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App Preview: Voices

By: , 1/17/2011 10:45 am | 29 comments

We have all been waiting to see what kind of apps will come with webOS 2.0. One thing that webOS has been sorely missing since Day One is a voice memo app. It was kind of strange making the jump from Palm OS to webOS because this was a feature that many of us used to use in the old Palm OS days.

Well get prepared folks, because it appears that a mic API is present in webOS 2.0! (Sarcastic thunderous applause) We expect there to be a flood of new apps coming to record voice memos, noises, flatulence, or whatever else you can think of. We’ve had the pleasure of previewing one such upcoming app, aptly named Voices, by Inglorious Apps.

Even as one of the first forays into the voice-recording genre, Voices is no slouch with features. Open the app and you are greeted by a screen that looks like an old reel-to-reel recorder. Classy touch. In between the two reels there is a record button. Simply hit the record button and you’re now recording your first memo. Once you have recorded something it will be saved in the box at the top of the screen in your Playlist. If you tap a recording from the list the app will play the recording back to you. It is really that simple to use!

One of the coolest features is being able to schedule the app to record at a specific time. In all honesty, we can’t remember a voice app that does this. Voices definitely wins some originality points for that.

Open the preferences screen for this app and you will be treated to a plethora of options. You can set the app to start recording when the app is opened which makes for really quick recording on the go. You can also change the audio format (wav or 3gp) and change the default save folder for all of your clips.

The coolest feature in Voices has got to be Dropbox support. In case you don’t know, Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud storage services available. Voices allows you to upload all of your recordings to your Dropbox account. You can even have it auto-sync so you never have to worry about backing up anything you do with this app. If your phone was lost tomorrow you would still have all of your recordings.

Excited? So are we. Inglorious Apps assures us that they have a couple more tricks up the ol’ sleeve before this app hits the catalog. So keep your eyes peeled for Voices in the Palm App Catalog because it just may shape up to be a real winner.

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About Ryan St. Andrie

Ryan is a WOR News Hound and super geek who is always working to melt his phone with the latest experimental kernels. He is husband to lovely wife Keira and father to adorable baby girl Kyla, ASE certified mechanic and self proclaimed gearhead turned to railroad mechanic. Last but not least lover of all things tech.
View all posts by Ryan St. Andrie →
  • webOS_geek

    Looks awesome! I can’t wait for 2.0!!! C’mon Palm!

    • Tammy Williams

      When is this 2.0 due out?

  • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

    There was an App Preview on P|C for one of my apps, Voice Memos for webOS (soon to come out). http://www.precentral.net/app-preview-voice-memos

    So it has been known for several days now that the mic APIs are in 2.0

    • Ryan St. Andrie

      I did see your app preview on P/C. Congrats on your upcoming app. I’ll take a look at it when it hits the catalog. If you’d like our site to preview any of your apps in the future feel free to drop us an email as we are always happy to help out developers. Unofortunately we have not had an opportunity to write about the mic APIs until now and there are a few of our readers that use our site as their exclusive webOS news source and may not have been aware of it until now.

      • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

        I will definitely provide a copy of Voice Memos to you all prior to the launch of it.

        • Ryan St. Andrie

          I look forward to getting my hands on it buddy :-)

    • http://twitter.com/hedami Hedami Software

      Actually it’s been known since November 20th, the day Palm posted this video to their YouTube page that announces the availability of the mic API in webOS 2.0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedCVTnqlQM&feature=player_detailpage#t=2539s

      So yeah this is pretty old news (2 months old). I definitely look forward to all of the apps that will make use of this feature.

      • Joseph

        Off the topic a bit, but pounding the table on the contents of that video is misplaced optimism, as I would have to say that we are all very much aware that relying on Palm postings, particularly video postings, has been a case of repetitive liaison dangereuse. Until we are MUCH further along, and they have a track record of keeping their promises, the game play with HP very much has to be based on what they have done so far in this iterated prisoners dilemma (which in non-techno speak means I feel they let us down badly, and until they earn our trust by repeated altruistic advances I am not going to be persuaded by a chirping toyboy in jeans.) As I see it, the central point of the post is the new and nice app, not the debate about when the likely mic API was promised, and with what level of promise (“in coming months promise” vs. “we really will promise”) it was announced. Congrats to both devs for going out on a limb to make these needed and sexy apps, hoping for webOS 2.x “before long.”

