Anjuan Simmons
04-19-2006, 04:00 PM
<img src="http://www.vitotechnology.com/upload/iblock/7d6d9655e7032b3783b8974009805793.gif" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> Software<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> VITO<br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=182997">Handango</a> (affiliate link)<br /><b>Price:</b> $19.95 USD<br /><b>System Requirements:</b> : Works on most Pocket PC devices. An exhaustive list is available at the link above.<br /><br /><b>Pros:</b><li>Can record in MP3 and WAV format at low, medium, and high quality levels;<br /><li>Automatic gain control allows modification of microphone sensitivity;<br /><li>Efficient use of soft keys allows navigation without the need of a stylus;<br /><li>Can choose to store audio notes on the device or on a storage card;<br /><li>Voice Activation System (VAS) will only record when sound is detected and is customizable;<br /><li>Lists size and date and time of each recording.<b>Cons:</b><li>Cannot record a telephone conversation unless the speaker phone is in use;<br /><li>Cannot change the default naming convention (e.g., date time format);<br /><li>Cannot assign a button to turn off the screen;<br /><li>Cannot specify a folder to save the file. Always saves to the "My Recording" folder on either the device or storage card;<br /><li>Cannot change the timer to show the time remaining in the recording (only shows time elapsed).<b>Summary:</b><br />In a world of high definition video recorders, the ability to record audio is often overlooked. However, the explosion of podcasting demonstrates that audio is back in vogue. Whether you want to simply capture classroom lectures or use your PDA as a mobile podcasting studio, VITO's Audio Notes v1.0 provides all the audio recording power you need.<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Introduction</b></span><br />The sound recorder that comes with Pocket PC devices leaves much to be desired. It is oddly tied to the Notes application and only allows recording in WAV format. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.00.outofthebox.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 1: The basic audio recorder that comes with every Pocket PC device.</i><br /><br />Although audio files recorded in WAV format are almost universally compatible with audio players and offer nearly lossless sound, they can grow to become huge files. It is possible to change the recording quality from "8,000 Hz, 8 bit, Mono (8 KB/s)" to "44,100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo (172 KB/s)", and therefore, find a balance between sound quality and file size, but this does not alleviate the inflexibility of the application. As is also true in the desktop world, Microsoft's negligence is the developer community's gain, and VITO offers a well rounded Pocket PC recording application in Audio Notes v1.0.<br /><br /><span><b>Configuration</b></span><br />Launching the application opens a very simple interface. Two soft keys labeled "Record" and "Menu" provide one click access to start a recording or access the application menu.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.01.initialscreen.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 2: The Audio Notes initial screen.</i><br /><br />Before starting my recording, I wanted to make sure that the application was configured to my liking so I pressed the "Menu" softkey which presented a menu of items that could be customized. Options included how long to wait before turning off the screen, whether to record to main memory or to a sound card (but always in "\My Documents\My Audio Notes"), what format (WAV or MP3 with either low, medium, or high settings for each), and what language (English or Russian) in which to display the user interface. Figures 3 through 7 below display these options.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.03.menu.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 3: Options presented by the "Menu" softkey.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.04.screen.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 4: Screen turn off options.</i><br /><br /><PAGEBREAK><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.05.recordto.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 5: Target location options.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.06.format.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 6: Recording format options.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.07.language.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 7: Language options.</i><br /><br />I configured the application to turn the screen off after 30 seconds, record to my 512 MB miniSD card (saving precious main memory space, record in low quality MP3 format, and display the GUI in English (since I don't read Russian!). <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.08.russian.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 8: Audio Notes with the Russian language option selected.</i><br /><br />I was ready to create my first recording using Audio Notes!<br /><br /><PAGEBREAK><span><b>Recording</b></span><br />I pushed the "Record" softkey and paused for a few seconds to see if the Voice Activation System (VAS) would prevent recording until it picked up a discernible sound. The VAS control is the third bar from the bottom, and it has a yellow verticle bar that can be moved left and right to decrease or increase the level at which it begins recording. Since the microphone automatic gain (second bar from the bottom) was set to high, it was difficult to not activate the VAS since the microphone even picked up ambiant sound from the room in which I was sitting. However, the room noise was not enough to cross the VAS bar and start recording. I spoke at a low level which caused the squares on the VAS bar to activate and glow. <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.02.record.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 9: Audio Notes in recording mode.