Gizmodo: Voice Recorder

iPhone Apps We Like: QuickVoice Voice Recorder Is Great For Field Journos

John Mahoney — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:40:54 EDT

If you're covering an event and already carrying a huge gear bag with a laptop, camera, emergency Cliff bars and all the rest, QuickVoice is a welcome replacement for a standalone digital voice recorder. We like QuickVoice as a late addition to our favorites for its pause feature, which allows you to start and stop recordings without creating a whole new clip.

The only hitch is you can't email the clips out from the phone, but how often do you actually need to keep your quick audio notes? Just break out the headphones, transcribe, delete. Done. [Ed. Note: I love emailing the clips from my Olympus digital voice recorder so I can email them to India and have them transcribed overnight.] Quality and range won't match a dedicated recorder, but definitely get the job done—I was able to hear my voice well enough to transcribe talking quietly from the other side of a 12-foot room. There are a couple other voice recorders in the store, but at $1.99 we're liking QuickVoice. [QuickVoice, Our Favorite Apps, App Review Marathon]

Trevor Bayliss' Eco Player is One for Worthies

AddyDugdale — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:00:10 EDT

Trevor Baylis, the Brit who invented the wind-up radio 16 years ago, has applied his not inconsiderable brain to doing the same thing for MP3s and videos and come up with a 2GB Eco Player that will give you 40 minutes of music on just one minute of winding. And that's not all it can do.

There's a full-color 1.8-inch LCD screen, as well as FM radio and voice recorder, an LED flashlight function and it can even charge your phone in an emergency. And if you don't fancy running around with a crank, there's also an internal battery that you can charge via USB and get 20 hours' worth of juice.

While it's not exactly beautiful (the design of its buttons reminds me of those kitschy bow-tie tee-shirts) and it's a bit large, I can see the worthies of this world displaying it as a badge of their planet-hugginess.

Costing around $350—a lot more money than they spent on a website that can only be described as shonky—the Eco Player should be available at the end of this month. [Ethical Superstore via Shiny Shinyand British Eco]

USB Pen, MP3 Player, FM Radio, Voice Recorder

Jason Chen — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:40:11 EDT

This thing may actually be pretty useful. See, you use the voice recorder to record your CFO and CTO in the bathroom talking about embezzling funds—you were hiding in a stall, using the FM radio to pass the time. Then you use the 512MB flash memory to steal office documents about the whole thing. Later, you confront and blackmail them with the MP3 playback of the recording. And finally, you have them sign a check for one million dollars with the built-in pen. All this on a gadget you bought for $48. – Jason Chen

USB MP3 Pen + FM Radio + Voice Recorder [Brando]

Olympus Voice Trek G-10

Charlie White — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:33:36 EDT

Olympus announced its Voice Trek G-10, a voice recorder whose corner slips off to reveal a USB jack which you plug directly into your PC to transfer your recordings. Its built-in 256MB of memory seems rather paltry until you realize that you can shoehorn 69 hours of low-quality audio recording into its mini form factor of less than four inches high and sub-two-ounce weight. It records to the Windows media audio (WMA) format, and can play back WMA and MP3 files.

This is a niche market occupied by these voice recorders, and this looks to be most convenient one yet from Olympus. No pricing was announced on this model, but we're thinking since there is just 256MB of memory and there's no removable memory card capability, this will be a low-priced unit.

These types of voice recorders are indispensable for journalistas, and that low price and easy transport of files just might convince some fellow members of the press corps who are still using those tiny tapes to make the leap to digital. Ships July 6. – Charlie White

Product Page (Google translated) [Olympus, via OhGizmo]

IBM Magic Book Audio Recorder

Travis Hudson — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:17:41 EST

IBM is taking audio recording to the next level with this unique voice recorder. The Magic Book records the audio digitally, but the best part is the search functionality. There are a variety of searching options including time range, keywords or even a person's voice. All of this is done thanks to advanced voice-recognition technology. To top everything off, this voice recorder comes with a little biometric goodness in the form of a fingerprint reader. Great features and all, but what is the sound quality like?

Magic Book: Record digitally, search effortlessly [MobileMag]

Olympus Voice-Trek MP3/Voice Recorder

tgrumet — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:17:57 EDT

Perfect for journo folk like me, the new Olympus Voice-Trek voice recorders not only let you get your interviews (and other interesting tidbits) but also include a MP3/WMA player. The V-40 is 512MB and the V-50 is 1GB. Both playback MP3 and WMA files as well as SRS and Wow. They also include four built-in preset equalizers, and repeat and random playback functions. Uses a AAA battery, with playback time about 7 hours. Weighs in at 2 ounces.

Olympus Voice-Trek Voice Recorder/WMA/MP3 Player [akibalive]