Application Dragon Dictation 

Platforms iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

Price Free

For those of you who don't plan on picking up the new voice-activated iPhone 4S, Nuance Communications' Dragon Dictation may be the next best thing. According to MacRumors.com, the programme was developed by the same company behind the the Siri service in the 4S. It's little wonder then  that the highly acclaimed app - and highly sophisticated software behind it - has long been considered the gold standard as far as computerised voice-recognition goes.

The programme's home-screen features little more than a red button accompanied by a simple 'tap to dictate' instruction. From there you can record 60 seconds of chatter, the content of which is duly converted to text in a matter of seconds. Once complete, you can send the content directly through a number of channels, including Facebook, text message and e-mail.

What's more, the software not only boasts the ability to understand different accents, it also allows you to pepper your speech with punctuation marks and can even recognise names from your contact list.

Despite these perks, however, the app does still struggle with more obscure words and phrases - hence, the on-screen keyboard. But if you're not the grandiloquent type and looking for an easy way to text message on the go, it's hard to think of a better alternative.