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Voice Recording iPod?
- Thread starter afs_nj
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There are professionals who spend all day talking into a device to be typed up later, by themselves or others. Doctors. Lawyers. Journalists. Professors. Students in professional, even undergraduate schools could record class lectures, to be typed up later. Such a device would even be quickly adopted by Indie Film makers and video journalists, instead of Radio mics. Voice and location recording is important.
I just don't know if the ipod chipset has the built in ability to encode, this might have to be designed into a widget that plugs into firewire (perhaps with a choice of mic in, or built in mics), extending the length of the iPod.
I don't think apple would be likely to change the form factor of the iPod in order to add recording capabilities, but they might allow a well designed third party add on to tap into new software capabilities. I don't know if the interior electronics would need to be changed or not, but again, that could be built into any plug in widget. Even if the unit did not compress to MP3 on the fly (It could store 80 hours and record 10 hours before recharging if so) a 4.6 gig iPod could record AIFF stereo for 2 hours at a time before recharge, and hold 8 hours.
Right now, the best competition to the iPod, Archos Recorder 20, (yes it has firewire too, -when- it comes out, just not the elegant interface or design) can record. Don't underestimate the attractiveness of a recording feature, I have a friend who almost decided to stay with his wintel boxes, and get an Archos (Archos Jukebox by the way, is Mac compatible as well). I think this needs to be enabled in any iPod upgrades. The iPod is good for other data other than Music MP3s.
I just don't know if the ipod chipset has the built in ability to encode, this might have to be designed into a widget that plugs into firewire (perhaps with a choice of mic in, or built in mics), extending the length of the iPod.
I don't think apple would be likely to change the form factor of the iPod in order to add recording capabilities, but they might allow a well designed third party add on to tap into new software capabilities. I don't know if the interior electronics would need to be changed or not, but again, that could be built into any plug in widget. Even if the unit did not compress to MP3 on the fly (It could store 80 hours and record 10 hours before recharging if so) a 4.6 gig iPod could record AIFF stereo for 2 hours at a time before recharge, and hold 8 hours.
Right now, the best competition to the iPod, Archos Recorder 20, (yes it has firewire too, -when- it comes out, just not the elegant interface or design) can record. Don't underestimate the attractiveness of a recording feature, I have a friend who almost decided to stay with his wintel boxes, and get an Archos (Archos Jukebox by the way, is Mac compatible as well). I think this needs to be enabled in any iPod upgrades. The iPod is good for other data other than Music MP3s.
The iPod processor *does* encode
I have read the specs on the processor used by the iPod.
It does support MP3 compression.
The microphone, supporting electronics and software support would need to be added. Not such a terrible feat. We'll probably see it if enough people ask Apple to include it.
I have read the specs on the processor used by the iPod.
It does support MP3 compression.
The microphone, supporting electronics and software support would need to be added. Not such a terrible feat. We'll probably see it if enough people ask Apple to include it.
it would be really nice to sit in lecture and see a couple of ipods on the podium recording the lecture. think of the exposure, everybody would see it and ask the student who it belongs to about it. think about the commercials they could make. all sorts of students with that tape recorders and then some one walks up and slaps down their ipod. i think it would be great.
Hmm, I dunno if "slap down" is such a good idea... we wouldn't want Apple to get in trouble for leading people into thinking the iPod is very durable!
I sayed years ago, the iPod would be wonderfull as a recording device, specially if is capable to record in MP3 fortmat at once.
Imagine (besides the ones mention before) all the rock bands, concerts, etc that now days needs a DAT machine. The iPod would need a mic and a mini plug imput to plug it to an audio console or something like that.
If the iPod comes with a line imput at list, would be a wonderfull and very popular machine for the recording industry.
Imagine (besides the ones mention before) all the rock bands, concerts, etc that now days needs a DAT machine. The iPod would need a mic and a mini plug imput to plug it to an audio console or something like that.
If the iPod comes with a line imput at list, would be a wonderfull and very popular machine for the recording industry.
Dreaming of a white iPod...
