IT Blog Today

I bought the ICDUX70 to record debates, and it works great. The two features I was most interested, this one has: it records directly into .mp3 (not into some proprietary format like most Olympus' do), and data transfer works as a USB flash drive (not requiring some proprietary Windoze/Mac software). These two features mean that the ICDUX70 works like a champ with Linux (Ubuntu 7.10)!

I was also surprised how well this recorder works for podcasting (that is to say, listening to podcasts). The "easy-search" feature (10sec fwd or 3sec rev per button press) is more useful than a silent ffwd/rev, and (for catechism memorization), the A-B feature is super helpful. I haven't used for typing yet, but the DPC (digital pitch control -- slow down the speed without distorting the voice) works great.

The unit is smaller and lighter than I expected, but seems well made enough. The little endcap over the USB connector is pretty cool, but I bet I'll eventually lose it. Battery life is good -- I've had it for over a month now, recorded a debate, and listened to probably 20-30 hours of podcasts, and I'm still on the factory-supplied battery (a single AAA).

My one quibble (the only thing that my crappy old RCA Lyra did better) is folder/file management. When you create and nest folders to organize your .mp3 from the perspective of your computer, those hierarchies disappear from the perspective of the machine -- it's just a long list of all the folders that contain .mp3 (in creation order). And when you go into a folder, you cannot see the _names_ of the files, so if you have no id3/id4 tags, you can't tell what's what. Also, there's no shuffle mode for playback, and no concept of a 'playlist', so if you want a device for listening to music, this is probably not it.

But it's good at what it's made for, i.e. recording and playing back speech.

We use this to record lectures and post them on the web for students. It works like a charm! Super easy to use, the battery is lasting well. MP3 files are stored in a time-stamped file that you can transfer easily (it's a flash drive), using either Mac or PC. Sound quality is great. It picks up whoever is loudest in the room.

the voice recorder is easy to use and is reasonable on battery useage and even better because you can download the mp3 directly to your Mac or PC. I used this for taking audio notes during my classes and find that it works great.