I traded in my Sony ICD-38 for my Sony Clie's recorder. I just press the button, talk, and press it again to stop. When I'm ready to listen, I have a listing of the recordings, and I just start from the top and continuous-play through the rest of them. Which Palm did you pick up without the voice recorder? I think I'd trade it in for one that has it, as it's probably as simple as it'll get without lots of unnecessary feature-itis.

Craig, I got the Palm Tungsten T5. Just because it's brighter & got some more features that I wanted to test... DA

Still using my Sony ICD35 since 98. Simplicity and durability. As strange as if may be, the T3 is the back up and not the primary.

hl

A planned day is an ice ballet but my real world is a hockey game.
.

I blogged this very question early this month, preparing for some interviews preceeding Tinderbox Weekend Paris. The overwhelming recommendations was the Olympus DM-10.

http://markbernstein.org/Apr0501/DigitalVoiceRecorder.html

Olympus is moving to the higher-capacity DM-20, so you can find excellent prices at various resellers. I bought mine from Amazon.

I have three old Voice-It models (two VT-90 and one VT-40) that I'm hoarding, and hoping will continue to work. You can't get them anywhere anymore, and I like to have them around as collection devices. One in the shower wrapped in plastic, one magnetted to the fridge for while I'm cooking, and I'm going to put the other one in my car.

PS- I don't think I've commented before. I just want to say thanks for writing GTD. It's changed my life.

I don't know if this fits the bill, but I have a Sony that I love. Printed on the front is ICD-MS1, so I guess that's what the model is. It has all kinds of features I don't need and have never even tried to learn how to use: folders, indexes, a memory stick. What I like about it is that it's small and light enough to fit easily in a pocket, and it's easy for me to turn on and use with one hand while driving, and to operate in the dark at night without having to look at it. Each recording is numbered and I can toggle back and forth with my thumb from one recording to the next, select any one in the stack to play, and then erase it if I no longer need it.

I feel your pain. I still use my Panasonic micro-cassette recorder. But when I don't take it with me I know I have recorders on my iPAQ, Canon camera, and Sanyo phone. So I'm never really without one.

Distinct advantages to some of the newer digitals though, depending on the model... easier to locate sections of recordings (folders), recorder to PC (file saving), and some do the voice recognition. Pretty slick stuff out there. However, I'll stick with what I have.

Warm regards,
Steve Banks

Hmmm... Looks like I won't be picking up the Tungsten T5 any time soon, then. I've found the voice recorder very handy, as it means I don't have to carry around another device to record my thoughts (since my Palm is ubiquitous for me, I don't have to worry about recording thoughts). I wonder if they'll add it back to the next iteration of Palm devices.

By the way: which Palm model do you use meanwhile?

Sorry that I posted a question that you already answered.

Greetings from Berlin.
Ugur

http://www.mini-radios.com/vr-888.htm

I had been thinking of digging up my old DVR when I started the GTD method several months ago, but then I realized my work gives me voicemail, and all I have to do is call my voicemail when I have an idea. Two advantages:

1) The cost of a cell call is generally 0, unless I go over the limit, and even then it would take gazillions of calls to equal the cost of a voice recorder;

2) My voicemail box empties out messages that are older than 12 days, giving me a very real and powerful reason to conduct a weekly review. My basic reaction to the voice recorders that can hold 700 minutes in 293 folders is that, unless your whole system is in the recorder itself, you're in bad shape if you have enough messages that you really need more than about 25-30 minutes between dumping the ideas into your basic system. (The exception, apart from people who use transcribers, might be K12 teachers who are taking notes on student performance and thus really might have a few hours of notes per week. David, have you ever worked with special-education teachers?)

Hi,

I recently bought a Dell Axim (x50v) and it has a microphone built-in, and a button that I can press to automatically record a WAV file. However, I wasn't happy with this solution becuase WAV files are so big, take a long time to transfer, and are likely to fill up my memory. So I searched and found the RESCO Audio Recorder (I'm using version 3.20) and I've found it delightful to use. It will encode in MP3 format and even another format that so highly compresses voice recordings that I think I could put 30-40 hours on my 1GB memory chip. It's pheneomenal. The on-screen button is big enough to start and stop with a fat fingertip and I'm sure you could assign recording to a button. (I haven't tried.) I've recorded phone conversations, meetings, conferences, classes, sermons, and more with it. I can't imagine not being able to record now, it's so useful.

Regards,

Rich Tatum

I recently got a bluetooth cellphone (Nokia 6230). You got this wireless headphone in your ear, you're driving along, think of something or hear something on the radio. You hit one button on the earpiece, say "record" and say your piece. Or say "home" and put a message on your home answering machine. Recorder message can be up to 3 minutes.

I bought 4 refurbished Panasonic RR-QR80's for something like $25/each. I try to keep one in the car, one in my briefcase and one on my dresser to carry in my pocket. While this solves the problem of having one available almost always, I have to ensure a "weekly" (at least) dump of all four....

I use the treo 650 with a wonderful freeware voicerecording programme called soundrec. site address is http://www.infinityball.com/soundrec.aspx

I have a Voice It VT-90. I am sure I would not like to lose it as I also know that I would not be able to get another one. I always have my pager and by VT 90 with me, even by my bedside as sometimes I wake in the night and remember something to do at work the next day, it goes right on my VT 90. I am a modern day Luddite. I have had two PDAs but both crashed and I lost all data so now I just carry a mechanical pencil in my breast pocket, a 4.5 by 3.5" paper composition pad in my back pocket, my pager, cell phone and my VT 90. I am all set for any information problem. Robert Hawkes, Rochester, NY

I got a recording walkman type cassette player in a thrift store for $2.00. This isn't rocket science, folks.

