Voice memo software roundup

Myself use Blackberry for company affairs, one functionality that was missing with older devices were voice memo taking (one 71xx model had it but I could not get that device that time) and was used heavily by me in my new Pearl 8100. The Blackberry is bundled with the ‘Send Voice Note’ application, but that comes with many limitations that made me look for alternatives, my search ended with two products that provided improved facilities for voice memo – ‘Voice Recorder+’ from SHAPE Services and ‘vNotes’ from Dollars 5 Complete. I myself ran a trial preview of both and decided to write a review of my findings that might helped me decide on my purchase and sharing it here for others to use this as a comparative review of different products before you commit with a purchase.

RIM – Blackberry bundled – Send Voice Note:

This is a bundled software that comes together with the Pearl, but allows user to send their recordings as MMS to other phone numbers. The software is very basic in functionality and is lacking many features normally a professional like me would expect to have.

SHAPE Services – Voice Recorder+:

This is a good piece of software that comes from German company that also has many mobile software. VR+ in short; has the facility of saving the recording to card or memory and view it latter, also allows me to send this as an attachment in an e-mail. Recording log, preview of recording, file-rename are some other features that are offered. Link: http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/details.php?product=vr&platform=none

Dollars 5 Complete – vNotes:

This is also a good piece of software from a relatively new player in mobile applications; but their multiPlay for pearl is very popular and many seem to use. Coming back to vNotes – it also features saving to card and memory, recording listing, sending recording file as attachment, preview, file-rename, multiple record formats and tons of features bundled with it. One striking feature is the ability to tag the recordings that can view the tags to remember what the recording was meant for. And it comes with a neat user interface and good customer support too. Link: http://www.dollars5.com/plete/blackberry/vnotes-for-blackberry-pearl-8100/

Screenshots:

Roundup of features:

Feature	Send Voice Note	Voice Recorder+	vNotes
Record formats supported	AMR	AMR	AMR, AU, WAV (std, g711 a-law and u-law)
Saving to memory or card	No	Yes	Yes
Recording while using other applications (Background mode)	No	No	Yes and it can indicate background recording too via customizable LED flashings
Pause Recording	No	Yes	Yes
Immediate Play Preview	No	Yes by selecting from the recordings log	Yes by selecting from the recordings log
Change record format	No	No, but when sending as attachment their server seem to convert AMR to MP3	Yes, with in the application before starting the recording and setting default format in settings
User Interface	Very simple	Simple but no customizations	Simple and customizable as you like it from settings
Keypad shortcuts for quick functionality access	No	No	Yes, ‘1’ records/pause record, ‘2’ stop, ‘3’ play/pause play
List of previous recording/ recordings log	No	Yes	Yes
Additional features of the log	NA	No	Yes, sorting of the log by date, name and duration
Exporting outside Pearl	MMS	e-mail	e-mail
Tagging/Additional notes for the recordings	No	No	Yes, very cool feature – tags can be used for taking additional notes associated with the recordings and they are saved into memopad, also allows to use an existing memo as a tag
Phone call during recording	Stops recording	Pauses recording	Pauses recording
Quick recording on startup	Yes, always require to click a dialog for this	Yes, through settings	Yes, through settings
Record timer/duration indication	Yes	Yes	Yes
Limitation on recording	Yes, recording for 1 minute only	No, allows unlimited recordings, only limitation is free space on memory	No, allows unlimited recordings, only limitation is free space on memory
Ability to set record limits	No, default only 1 minute allowed	Yes, only memory limitation in MB	Yes, max recording time in minutes and memory limit in MB
Estimation of possible record duration	Yes	No	Yes, for the selected destination the maximum possible recordable minutes is displayed
Indication of record start	Yes, progress bar	Yes, button color changes – but that is not very much visible	Yes, button color change, LED flashing
Multiple record locations	NA	No, only 1 default location from settings	Yes, upto 5 configurable folder destinations to store the recordings and customizable keypad keys for changing too
Price	$0 (bundled with Pearl)	$19.95	$10.00
Customer support	NA	e-mail based	e-mail based and support forums at their site
Recent Improvements/upgrades	NA	Yes, but minimal upgrades only	Yes, some new features added like LED flashing, multiple folders, keypad shortcuts etc and there seems to be regular upgrades with added new features
Commitment of the developer (In terms of requests implemented/ beta feedbacks provided by me during the beta stage or after release)	NA	2/10   Less interest to improve product further and fulfill customer requests to add some features	8/10   More active in fulfilling customer feedbacks, almost many times immediately a QA version provided before upgrades officially announced

 

Final Words o the Roundup:

The review were prepared based on the features available, and customer experience that we experienced as beta testers for both products and after purchasing the products when released. I should thank my friend Kyle for volunteering to purchase vNotes and I made a VR+ purchase just to make the review full with customer experience too.

All parts of the software were throughly tested in two devices in 3 stages: beta software version, trial software version and fully licensed version.

Results:

The kind of features offered by ‘Send Voice Note’ makes us look for a full featured voice memo application, so the winner is the one that offers more features not just in software alone but also through customer support. Features wise, both third party software had competing features but the vNotes facilities were outstanding and just the company – Dollars 5 Complete; also though seemed to be a new entrant into mobile applications business; provided added features and more customer interaction than SHAPE services. Also Dollars 5 provided more support channels with a transparent and additional support forums. Cost wise for $10.00 (almost half the price of the VR+) what vNotes provides makes vNotes a clear winner. The result rating would be vNotes – WINNER – 8.5/10; Voice Recorder+ – Runner up – 6.5/10 and Send Voice Note – Runner up – 4/10

I am open for comments and suggestions.