Best way to capture ideas whilst cycling

[rangi500]

Hello,

I cycle to work and back, so spend about an hour cycling each day. Whilst cycling I'm always thinking of ideas and things to do. I'm yet to find an effective way of capturing whilst cycling. I got a little dictaphone off eBay but it requires quite a bit of looking at to get working, so it's not ideal.

Are there any cyclists here who have the sort of problem? I'd love to hear how you've tackled it.

Any advice much appreciated!

Rangi

[ellobogrande]

When I drive I carry a small MP3 flayer/flash drive combo with voice recorder function attached to a lanyard around my neck. You can do the same on a bike. It's important to find one with a record button that you can engage easily; you don't want to try to scroll through menus to start recording while you're driving or cycling.

[Roger]

Further to the voice recorder idea, there's a number of models now that are voice-activated, which I think would make everything easy and safe.

I'm currently in the process of looking into buying one; I'll let everyone know how that ends up working out.


Cheers,
Roger

[kelstarrising]

If you do a search on bicycle, you will see other posts about this from the past few years. Like this one on Connect:
http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9854

It's funny, this question consistently comes up about every 6 months or so, with people suggesting phone recorders, small notepads, handlebar notepads, etc.

[mmurray]

Further to the voice recorder idea, there's a number of models now that are voice-activated, which I think would make everything easy and safe.

I'm currently in the process of looking into buying one; I'll let everyone know how that ends up working out.


Cheers,
Roger

What happens when someone cuts you off in a car and you curse them? Does that get saved

Michael

[mmurray]

What about something like this

http://imesart.com/products.php?pid=1

for an iPhone. I think you would be able to record using the mike on the earbuds and keep the iPhone in a pocket. Not sure how this one loads up the memos. Email would be simplest but I think this has the typical iPhone webdev server system.

Do the stand alone voice recorders come with microphone / earbuds ?

Michael

[rangi500]

When I drive I carry a small MP3 flayer/flash drive combo with voice recorder function attached to a lanyard around my neck. You can do the same on a bike. It's important to find one with a record button that you can engage easily; you don't want to try to scroll through menus to start recording while you're driving or cycling.

Hi ellobogrande, would you recommend your voice recorder then? What model is it? I got one off eBay which was advertised as a "one button recorder", but in reality you have to switch it on my holding down a button, wait 5 seconds for it to come on, check the screen to make sure it's on, press the record button once, look at the screen to make sure it's recording, speak, then press the record button again to stop recording!

What I'd really like is a recorder I could hang around my neck with a big, easy to feel, "push in" button. When the button is pushed in, the device would be recording. When letting go of the button, the recording would stop. Actually, it would be amazing if when you let go of the button, it stopped recording then emailed you a transcript of what you'd said!

[rangi500]

What about something like this

http://imesart.com/products.php?pid=1

for an iPhone. I think you would be able to record using the mike on the earbuds and keep the iPhone in a pocket. Not sure how this one loads up the memos. Email would be simplest but I think this has the typical iPhone webdev server system.

Do the stand alone voice recorders come with microphone / earbuds ?

Michael

I love the iPhone but touch-screen devices in general aren't great for using without looking, especially as getting to any app usually requires 4 gestures:

1. Wake up (pressing the round button in below the screen)
2. Unlock (sweep finger across screen)
3. Go to home page (press round button - usually necessary, as by default you see the last app you were using)
4. Click on the app you're trying to get to and wait for it to load

(then there's usually a few clicks within your app to do the desired thing)

It might work well if it was voice activated though, as then I could set it up on standby at the start of my ride and use the standard headphones with mic to record. However it looks like it's not voice activated sadly.

Also, I usually listen to audiobooks (in one ear) whilst cycling, so the app would need to work well with the iPod app running at the same time.

For anything voice-activated, I think it would take a while to build up my trust in the system, to be completely confident that simply talking would definitely set off the recording.

[matsuru]

For windows mobile PDA/Phone, there is an application call "Audio Note touch". You can set the application to start recording and set the voice level to higher level. That way, the application will start record when it detects the set voice level. Once it detects the lower level voice, it will stop recording. And start again when it detects higher voice level.

Maybe i wasnt clear enough on the explaination above but i believe googling will bring you more info.

hope this helps.

--------------------
update:
here it is http://vitotechnology.com/vito-audionotes.html

[TesTeq]

For windows mobile PDA/Phone, there is an application call "Audio Note touch". You can set the application to start recording and set the voice level to higher level. That way, the application will start record when it detects the set voice level. Once it detects the lower level voice, it will stop recording. And start again when it detects higher voice level.

I do not believe in reliability of voice-activated recording on a bicycle. There's too much noise around. I would prefer voice recorder with a big "record" button.