I agree: Recording is the one thing the iPod lacks.
What do we have? A device with a mini stereo jack, a built-in amp (for the headphones), a chip capable of MP3 recording:
Wouldn't it be nice if they already HAD got all the wiring correct, and if one of the next iPod software updates DID enable recording - on just every iPod already sold?
Alright, I'm dreaming...
I agree: Recording is the one thing the iPod lacks.
What do we have? A device with a mini stereo jack, a built-in amp (for the headphones), a chip capable of MP3 recording:
Wouldn't it be nice if they already HAD got all the wiring correct, and if one of the next iPod software updates DID enable recording - on just every iPod already sold?
Alright, I'm dreaming...
interesting
I had not thought about that before...that would really make a good add on. If more 3rd party hacks like more PDA like stuff and recording in Mp3 format... I might just go out and buy one. I know that someone made a little app that turns your iPod into a address book, I would like to see more mature versions of that
I had not thought about that before...that would really make a good add on. If more 3rd party hacks like more PDA like stuff and recording in Mp3 format... I might just go out and buy one. I know that someone made a little app that turns your iPod into a address book, I would like to see more mature versions of that
Recording?
I kind of doubt that the iPod will be given recording abilities. It just doesn't seem like Apple is marketing these things for that kind of application.
The iPod is for listening to music. I think we'll see an upgrade to its music playing abilities and no more. Period.
Though I have been known to be wrong. A lot. Damn lying crystal ball...
Matthew
I kind of doubt that the iPod will be given recording abilities. It just doesn't seem like Apple is marketing these things for that kind of application.
The iPod is for listening to music. I think we'll see an upgrade to its music playing abilities and no more. Period.
Though I have been known to be wrong. A lot. Damn lying crystal ball...
Matthew
A "rock band" or what have you that wanted audio recording that would normally be handled by a (raw audio) DAT machine would never want to give that up for MP3 encoding where 90% of the sounds waveform is removed!
blakespot
Why not record 9 hours of uncompressed audio with the iPod?
And talking about 90%: It's not that much! Lossless compression comes out as 1:3 or 1:4 most of the time. So, if you record to 224-MP3, this means interpolating half of the information, not nine tenth. And for many people, the difference between 224-MP3 and raw audio is inaudible. Not to long ago, we used analog recording!
I don't think battery life would hold up as long recording AIFF, so you probably would not be able to record 9 hours at a drop without stopping to recharge once an hour, or somehow being able to mic and charge at the same time (I figure any decent mike might actually use the firewire in, if the phone plug out is not software reconfiguable as an input.)
It could still be useful, but you would not be able to record in the field as long.
With the buffer having to write to the disc 10 times as much, the battery life of the ipod may be a tenth of its present state. Recording without compression to the buffer, the buffer would be full in 2 minutes as AIFF, then need to be dumped to the iPods disc. Encoding realtime on the fly into the buffer, the RAM would hold 20 minutes before having to write to disc.
The two most power consumptive aspects of the ipod are reading and writing from the disc, and the backlight. Early reports of endless disk spinning from mp3s larger than the buffer could hold support that the disc spinning can wear down the battery relatively quickly.
I think I would prefer Encoding if it were used as a recorder, but would want to have the choice to do either AIFF or MP3 recording. If they were audio files that needed editing later, it might be better to keep them as AIFF, just to prevent having to convert back and forth later.
I'm all for an iPod that can record, and I'm sure someone is working on how to make that happen right now. If the audio needs to be encoded before it hits the pod, and power consumption goes way up with the disk spinning, then isn't it possible to have the microphone/encoder also have a small amount of memory that prevents a constant feed to the ipod?
--maybe not since I'm not an engineer, but if anyone knows...
--maybe not since I'm not an engineer, but if anyone knows...
You do need a processor to convert audio to digital. Our discussion here is based on the fact that the ipod's audio processing chip is already geared to do this - it's just that the ipod doesn't take advantage of this feature.
Is it capable of encoding MP3 and aiff? I was under the impression that it could only decode them.