Thursday 31 March 2011

Ipod Touch Microphone


I have an iPod Touch 2G. Got this to record my stand-up classes and ended up using it for interviews as well. Great recording quality, easy to use.



You do need to purchase the iTalk premium app ($2 or so) and make sure you download Italk Sync to your computer.



Great quality, even in less than stellar rooms with lots of background noise.



Can't go wrong with this, esp considering the price.



Only drawback: you can't listen to it while you're recording because it uses the headphone jack. But, I just set it and forget it until I'm done recording.



Then I sync with my Mac and open with iTunes. Done. I've even dropped it into Bias Peak and other audio editing programs so I could send portions of the audio to classmates.



All very convenient and quick. Mini Microphone for iPhone 3G/iPod/touch/classic

I am using a non jailbroken 3G 64GB Ipod Touch and I can confirm that Skype works. Both the mic and the speaker can work at the same time, I believe Skype is the only application where this is possible. You make calls via speaker phone at all times, there is no option to keep the phone close to your head. This is simply because of the design of the device and the only way you can use voip. The build quality is very good, and there is no reason to purchase a competitor's mic which will cost 300% the price of this one. At less than $5, every single person with an ipod touch immediately needs to get this mic so that they can start making ridiculously cheap voip calls on an ipod of all things.



Edit: So I have been using Skype and this mic for a while now, and they work well most of the time. I have had several 30min-1hr conversations while other people were driving on the highway etc and they all remarked that the call quality was good. However, there are some people who I seem to go straight to voicemail, which I do not understand. So far this is only one person, but as he is using an AT&T iphone, I am not sure the problem. I have gotten a skype number and unlimited calling for 1 year plus voicemail for only $60. The touch can ring when other people call if skype is open or in the background. You are now able to jailbreak the latest 3.1.3 firmware so running skype in the background is easily doable. To run apps in the background, download backgrounder. To keep wifi on all the time, download insomnia.



If the mic is plugged in, however, you will hear no ring. You could keep the mic unplugged and connect it whenever you receive a call, but this obviously sucks. I suspect there will be some fix to this relatively soon, but this is so far the biggest roadblock in using the ipod touch as my main phone. Another downside is that receiving texts to your skype number is not as easy as simply texting to that number. Google voice, which is semi out now, does not have this problem. In any case, its worth paying $30 to get unlim calls for a year without the online number right now. Sending texts via skype is also somewhat expensive at 11 cents. On my jailbroken iphone that i use with tmobile, I only pay 10cents per text on a prepaid plan.

I used it for 3 meetings in a single day to do some basic recording for later review. Sadly when I tried to pull it out of the iPod the 3rd time the outside case came off in my hand. I would not buy this if I were you. Spend the extra money and get a quality product.

I thought this would be a nifty device to not only use for recording but also perhaps as a microphone for live chat on Skype using my iPod Touch g2. Unfortunately (unless I am doing something incorrectly with the plug in of this device), since it is plugged into the ONLY mini jack on the iPod it seems to record but while the device remains plugged in it cancels the sound, so you cannot hear what you just recorded unless you remove the device first. And so maybe a Skype conversation would be one way unless you removed the device between sentences "walky-talky" style. "Over...." Not an option. Anyone have any thoughts on this?



As far as the footprint of the mic, I take ALOT of vitimin supplements. I'm a bit scared this will go down the hatch some morning when I'm not paying attention!

updated review October 2009: I changed my stars from 5 to 1. The mic is not working anymore. I don't understand why. I take good care of my ipod and the mic and both experience regular wear and tear. It occupies memory space in my iPod but, there is no audio. Warning: Buy item at your own risk. You get what you pay for!







In Sept 2009 I said"It's cute. It's functional. I use it to record lectures with my ipod classic. It works great. I plug in my ipod to charge and the lectures go straight into my voice memos folder in iTunes. The downside is, the battery usage. Once I 'turn on' the voice recorder mode in my ipod, it totally drains the battery much faster than when I use my iPod to play regular songs. There's a little lag and also some freezing that happens on occasion, but not enough to bother me, since I paid less than five bucks for the gadget."'


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