13. A computing device that functions as a cell phone comprising: a user perceivable output device; a set of phone keys including at least a standard twelve key phone key pad; one or more processing devices; one or more memory devices readable by the processing devices; a microphone or audio input from which said telephone can receive electronic representations of sound; a speaker or audio output for enabling an electric representation of sound produced in said device to be transduced into a corresponding sound; transmitting and receiving circuitry; programming recorded in the memory including: telephone programming having instructions for performing telephone functions including making and receiving calls using said transmitting and receiving circuitry to transmit—to another telephone with which said cell phone is sharing a call—audio signals received from said microphone or audio input, and to receive audio signals transmitted from said telephone with which said cell phone is sharing a call and to supply said audio signals to said speaker or audio output; and speech recognition programming for performing large vocabulary speech recognition that responds to the electronic representations of the sound of a sequence of one or more utterances received from the microphone or audio input by producing a text output corresponding to the one or more words recognized as corresponding to the utterances; and audio recording programming for recording an electronically readable representation of said sound in one or more of said memory devices; audio playback programming for playing back said recorded sound representation and providing a corresponding audio signal to said speaker or audio output.
13. A computing device that functions as a cell phone comprising: a user perceivable output device; a set of phone keys including at least a standard twelve key phone key pad; one or more processing devices; one or more memory devices readable by the processing devices; a microphone or audio input from which said telephone can receive electronic representations of sound; a speaker or audio output for enabling an electric representation of sound produced in said device to be transduced into a corresponding sound; transmitting and receiving circuitry; programming recorded in the memory including: telephone programming having instructions for performing telephone functions including making and receiving calls using said transmitting and receiving circuitry to transmit—to another telephone with which said cell phone is sharing a call—audio signals received from said microphone or audio input, and to receive audio signals transmitted from said telephone with which said cell phone is sharing a call and to supply said audio signals to said speaker or audio output; and speech recognition programming for performing large vocabulary speech recognition that responds to the electronic representations of the sound of a sequence of one or more utterances received from the microphone or audio input by producing a text output corresponding to the one or more words recognized as corresponding to the utterances; and audio recording programming for recording an electronically readable representation of said sound in one or more of said memory devices; audio playback programming for playing back said recorded sound representation and providing a corresponding audio signal to said speaker or audio output. 21. A computing device as in claim 13 wherein the device's programming further includes instructions for switching back and forth between audio playback and speech recognition, with successive audio playbacks starting slightly before the end of the prior playback.