I’d like to have a small, simple audio recorder, for noting ideas when i’m driving or at work and i can’t write them down on paper. My cellphone does this but i can’t easily navigate to its recorder with the touchscreen while driving. Something that just has a record button i can find by touch would be great. Even better if it’s easy to clean, so i could use it at work where i’m a line cook. I don’t need a million features, i just need to be able to record and play back short sections of audio, and maybe copy them to my computer over a wire.
Is there anything like this that’s not super expensive?
I do not have any recommendations, but the category of device you’re looking for is called a voice recorder.
Back in the 90s, tape voice recorders were all the rage. The talkboy was featured in Home Alone 2. The tapes got miniaturized with entries like the Sony’s M470, which evidently stayed in production long enough to still be findable on Staple’s website these days. An modern digital example is Sony’s ICD-PX370.
Good luck in your search!
Sincerely, a child of the 80s who grew up in the 90s.
Sounds like you might like the Pebble Index 01. Except that it’s not shipping yet. It’s supposed to be scheduled for March.
Took me a minute to figure out what to search for - “voice recorder” just came up with a bunch of apps. They key was “digital voice recorder” and I added USB because you may want to be able to transfer things.
You could also have your phone auto-transcribe by using voice-to-text. Simply open the app you want the notes in, start voice-to-text, and press play on the recorder.
My phone actually supports audio notes, but my problem with that is navigating to the notes app while driving.
The issue with just finding smartphone apps is also present when looking for music players. It would be nice if there were more distinct terms for these things.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=voice+recorder
Amazon turns up the hardware devices for “voice recorder”.