        • http://twitter.com/hedami Hedami Software

          If you listen to the video you’ll know he wasn’t promising new APIs to developers to arrive “in the coming months” or even “coming weeks”. The whole point of the presentation was to discuss APIs currently available in the 2.0 SDK. Developers in the early access program already knew about it, but the Dev Day presentation was Palm’s public announcement of this bit of information. I know this because after the presentation I asked Gray why he hadn’t announced the availability of the media indexing API. He told me it was just an oversight and it was ok for me to publicly discuss this API, as well as anything else in the presentation.

    • http://twitter.com/hedami Hedami Software

      Actually it’s been known since November 20th, the day Palm posted this video to their YouTube page that announces the availability of the mic API in webOS 2.0: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZedCVTnqlQM&feature=player_detailpage#t=2539s

      So yeah this is pretty old news (2 months old). I definitely look forward to all of the apps that will make use of this feature.

  • Palm Junky

    Hopefully, it will record phone conversations easier than Google Voice!

  • Joseph

    At last. Two apps that can record hi-Q wav files without stuttering: a HUGE addition to webOS. And the Dropbox feature is extremely brilliant. So the question is why exactly is HP Palm holding the 2.x update in such a thoroughly constipated way? Could they not release 2.x as an opt in / opt out if certain features are not yet (but will be) compatible with e.g. Classic? SO… for e.g. Classic users, opt out for now, for e.g. non-Classic opt in. Or whatever the case may be. Anything, anything to get the momentum going and improve the device functionality and user base. Anyway, looks like general release of 2.x will really help the many average consumers a lot.

  • [email protected]

    Ryan, I For One Are One Of Those WebOS Enthusiasts Who Do Depend Exclusively On W.O.R. For All Of My WebOS Information. I Have Looked At Many Other Sources For Information But Have Found W.O.R. To Always Maintain The Highest Standard Of Integrity Prior To Releasing Any Information. It Seems To Me That All I Have To Do Is Open Up The W.O.R. App And Wham-O All The Information I Could Want Is All In One Spot From App Reviews To Tips And Tricks To Current News Feeds As Well As Prenotes Which I Always Look Forward To On A Weekly Basis. I Personally Have Never Been Dissatisfied With W.O.R. And Am Very Pleased With The Ability To Post Comments(Without All Caps) And Read Others Comments And Oppinions As Well. Voice Memo: Now We’re Talking. I For One Am Very Excited About This Overdue App. The Idea Of Trying To Use My Video Recording To Create A Voice Memo Seemed To Be Like Oh Lets See, Ummm Using Duct Tape To Hold My USB Cover In It’s Place Or Using Scotch Tape As A Screen Protector To Hide The Crack On The Screen Which Started In The USB Area. I Have Even Got The Use Of My Pre In A 360 Degree Format Because My Phone Now Goes From Up And Down To Side To Side From A Warn Out Sliding System. So We As Pre Owners Have All Had Similar Issues Which Have Been A Frustration We Had Never Hoped To Experience While We Were Waiting In Line As Premier Customers Holding A Number In Our Hands Showing Us What Palm Pre We Were Going To Get From The Sprint Stores Stock On June 6Th, 2009. So I Am Hopeful And Do Have First Hand Knowledge That Much Much Better Things To Come. Yes, As Sprint Customers We Will Not See Any New WebOS Mobile Hardware Until the 3Rd Year Anniversary Of Sprints Release Of The Palm Pre But We Will Have Our Newest O.V.A. Update Of 2.0.1 No Later Then The 3Rd And 4Th Weeks Of March Or Hopefully Sooner, But That Is Hewlet Packards Target Time To Push Out The 2.0.1 Update To All Carriers In The U.S.A. NOTE: Sprint Always Releases WebOS O.V.A. Updates The Same Day That They Are Released From Hewlet Packard. As Far As The Competition We’ve Already Experienced How They Take Their Time Releasing Any WebOS O.V.A. Updates To Their Loyal WebOS Fan Base With The Release Of 1.4.5…..GOD BLESS & BEST REGARDS,

    • http://twitter.com/IngloriousApps Inglorious Apps

      Dude…

      • http://www.webosroundup.com/ DanR

        LOL I so enjoy reading our comments. :)

        • Abraham Arango

          Isn’t the acronym for over the air updates OTA and not OVA.