I killed several birds with one stone with the Creative MuVo TX FM. It combines a voice recorder, USB key drive, MP3 player and FM tuner in one *small* package. I leave it in voice record mode so that I can easily turn it on and start recording without looking -- great for late at night or while driving. The small size makes it easy to keep in a pocket at all times and it has good battery life on one AAA battery. For playback of voice notes, I usually plug it into a front USB port on my computer and play it through the speakers. The one downside: there is no built-in speaker for playback. This is a small tradeoff for the way I use it and I use it every day. Cost: about $70 USD at full retail for the 128 MB model.

I left the Palm platform a couple of years ago and never looked back. I use an HP iPaq. Syncronizes great with Outlook, has a microphone and -get this- a scratchpad on which one can scribble down a note, draw a diagram, etc. and all will be saved as "Notes". I love it.

Well, I bought the Olympus VN-480PC (big brother to the VN-120, and most importantly includes a USB interface in the same form factor!), and I can't live without it! Records approx 5 hours in "hi fidelity mode", 8+ in lo-fi? Uses 2 x AAA batts. It too has 3-4 folders, which I don't care about, because as soon as I get back to a PC, I upload all of the recordings (in the ubiquitous WAV file format) to PC via the USB interface and archive them on my PC. Aside from the included Windows application, you can play WAV's on many other players (Windows Media Player is one common example). And convert the WAV files to MP3 or Ogg format if you want (I use CDEX, free). I paid $65 on Ebay 4-5 months ago; I'm sure they're a bit cheaper now. Example: just this lunchtime I was listening, while I took a long walk, to a meeting my wife recorded yesterday, using one of the new lightweight digital media players that plays WAVs. My wife wants me to buy another one for her (or me, since she seems to use "mine" all the time ;-) )

Palm Tungsten T3 is the way to go, though the new LifeDrive has a voice recorder too... with a 4Gb drive, Bluetooth and WiFi it's lovely.

For me, I'm sticking with the T3 with a big enough SD card.

Here is a little keychain recorder I swear by for $9. http://www.genaldi.com/digital.html It's pretty durable and the flip down cover keeps it safe. It only holds 20 seconds but that's enough for 8 - 10 ideas until I can get to my organizer. I like to format it by filling it up with a series of blank 3 second messages and then hitting rewind and recording over them. Simple and cheap!

Dan Greenberg back on April 22, 2005 posted exactly what I want but without the cell phone. Is there a PDA out there that can use a Bluetooth headset with for Voice recording? I would love the freedom of hands free voice recording, but I have been having problems finding a device that allows for this.

I can't believe the Voice-It line dropped. It was way better than all the things I've tried since. Anything that you have to press more than one button to record your idea defeats the purpose of catching those ideas on the fly. I've had several and would now pay double or more to get another. Even my Sanyo 4920 which main feature is a one button voice recorder doesn't cut it because it's so cumbersome to scroll through the messages during playback, something the voice-it did intuitively so that you didn't even have to look at it.

The company can still be called at 1800-47-voice but they say they no longer support the voice it line (please call them and ask how they let that good idea drop off and encourage them to try to reintroduce the product with better marketing.)

They stopped making them altogether in spring 2004 and are waiting for someone to buy the rights. Someone who has the right marketing stream should buy the rights and they'd sell well if people could understand what a great function it had in the life of a busy person.

I just ordered the Olympus Olympus WS-200S and plan to use this as a GTD recording instrument during the moments I am away from my laptop. Cleverly it holds many hours of LP recorded material (not high quality, but what do you need for "notes" -- 55 hours). It plugs into the USB port like a usb key, runs on a single AAA battery (12-13 hours of usage), and is the size of a pack of trident gum.

To accompany this, I often get cellphone calls while I am driving from people I work with that tell me important details of information that for whatever reason they are inflexible in creating artifacts in email about. The TP-7 (middle of page) specifically records two-way cellphone communication to the Olympus Olympus WS-200S

It holds 5 folders / 199 files per folder. I can effectively see these 5 folders as being allocated for GTD categorization (@computer, @home, @office, etc.)

It records to WMA, but the Mac users can use EasyWMA (ffmpeg) to convert the WMA files to MPEG-4 (in a sense allowing for bookmarking the audio).

I cannot believe they don't make voice-its anymore. In a world where you can get anything anytime, why can't I find a simple voice recorder. I need one so badly. I'd pay $100 for one. What's going on? This is ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!

Drives me nuts too.
I have a little Olympus, but it's too big.

I only need 20 seconds. The keychain units use
pricy watch batts, and wear out in your
pocket. 10 seconds is no good. 40 is plenty.

I just want a pen/aaa/20-40 second unit.

There are pen ones for $200 and 8 hrs, of course.

There are a bunch of "almosts" at this old-folks
site:
http://www.independentliving.com/products.asp?dept=44&deptname=digital%20voice%20recorders

The 4-minute is interesting, but clunky folders.
The 10-second is cruel+unusual punishment.
The 20sec looks good, if you rip the ring off..
..but it does eat fancy batts.

Keep looking people!

Well, after many hours rummaging around the web,
I found a rugged-looking keychain 20-second
memo thingie at Radio Shack for $20.
Guess I'll have to compromise on the batts. The sound quality of the Rad. Shack unit is great, the white LED is pretty good, and the ruggedness is beyond any keychain recorder I've seen.

When I got there to buy, they were marking it down to $10 from 20$....so I bought 2, in case they are dropping it. Their pen recorder sounds awful, so don't bother with that. I'll carry this in the shirt pocket. Nothing can survive keychain dutuy too long. It's 1/4 the volume of my Olympus vn-240, so that's a great thing. Now, for those great ideas, lol.