A test drive of hands-free texting

You can try it free for 30 days, then it costs $20 a month.

They're starting small. Every time I called customer service, I got the same person and sometimes I could hear her baby crying it the background.

EVA's hands-free texting service might end up being of value, but it has a lot of technical hurdles to overcome before it can be a real player.

Yap

This service will not be available until next year, and it's not clear if it will be offered to everyone or only through certain cellphone service providers.

But Yap has gotten a lot of buzz, at least partly because its voice recognition software seems so accomplished, even over a cellphone line. It can even translate into texting-style syntax.

For example, say "Where do you want to go tonight?" into a phone loaded with Yap software, and it translates it as "Where do u want 2 go 2night?," using the contractions that hard-core texters employ.

It could just as easily use the full words, but that would not be cool, according to Yap's founder, Igor Jablokov.

"That way, their friends don't think they text like a nerd," he said.

david.colker@latimes.com

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Text talk

Common sense hasn't curbed texting in cars, but voice-to-text services might make it safer.

Jott

Function: Speech-to-text for outgoing messages

Method: Human transcribers

Cost: Free

Info: www.jott.com

Pluses: Easy to setup and use; works with e-mails and direct-to-phone texting.

Minuses: Transcriptions are hit-and-miss; works only on outgoing texting; a stranger is reading your messages.

EVA

Function: Incoming e-mails converted to speech; replies sent as audio attachments.

Method: Computer voice

Cost: Hands-free e-mail is free for 30 days, then $20 a month.

Info: www.evaforhire.com

Pluses: E-mails processed quickly; user can reply using voice.

Minuses: Not all types of e-mail accounts can be used; can't text to phones.

Yap (coming in 2008)

Function: Incoming and outgoing messages

Method: Voice-to-text software

Cost: Not determined

Info: www.yapme.com

Pluses: Software function is impressive.

Minuses: Too early to tell

Source: Times research