Pocket PC Thoughts: Record Time: Audio Notes v1.0 Reviewed

Introduction
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.


Figure 1: The basic audio recorder that comes with every Pocket PC device.

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.

Configuration
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.


Figure 2: The Audio Notes initial screen.

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.


Figure 3: Options presented by the "Menu" softkey.


Figure 4: Screen turn off options.