</i><br /><br />As I increased the volume of my voice, more squares lit up. However, I kept my voice to a level that would not cross the VAS line, and the recording time counter did not advance. I finally spoke at a level that passed the VAS bar, and the counter began advancing and recording my voice. I spoke into my Pocket PC's microphone for a few seconds. While recording, the softkeys changed to "Stop" and "Pause" that allowed me the options of, obviously, stopping or pausing the recording. I also noticed that the microphone automatic gain can be changed from "High" to "Off", "Soft", or "Middle" which changes the sensitivity of the microphone accordingly. By manipulating the VAS bar and microphone automatic gain, a user can configure the application to only record sounds that reach a certain level.<br /><br />I pushed the "Stop" softkey and the interface displayed my audio file.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.03.finished.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 10: An audio file created by Audio Notes.</i><br /><br />I would have liked an option to specify the naming convention of the Audio file (using a date and time stamp), but the application always uses a format that simply numbers the recordings in sequential order. However, the GUI does display (in the lower right hand corner) the date and time of the recording, but this information will not be available if I copy the audio file off of my device. The size of the file is also displayed.<br /><br /><PAGEBREAK>I tapped the name of the audio file with my stylus and held it long enough to bring up a context menu. It presented options to play the file, rename it, change its location from the storage card to main memory, delete it, or cancel and close the context menu.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.11.fileoptions.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 11: The context menu for an audio file.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.10.fileoptions2.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 12: Options for the "Location" item in the context menu.</i><br /><br />In order to test the delete functionality, I selected "Delete" from the context menu. I was presented with a request for confirmation of the deletion. This screen had both a "No" button on it as well as a "No" soft key. I assume that this redundancy is for users who don't have Windows Mobile 5.0 soft keys.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.12.fileoptions3.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 13: Audio Notes wants to know if I'm sure I want to delete an audio file.</i><br /><br />I clicked the "Yes" softkey and the file was removed from the application and the storage card. <br /><br />I then tried making a phone call with my PDA and recording the conversation using Audio Notes. However, I discovered that only my side of the conversation was recorded! If I turned on the speaker phone, I could record both sides of the conversation, but I would have preferred to have this functionality operate without the speaker phone in order to record audio conferences or interviews.<br /><br />Having successfully created audio files with Audio Notes, I now wanted to see how the application performed when playing back recordings in both MP3 and WAV format. I also wanted to know how the three quality settings (low, medium and high) affected playback as well as file size. Therefore, I created six test audio files by recording the same four second phrase in all of the format and quality permutations in order to understand how each resulting audio file would sound and how large they would grow.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.13.recordings.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 14: My six test audio files.</i><br /><br /><PAGEBREAK><span><b>Playback</b></span><br />When playing back an audio file, the application displays the name of the file, quality settings, and a counter that shows the elapsed time. The counter cannot be changed to show how much time is left in the recording.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/anjuan.audionotes.09.playback.gif" /> <br /><i>Figure 15: Playing an audio file.</i><br /><br />During playback, the VAS bar turns into a volume control bar, and the microphone automatic gain bar turns into a track control bar where you can fast forward and rewind through the recording.<br /><br />I listened to my six test audio files in order to determine how sound quality varied between the different formats and quality settings. The MP3 files sounded noticiably more "tinny" than the WAV files, but, at the highest MP3 setting, the audio quality was excellent. The WAV audio files had a richer sound overall, but, as seen below, they were considerably larger in size:<br /><br />Low Quality MP3: 11 KB<br />Middle Quality MP3: 25 KB<br />High Quality MP3: 37 KB<br />Low Quality WAV: 85 KB<br />Middle Quality WAV: 198 KB<br />High Quality WAV: 332 KB<br /><br /><span><b>Conclusions</b></span><br />The Audio Notes application produces (even at the lowest quality setting) very clear recordings. I would think that the high quality WAV format would be suitable for creating a podcast, although a third party audio editor (and a large storage card) would be needed. Features such as VAS and automatic gain control make this a very well rounded recorder. The one new feature I would like to see is the ability to record the other side of a voice conversation without having to use the speaker phone. <br /><br />Enhancements that can be made to existing features include the ability to choose a naming convention for files, choose another folder to store audio files in (instead of "My Audio Notes"), assign a button to turn off the screen, and show the time left in a recording instead of the time elaspsed. Despite the potential for improvement, Audio Notes is a well designed and thoroughly thought-out application.<br /><br /><i>Anjuan Simmons is an information technology consultant specializing in CRM technical implementations (with a focus on Siebel technical architecture and integration). He lives with his wife, two children and many gadgets in Houston, Texas.</i>