What sounds like it could really be a great thing seems to fall a little short of its promises. WonderVoice is an audio version of Facebook. It will read Facebook to you, play Facebook music, and allow you to verbalize commands, including statuses. It sounds great, but it falls a little short of the total Facebook experience.
Part of designing any app for Facebook is realizing that everyone uses the social network differently. I don't sign on and read the news feed every time. Sometimes I just check in to see what the newest statuses and responses are that affect me. This might sound a little narcissistic, but I check my Facebook at all times of the day, and there just isn't always the time to read through all that.
Of course, that's where WonderVoice is supposed to come in handy. It's supposed to be a timesaver in that it reads your Facebook for you, and allows you to verbalize commands to it. It sounds like it should be a great timesaver. It also plays the music you and your friends have posted, tells you which friends of yours are online and which friends are physically close to you, and also reads your messages to you. You can like statuses too. The app is optimized for iPhone, but can also be used on the iPad.
Yet, it doesn't give me my Notifications. It gives me the news update and allows me to set new statuses. But it doesn't give me the Notifications. It doesn't tell me who has commented on my statuses that I have posted to mine or someone else's wall, and also doesn't tell me who else has posted to statuses I have commented on.
To me that is such a big part of the Facebook experience, that an app that glosses over that isn't worth it. But again, everyone uses Facebook differently. If you don't ever check to read comments to statuses you're involved in and only check the things it verbalizes, such as messages and your news update, maybe it will be a handy app for you. For me, I wasted $1.99
