|
As expected, iTalkPro is no larger than its predecessors
(iLounge rating: A-) for 3G and 4G iPods, but it’s otherwise changed a bunch
in both aesthetics and features. Most obviously, its front casing is jet black,
and its rear is chrome, both plastics matching the look of new black full-sized
iPods.
Color aside, it’s also changed locations - now it sits on the 5G iPod’s bottom,
using its Dock Connector, rather than attaching to its top. A microphone/auxiliary
input port is found on its bottom; unlike the original iTalks, this is only for
input, and doesn’t serve double duty as an audio output port.
What’s most glaringly missing by comparison with its iTalk predecessors is an integrated
speaker: iTalkPro has none. Instead, you’re meant to record with the unit’s two
built-in microphones, found on its front left and right sides, and listen to your
recorded audio through the iPod’s headphone port. Like Belkin’s TuneTalk Stereo,
iTalkPro’s double-mic design is intended to record both left- and right-channel
audio at the same time, taking advantage of the 5G iPod’s new “high” CD-quality
stereo recording mode. For techies, the specs are these, and common to all 5G iPod
recorders: 44.1kHz, 16-bit stereo at 1411kbps.
This mode - also accessible via the microphone port on the bottom - is better-suited
to recording music, while the iPod’s “low” lower-quality monaural mode (22.05kHz,
16-bit mono at 352kbps) is better for conversations, lectures, and other situations
where high-quality stereo recording isn’t critical, or preserving storage space
is. In monaural mode, audio from both microphones is merged together into a single
channel recording, and though there was barely a distinction between the two channels
in our brief stereo mode testing with the built-in mics, it was more evident in
line-in recordings.
Both types of audio are recorded as WAV files, an old, uncompressed audio format
that uses up lots of hard disk space (around 600 Megabytes per hour at high quality,
125 Megs per hour at low), and keeps the iPod’s hard drive spinning during recording.
As a consequence, Griffin estimated that a 30GB 5G iPod would record for 1.5 hours
before its battery ran out, with the 60GB 5G iPod recording for 3.5 hours, assuming
you have the hard disk space. The 30GB estimate turned out to be a little conservative
- it recorded for 2 hours and 9 minutes in our first test, within 1 minute of that
iPod’s previously tested on-iPod-screen video playback time, and an hour
under the iPod’s on-TV video playback time. Considering the iPod’s screen
wasn’t on during recording, we can only guess that the iPod’s recording mode consumes
more power, or that recording uses the hard drive more aggressively than video playback.
In a subsequent test with our 60GB 5G iPod, iTalkPro ran for 3 hours, 41 minutes
before stopping, 11 minutes better than Griffin’s estimate, and 18 minutes better
than the 60GB’s on-iPod-screen video playback time. On low quality, the 3:41 recording
required 558 Megabytes of hard disk space.
How does it work? As with past iTalks, and thanks in part to Apple’s easy recording
interface, it’s simple. To activate recording, you quickly press the circle in iTalkPro’s
center - it’s actually a button that takes you straight into recording mode and
starts the clock running.
If you hold the button down, a digital gain control screen appears: low gain is
appropriate for close-distance recording, high gain for greater distances, and automatic
dynamically figures out the appropriate setting for you during recording. If you’re
transferring a CD manually to the iPod, you’ll want to flip it off of automatic
mode, but otherwise, you’ll probably want to leave that mode on. It’s also worth
a note that this digital gain control feature was supposed to appear in Griffin’s
earlier iTalk 2, but was lost at the last minute due to a component shortage.
Playback of recorded tracks, and everything else about the Voice Memo feature, works
pretty much as it did in 3G and 4G iPods. You can select a recording from a list
of time- and date-stamped tracks, press the Action button, and then choose to hear
or delete the recording. Upon connection to your iTunes-readied computer, iTunes
will recognize that there are new recordings on the iPod, and give you the option
to transfer them to your iTunes library. There, you can listen to the WAV files,
convert them into smaller MP3 or AAC tracks, or pull them out for editing in a separate
program.
Audio quality? As expected, recordings are decidedly cleaner than they sounded on
earlier iPod voice recorders, but that’s more attributable to the artificial limitations
of the old iPods’ recording than the quality of the microphones Griffin has picked
for iTalkPro. Until Belkin, Griffin and XtremeMac (MicroMemo) all have their options
in our hands, it will be hard to say which is the best-sounding of the bunch, but
other differentiations are more obvious at this point: XtremeMac is including both
an integrated speaker and removable microphone, Belkin plans to offer its product
in white and black colors, and Griffin appears poised to compete most aggressively
on pricing. We’ll have more to say when we have final versions of iTalkPro and its
competitors, hopefully in the near future. From what we’ve heard, that could be
a while: it’s unlikely that any of these recorders will ship before the second half
of May.
Added April 12, 2006: We have now posted an audio quality comparison file
so that you can hear the rough differences between 3G/4G and 5G iPod recording modes.
The 9.1MB file, available
here, contains samples of the iPod 5G in High and Low Quality modes outdoors
and indoors, plus a sample of the iPod 4G in its original, lower-quality recording
mode. For the technically inclined, here are some details and caveats on our recording
samples.
(1) Segment 1: Outdoor introduction in 5G High Quality Mode: 44.1kHz stereo, low
gain - bumped 15dB because volume level was low.
(2) Segment 2: Outdoor comparison of 5G Low Quality Mode: 22.05kHz monaural, low
gain - bumped 15dB because volume level was low.
(3) Segment 3: Indoor comparison of 5G on Low Quality Mode: 22.05kHz monaural, low
gain - bumped ~15dB.
(4) Segment 4: Indoor comparison of 5G on High Quality Mode: 44.1kHz stereo, automatic
digital gain.
(5) Segment 5: Indoor comparison of color 4G iPod on its only recording mode: 8kHz
monaural, automatic analog gain.
Though the iPod saves in WAV format at various bit rates and mono/stereo modes,
the final file is a 192kbps, 44.1kHz stereo MP3 file, compressed from a 66+MB WAV
file.
|