Vlingo Corporation announced a new version of its free vlingo application for BlackBerry smartphones. The 2.0 release adds new enhancements such as the ability to speak Facebook and Twitter status updates, support for ten new applications, full-text message read-back, "tell-a-friend" and SureType support.

Vlingo enables BlackBerry owners to operate the most popular functions using their voice. By simply pressing the side key on the handset, users can speak commands into the phone. Some of the things they can do are sending and replying to emails and text messages, searching the Internet, opening applications, dialing the phone, looking up contacts, all by simply speaking to the phone.

"We launched vlingo 1.0 for BlackBerry smartphones in June, and consumer adoption has exceeded our aggressive benchmarks," said Dave Grannan, CEO of vlingo. "Our users have spoken more than three million times to our application, including over one million times to compose text messages with the power of their voices. This is validation of our unique approach to voice recognition, which hinges on making mobile data and applications easier to find and use. It provides clear evidence of the growing need to simplify the mobile phone user experience."

The additions brought by the latest release are voice updates to the status on Facebook & Twitter, full keyboard support including SureType, read-back of the full text or email message that was spoken. Also, using speech, users can launch built-in programs and functions such as: Address Book, Alarm,  BrickBreaker, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Maps, Media, MemoPad, Messages, Options, Tasks, Web browser, as well as third party programs such as: Facebook, Google Maps, Opera, Viigo.

vlingo 2.0 is available free-of-charge for BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8800 series smartphones. US and Canadian users can download the application from the PC or directly from their handsets here, while UK users can download a beta version here.