Voice notes via email

[ubizmo]

I was just searching in the Marketplace for a Voice Note app that would allow me to send the audio file as an email attachment. To my surprise, there doesn't seem to be any such thing. Since I'm new to WP, it occurs to me that the OS may not allow this kind of attachment to an email. Is this the case?

If so, this is a deal-breaker for me. My BB has a native app that records very compact .amr files, which can be sent by email. The sound quality isn't great for anything but speech, but since that's all I need it for, it's fine. I assumed that any mobile OS would have this functionality, though maybe not a native app. Apparently I was wrong?

 

[paradiseware.com]

I was just searching in the Marketplace for a Voice Note app that would allow me to send the audio file as an email attachment. To my surprise, there doesn't seem to be any such thing. Since I'm new to WP, it occurs to me that the OS may not allow this kind of attachment to an email. Is this the case?

If so, this is a deal-breaker for me. My BB has a native app that records very compact .amr files, which can be sent by email. The sound quality isn't great for anything but speech, but since that's all I need it for, it's fine. I assumed that any mobile OS would have this functionality, though maybe not a native app. Apparently I was wrong?

Try searching for "voice memo". I typed this search into Zune and it came up with several apps for recording audio and emailing.
Regards,
Rick
Walk-Run-Bike-Drive.com

 

[ubizmo]

Try searching for "voice memo". I typed this search into Zune and it came up with several apps for recording audio and emailing.
Regards,
Rick
Walk-Run-Bike-Drive.com

I've done so, and in fact bought "Ultimate Recorder." All of these apps work by uploading the sound file to a cloud (SkyDrive, in the case of UR) and then sending a link to the email recipient. This is okay, but the biggest drawback is that they all store the audio as a .wav file. This makes for very large file size, which can be an inconvenience for the email recipient who must download from the cloud link.

I wrote to the developer of UR to ask about this, as a kind of feature request. He promptly replied and said that these limits are built into the OS. That is, there's no way to save a sound file as anything but .wav, and apparently there's no way to attach an audio file directly to an email. He did say that in a future update to the app, files larger than 5 MB would be zipped for compression.

I think this is an area where the OS could be improved. .Wav files are great for higher fidelity recording, but since most phones don't really have great hardware for this purpose, it seems pointless. My BB Voice Note app records in .amr, which is low quality but for simple voice memos is just fine, and the files are quite small for emailing.

 

[jfa1]

I've done so, and in fact bought "Ultimate Recorder." All of these apps work by uploading the sound file to a cloud (SkyDrive, in the case of UR) and then sending a link to the email recipient. This is okay, but the biggest drawback is that they all store the audio as a .wav file. This makes for very large file size, which can be an inconvenience for the email recipient who must download from the cloud link.

I wrote to the developer of UR to ask about this, as a kind of feature request. He promptly replied and said that these limits are built into the OS. That is, there's no way to save a sound file as anything but .wav, and apparently there's no way to attach an audio file directly to an email. He did say that in a future update to the app, files larger than 5 MB would be zipped for compression.

I think this is an area where the OS could be improved. .Wav files are great for higher fidelity recording, but since most phones don't really have great hardware for this purpose, it seems pointless. My BB Voice Note app records in .amr, which is low quality but for simple voice memos is just fine, and the files are quite small for emailing.

There is a suggestion app by microsoft where you can send suggestoions for future updates You might put that in the box others can vote their support for your suggestion and it could be placed in hopper for adding into the os.

 

[ubizmo]

There is a suggestion app by microsoft where you can send suggestoions for future updates You might put that in the box others can vote their support for your suggestion and it could be placed in hopper for adding into the os.

Thanks, I didn't know about this app but it's a great idea. I'll be using it.

The developer of Ultimate Recorder has been very helpful in answering questions and the app will soon be updated with improvements.

 

[jimski]

Notes to Self works ok and has been in the Marketplace since the start. Voice Notes Pro is a better option though. They will both send short notes via pre-defined email.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

 

[ubizmo]

Notes to Self works ok and has been in the Marketplace since the start. Voice Notes Pro is a better option though. They will both send short notes via pre-defined email.

Sent from my HTC Surround using Board Express

I don't see Voice Notes Pro. I'm not sure what you mean by pre-defined email. If that means it sends the note to one particular inbox that I designate, that's not what I'm looking for.

There is one app, Pocket Recorder, that says it compresses to WMA format, so I'm going to have a look at that too.

 

[eric12341]

You can also male voice notes in OneNote and then send that OneNote file in an email. Sending voice files as .wav can't be too large so it should still be fairly easy to download,even on 2G connections.

 

[ubizmo]

You can also male voice notes in OneNote and then send that OneNote file in an email. Sending voice files as .wav can't be too large so it should still be fairly easy to download,even on 2G connections.

I didn't know that could be done. I just tried it, however, and the notes are saved in a proprietary OneNote format, so a recipient would need to have OneNote to open it.

What I want is really pretty simple. It should record to a compressed format that pretty much anyone can play. When addressing the email it should bring up the contact list, rather than making me type the whole thing in every time. Ideally it would send the audio file as an attachment rather than a link, but a link is okay if the format is compressed. I don't want to chew up the battery (and other people's patience) sending humongous WAV files. This is just for audio notes and messages; it doesn't have to be high fidelity sound.

 

[eric12341]

I didn't know that could be done. I just tried it, however, and the notes are saved in a proprietary OneNote format, so a recipient would need to have OneNote to open it.

What I want is really pretty simple. It should record to a compressed format that pretty much anyone can play. When addressing the email it should bring up the contact list, rather than making me type the whole thing in every time. Ideally it would send the audio file as an attachment rather than a link, but a link is okay if the format is compressed. I don't want to chew up the battery (and other people's patience) sending humongous WAV files. This is just for audio notes and messages; it doesn't have to be high fidelity sound.

99% of computers out there have OneNote installed, so that's no problem. There are also OneNote apps for iOS and android, so that's no problem there either. And like I said in my last post even though notes are in .wav format it still should be easy to download on 2G connections.

 

[ubizmo]

99% of computers out there have OneNote installed, so that's no problem. There are also OneNote apps for iOS and android, so that's no problem there either. And like I said in my last post even though notes are in .wav format it still should be easy to download on 2G connections.

Some of my email recipients use BlackBerries, for which there's no OneNote app that I'm aware of. Or maybe there is; I'll double check.

 

[eric12341]

Some of my email recipients use BlackBerries, for which there's no OneNote app that I'm aware of. Or maybe there is; I'll double check.

there is a OneNote web app tho that may work in the BlackBerry browsers, especially if OS6 or later.