the way I send text messages, dial my friends and even update Facebook.

I've used speech recognition software for about a year now and it's seriously changed the way I write. It's probably made me a little lazy, in the same sort of way that my handwriting skills have atrophied now that I can just type everything.

Discovering functioning, and brilliantly at that, speech recognition software that I can use on my mobile device is really exciting.

The only thing I'm worried about is becoming even more of an iPhone fanboy!

I've written hubs before about buying voice recognition software, but the good news here is that you don't have to buy a thing.

Both of the applications I will describe are completely free, although Vlingo will charge for more advanced features.

Both of the following applications will allow you to:

• Dictate directly to your phone
• Dial contacts simply by saying the name of the person you intend to dial.  This is quite commonplace on modern phones but it works qute a bit more gracefully with these dedicated software packages
• Update Facebook and Twitter - What an excellent addition
• Send texts without using the screen keypad
• Send mails in a similar way
  

The 'lite' version is free of charge, but to send texts and emails you'll have to shell out $7. 

You might balk at this relatively high price for an iPhone application, but it's a small fee for such an awesome piece of software.

Right, here's the Daddy!

My hub with a Dragon Naturally Speaking review speaks of my admiration for Nuance in general and DNS specifically.  It's the most handy thing on my PC aside from Windows and I wouldn't do without it.

Plainly, the iPhone app won't be as fully featured, but it still lives up to its big brother.

It's completely free of charge and WILL change the way you use your handset.

The speed with which it receives dictation is stunning and it's simple and efficient.  I love it.

I personally use Dragon Dictation, but I'm a big fan of the desktop version so that shouldn't be surprising.  Vlingo is still well worth your time.

If you have an iPhone, stop reading this, go get one of these apps and then check out some speech recognition software reviews.