Anything voice activated is still so new it feels futuristic, a technology still confined to the realms of movies set 50 years from now, like in Minority Report when Tom Cruise commands his house to do mundane tasks. Of course, ever since the clapper was invented to turn on lights based on a sound source, it was fairly easy to conclude that voice activation would eventually be plausible. Now, with the iPhone’s touch-driven interface having widespread use, those gesture-driven computer projections Tom Cruise is seen manipulating to Shubert’s unfinished symphony are a mere hop and step away; in 2006 Oblong Industries created the g-speak spatial operating environment, a less flashy version of the tech you see in Minority Report. On a more pedestrian level, Microsoft is slated to release Project Natal for the new Xbox 360 generation in 2010, which enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without a game controller through a natural user interface of gestures and spoken commands.

In the meantime, however, voice activation is becoming more widespread and of heavy pedestrian use, a device soon to be expected as a default mechanism on iPhones and its competitors (Voice Control for making phone calls and playing music is now included on the iPhone 3GS). For the iPhone 3G and earlier models, outside apps, like the free Say What and vlingo, have provided users with this voice command ability. While Say What is limited to searching for maps and directions (read more about Say What here), vlingo provides the user with many voice activated functions, from calling contacts and conducting web searches to updating your social networking site.

Vlingo starts off pretty heavy duty, requiring you to agree to a big terms of service agreement prior to using the app, and then it prompts you along an instructional manual to guide you in using Vlingo and what you may do with it. The main screen on vlingo shows a large Press + Speak button at the bottom, with a banner maxim on the top reading “USE THE POWER OF YOUR VOICE.” The bottom holds a navigation bar where you may opt to specifically command a voice search for maps, something on the web, dialing a contact, or updating a social networking site. Generally, though, using the “home” tab is best as you may search for all of these at once, merely with a few more words spoken at a time. For example, if you select the web search tab on the navigation bar, you may search for Gibson guitars simply by saying “Gibson Guitars” whereas on the home tab you would say, “web search for Gibson guitars.” Overall, it seems the speaking function is very instinctual, allowing you to phrase things like “Call Ocie at work,” “find smoothie shop in SOMA San Francisco,” or “web search for vintage lamps.”

You may either hold down the Press + Speak button, letting go once you finish speaking, or you may tap it, speak, then tap again once finished – I prefer the holding down myself, despite it feeling a bit more old-fashioned, like speaking into a tape recorder. Vlingo will display what it heard on a results list, and should there be a recognition error, simply tap the text box or speak again. Should you ever forget how to speak to vlingo, and I doubt you will, you may tap the “I” for information in the upper right corner and read through instruction manuals and a FAQ list.

Prior to using the social networking function, you must sign vlingo in to either your facebook or twitter account (sorry myspacers). Also, for the web search function, you may customize vlingo to use either yahoo or google.

A definite downer was that, funnily enough, vlingo doesn’t seem to have the best speech recognition. I found myself repeating things twice over just to get the correct result, and I figure manually searching with those tried and true fingers may get a result in the same amount of time. The instructions also conjure an impressive vision of vlingo, stating that you can send text messages, send email, create memos or tasks, and open other applications all with your voice. Yet, I could not figure out how to do any of these, nor were there any buttons or instructions as to how to go about it. Another pitfall is once you get a result from vlingo, you have to reenter the app to use it again. I definitely used the POWER OF MY VOICE when cursing at vlingo.

Overall? Vlingo is nothing fantastic, it just saves you a step… sometimes. You still have to cycle through results on the safari browser with your fingers, and it is definitely not meant for using while you’re driving to save up hand usage (as those of you who read the Terms of Service would know, heh). Slowly, but surely, voice activation apps will improve with time, and vlingo is a at least a step in the right direction.