On my old Windows Mobile phone I had a paid application that would allow me to dictate and save fairly short mp3s or wavs which I would then e-mail to my secretary. She would then transcribe it using a foot pedal and a program that recognized various standard types of sound files. I want to find the same kind of application for the Droid, but apparently nothing exists yet that offers everything I need.
The critical requirements are pause/resume, save the file someplace where I can get to it with an e-mail program, and result in either a standard sound file or something that can be converted to a standard sound file.
Dictosyl unquestionably has the best interface but founders on its business model. You don't need pause/resume with Dictosyl because it's voice activated and you can actually see it stop recording when you stop talking. Unfortunately, they apparently make their money off the transcription so they hide the sound files someplace on the phone where you can't find them and then charge you a monthly fee for the capability to be able to send them to your secretary.
"Voice Recorder," "Droid Record," and "Rehearsal Assistant" do what they're supposed to do but they don't have pause/resume recording. You can't do even quasi-serious dictation without pause/resume.
Livo Recorder Pro has pause/resume but, like almost all of these Android-compatible products, saves the audio as a "3gp" file. My secretary's computer won't play these at all. I found a free conversion program but her spyware program doesn't like it and keeps uninstalling it.
I have the impression from threads elsewhere on this forum that you can create MP3s and WAVs with an Android device, but it costs money for a developer to license the necessary file formats. Fine, I'll pay my fair share of that development cost. I think I'd pay up to $50 U.S. on a one-time basis for an application that has pause/resume and saves the file as something an ordinary human being can access and transcribe.
Sorry to be impatient, but this is really frustrating. I need this to be a real device that plays well in the real world with other devices and standard file formats, not a second-string junior varsity product that can't create standard files.
Understand that I am not attacking the Droid OS. I like the device very much and have exactly zero interest in using a Blackberry. I am just complaining that with 20,000 apps on the Android market you would think somebody would already have put something like this together.
The critical requirements are pause/resume, save the file someplace where I can get to it with an e-mail program, and result in either a standard sound file or something that can be converted to a standard sound file.
Dictosyl unquestionably has the best interface but founders on its business model. You don't need pause/resume with Dictosyl because it's voice activated and you can actually see it stop recording when you stop talking. Unfortunately, they apparently make their money off the transcription so they hide the sound files someplace on the phone where you can't find them and then charge you a monthly fee for the capability to be able to send them to your secretary.
"Voice Recorder," "Droid Record," and "Rehearsal Assistant" do what they're supposed to do but they don't have pause/resume recording. You can't do even quasi-serious dictation without pause/resume.
Livo Recorder Pro has pause/resume but, like almost all of these Android-compatible products, saves the audio as a "3gp" file. My secretary's computer won't play these at all. I found a free conversion program but her spyware program doesn't like it and keeps uninstalling it.
I have the impression from threads elsewhere on this forum that you can create MP3s and WAVs with an Android device, but it costs money for a developer to license the necessary file formats. Fine, I'll pay my fair share of that development cost. I think I'd pay up to $50 U.S. on a one-time basis for an application that has pause/resume and saves the file as something an ordinary human being can access and transcribe.
Sorry to be impatient, but this is really frustrating. I need this to be a real device that plays well in the real world with other devices and standard file formats, not a second-string junior varsity product that can't create standard files.
Understand that I am not attacking the Droid OS. I like the device very much and have exactly zero interest in using a Blackberry. I am just complaining that with 20,000 apps on the Android market you would think somebody would already have put something like this together.
