To simulate a classroom/lecture setting, I took my iPod and iTalk into my weekly office staff meeting, which is held in a room that seats around 100. The distortion is in the recording-not your system. Note, be sure your computer speakers are not set too high when playing this file. Normal.wav: A typical iTalk WAV file, recorded from 6-8 inches.Ĭlose.wav: Resist the temptation to use the iTalk an inch or two away from your mouth, like a phone. Thus, for interviews, the iTalk passes with flying colors. Even at a point when I raised my voice a bit, there was no distortion. When I played back the file through my computer’s attached speakers, even though there was a slight hiss that is to be expected from an 8-kilohertz recording, the clarity was perfect. To test the quality of the recording specs, I held the iPod/iTalk at a typical distance that I would hold it for navigating the menus-around 8 inches from my mouth-and recorded a few seconds of talking. It’s a safe bet you’ll run out of battery before you run out of space.
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So even if you have less than a GB free on your iPod, you probably have room for several hours of recording. This level of sound quality creates audio files that are roughly a megabyte per minute, give or take. These specs are dictated by Apple, not Griffin-indeed, its actually the iPod that performs the recording, not the iTalk.
The files it produces are 8-kilohertz, 16-bit, mono WAV files. But I really wouldn’t enjoy listening to an entire lecture or a playlist of songs from it.Ĭonversely, the recording quality is quite stunning when heard through headphones or decent computer speakers. Its quality is exactly what I’d expect for something so small. Sure, the speaker is great for listening to a reminder you previously recorded or for other brief playback needs. However, quality and volume are two entirely different things-a differentiation Griffin’s iTalk product page doesn’t seem to make. Third, Griffin’s product page states that the “built-in speaker is amazingly loud for its size.” This is true-I once let 3-4 friends listen to a new song using the speaker and everyone had no problem hearing once I turned the volume up to somewhere around 90-95 percent. Since there is really no confirmation between when you initiate recording and when you actually are recording, my advice is to always wait until you see the counter display one second elapsed before speaking. Apparently, this is the time needed for the hard drive to spin up. This is not readily apparent to the user at the time recording is started. When you click the option to begin recording, about two seconds elapse before recording actually begins. The second gripe may just be inherent with how the iPod operates.
(The iTalk also covers the hold switch with no way to access it without removing the iTalk.) If your conditions permit you to just leave the iTalk attached at all times, you won’t be able to use Apple’s iPod remote control. There are three ever-so-minor points for improvement.įirst, while Griffin conveniently added a headphone pass-through jack on the top of the iTalk, which doubles as an auto-switching mono microphone input, the iPod remote jack is not duplicated. If ATPM rating scale were numerical, 5 being Excellent, I’d have given the iTalk a 4.8. (For what it’s worth, dedicated digital voice recorders that hold more than just a couple minutes of audio don’t cost much, if any, less than the iTalk.)Īdmittedly, I wavered several times between rating the iTalk as Excellent or Very Nice. Those people mainly include journalists who are frequently taking interviews, students who like to record lectures, bosses whose secretaries are tech-savvy enough to work with the WAV files for dictation, and any geek who likes to record voice reminders.
Rather, the iTalk is an extremely useful device for specific categories of people who already own a third-generation iPod. To be clear, the iTalk is not something people should run out and purchase an iPod for. Instead, I now keep an iTalk in the center console of my car-and, of course, my iPod is rarely very far away! Sometimes, I remember to carry my department’s micro-cassette recorder with me, but usually not. My ability to scribble notes quickly is sorely lacking. I’m not exactly a journalist, but I pretend to be one once in a while. As a worker in the field of communication, on occasion I need to take information from someone to use in a story.
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