  • http://www.crazzilla.com Randholio

    Speech to Text….. Bring it please! If we could get some support for allowing people to buy these apps with prepaid cards throug the catologue it would boost sales dramatically also.

  • George

    I have a program that records voice. Its called zcorder. I have not used alot but it does record voice memos.

  • Aaron

    Palm is in sad shape if we’re getting so excited over a basic feature. There are so many broken things on my Pre. If I’m not dazzled by this conference next month, I’m kissing Palm (HP) and Web OS goodbye forever.

    • http://www.webosroundup.com/ DanR

      Agreed with you 100%, Aaron. Such a basic feature is nothing to get excited about. I hate it when Apple touts a new feature (that is already plenty old) and folks in the audience “oooh” and “aaah.” I am really looking for HP to knock our socks off come February 9th. If they don’t……………. :(

  • Joseph Ziehm

    Please, please, please when will we be getting WebOS 2.0 as a Pixi+ user it is something I have been looking forward to a while now. I’m beginning to think and feel that WebOS 2.0 is vaporware and they have no intention of releasing it to Palm Pixi users to keep the costs low and instead port it to the next generation. If that is the case for a long overdue release then HP may want to let some more heads roll to much ineffectiveness crippled Palm into being bought out; might be time to completely remove management from Palm that is still not doing anything.

  • Joseph Ziehm

    Please, please, please when will we be getting WebOS 2.0 as a Pixi+ user it is something I have been looking forward to a while now. I’m beginning to think and feel that WebOS 2.0 is vaporware and they have no intention of releasing it to Palm Pixi users to keep the costs low and instead port it to the next generation. If that is the case for a long overdue release then HP may want to let some more heads roll to much ineffectiveness crippled Palm into being bought out; might be time to completely remove management from Palm that is still not doing anything.

  • Joseph Ziehm

    Please, please, please when will we be getting WebOS 2.0 as a Pixi+ user it is something I have been looking forward to a while now. I’m beginning to think and feel that WebOS 2.0 is vaporware and they have no intention of releasing it to Palm Pixi users to keep the costs low and instead port it to the next generation. If that is the case for a long overdue release then HP may want to let some more heads roll to much ineffectiveness crippled Palm into being bought out; might be time to completely remove management from Palm that is still not doing anything.

  • John K.

    1 question about the real topic, voice memos, will we be able to use them as ringtones/text notifications? I’m not sure this is the topic anymore after reading the other comments…lol

  • http://twitter.com/venoX08 Patrick

    Would love to see Skype soon!

  • Joseph Ziehm

    I vote WebOS 2.0 on the Palm Pixi+ and Prē+ as vaporware officially since it did not reach the intended market as of the end of 2010.

    • Joseph

      It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that they will fail to release. But if so, they will have set up the perfect classES (plural) of complainants (users and devs) with the perfect set of advertized non-delivered features. And all the failed prior promises from Palm will pass thru the buyout wagon circle. They just gotta know that and be planning to get it out in a way that minimizes their attorney time.

      • Joseph Ziehm

        They cannot pull it though otherwise someone will make a perfect hacked port of WebOS 2.0

        • Joseph Ziehm

          Although of course it would push HP into being an undesired platform and buyers would not have remorse for flubbing it and lying to customers. Now since this is based on the Linux kernel my feelings are that Palm should have left it open sourced. Instead what we get are more and more examples of vaporware as opposed to real products and pushed back release dates. HP should have hade more heads roll and pushed out more unresponsive reps. I can understand the frustration without any of the apps offered which should be offered. No ZSNES, no FCEU, and of course we have underclocked phones brought to us by Palm. HP wants to change the trends and closed source mindset of Palm and their doing a good job pushing out ineffective project leads. But, the bottom line is what happens if WebOS 2.0 eludes the Pixi+ users? That may push users to start a movement for a Debian or Ubuntu port with x-serve and xorg along with a majority of stronger word processors and options along with better gaming. I wouldn’t mind a port of KQ lives at all.