Howdy hands, it's Monday, and that means time for Hammerdown Monday! What's that ya say? It's Thursday? Well hand, lets just pretend its Monday, and Hammerdown is on time. Go on, I'll wait a second. Hmm hmm hmmmm. Got it? Cool beans! As I was sayin...
I95. One of the busiest and most dangerous stretches of Big Slab in the lower 48. Not the best place to read your email, or send a text while your drivin, especially 'round D.C. You're better off just waiting til you hit the next exit or pickle park. (That's a rest stop, son) I've seen quite a few numbskulls put their fourwheeler in the ditch, or slam into another soccer-mom mobile. It ain't pretty.
"But driver," I hear you cry, "I have a real important email coming!" Tough noogies, you need to wait. Or, you can go get a copy of Vlingo Plus, and have your email read to you, or even email your response by talking to your phone. Yep, you read me right, send an email by telling your phone what to do. "But does it work, driver?" Yes it does. I have been using it for a few months now, and I yell ya, I love it. I had a problem with it the first three days, it wouldn't hear me right, and my "I'll be in Texas in four hours" turned into "I'll have Texas toast for four horses". But I found the problem, and I'm happy to say it was a combination of my noisy truck cab, and a real crummy bluetooth headset.
This here app is feature rich, Safereader for reading emails to you, update Twitter and Facebook, dial your phone, send a text or email, search the web, and more. Kinda like someone sitting in the jump seat typing for ya, while you keep your peepers on the road. You can even have it open an app for you, I love opening Trapster without having to take my eyes off the road. Easy to learn commands make it simple to start learning how to use Vlingo. It's actually very intuitive when you start getting used to it. Turn off bluetooth support when you have Safereader on and are listning to music or podcasts with your Berry. I had an issue with the audio freaking out on me, while I had my Berry plugged into the stereo. Turning off Bluetooth support fixed it.
Verdict: I am gonna give Vlingo nine and a half gears out of ten, for being a solid, easy to use, and virtually indispensable app. The user interface is visually pleasing, with no slowdown on my Torch 9800. I took away a half gear for the Bluetooth shenanigans, if you aren't listening to something, it becomes a non-issue. All in all, I would definitely put this on my Top Ten Must Have Apps list. And even at 19.99, it's worth every penny, especially if it saves you the cost of a texting ticket, or an accident.
Hammerdown Monday is written every other Monday, by ADPerdue2002, a genuine Long Haul Trucker with eight years on the road, recently certified as having over one million accident and ticket free miles, and a bona fide BlackBerry junkie. Apps are rated from one gear to ten gears, with one meaning "don't use this app even if they pay ya", and ten meaning "if you don't have this app yet, you need some serious head shrinkin". 
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Hammerdown Monday: Vlingo Plus 
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