Software-based dictaphone. Version: 1 (please come later for updates and extensions of this review)
Sometimes a program for a cell phone is so useful and important for the user, that this cell phone becomes much more, than just merely a mobile telephone, it becomes a vital tool, that improves productivity and quality of life. Echo Voice Recorder for MS Smartphone may be considered by some people such a program.
Although each Microsoft smartphone has a standard voice recorder called "Voice Notes", the "Echo Voice Recorder" adds much more funcionality.
"Voice Notes" has only the following basic functions:
Record
Play
Rename
Delete
"Echo Voice Recorder" has the following additional features:
possibility to pause a recording or playback
fast forward and rewind during playback
assigning phone keys (0, 1, ...,9) to the functions of the program so that the program can be used quickly and without the menu
ability to record voice both to built-in memory of the phone and to a SD memory card
recording in various formats, that are particularly well suited for voice recording, including GSM 2kB/s and various PCM compressions
real time signal strength indication
lifetime upgrade plan, so that user gets next versions of the program, with yet more features, for free. Click here to see a list of planned features for this program.
(on picture above 2 devices for voice recording: microcassette-corder from Sony to the left and Microsoft smartphone with the Echo Voice Recorder program running inside it - to the right; in the middle the microcassette - the inspiration for the icon of the "Echo Voice Recorder" program)
Echo Voice Recorder has been developed by Pocco Software - a small Canadian company, that previously has developed voice recording programs for Pocket PC devices. Their voice recording programs for Pocket PC offer even more features, than the smartphone version. In other words: Pocco Software is very experienced in voice recording technologies, what is also visible in Echo Voice Recorder for smartphone.
When you open the program then you can start recording right away by pressing left soft key "record":
Above on the screenshot you can notice that some files of the same name have different icon. For example "Recording4"! The "Recording4" without small floppy disk symbol (the one at the top) was recorded to the built-in memory of the smartphone. The second "Recording4", with small floppy disk symbol (the one at the bottom).
Here is how the screen looks like while the voice recording is running:
The "Menu" then, where the voice recording is running, is limited, and looks like this:
Generally during recording the "Pause" and "Resume" functions are very useful - for example to stop recording for a while when somebody needs to take an incoming phone call during the meeting - when we are recording.
Normally, when no voice recording is ongoing, the menu looks like this:
Here you can see the dialog for assigning of keys to functions:
Assigning itself is easy and it is enough to select given function and then press the key to which the function should be assigned.
Here is the options dialog, that shows what can be set up:
Here are possible file formats for the voice recording:
Some remarks about version 1.1 of this program:
no "About" dialog to check which version you own
no "Exit" menu position (requirement to get "Logo" certification)
no possibility to kill the "Echo" program with a task manager; one needs to switch the phone off and on to stop it
recording to WAV of special formats that cannot be played back at PC without conversion
single recording time is limited by internal memory and usually is smaller than 2 hours and a bit bigger than 1 hour - even if we have memory card of size bigger than 100 MB
no possibility to record phone calls (similar programs for Symbian allow this)
incoming phone call interrupts voice recording
Conclusions: all in all this program is a real killer application and it turns your smartphone into almost professional dictaphone.
To buy this program (price: $15.99) or to learn more about it click here.
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