I recently purchased a Blackberry Curve because I do not live in a region of the country allowing me to make use of an iPhone. I have owned smart phones before, but the newer devices offer a range of additional services and one can really get some work done. A combination of the keyboard of the Curve and the more authentic browsing experience of the iPhone would offer a great combination. Perhaps such a device is on the way.
As I gain experience with the capabilities of these tools I continue to discover new possibilities. Sometimes the best approach is just to explore. Today I found a new task I can accomplish with my Curve. I record my large class presentations for student access. I typically accomplish this task by bringing my laptop to class and using Audacity. On several occasions I have arrived at class without my laptop. Usually there is a student in the class who also records my presentations and a simple appeal results in a file showing up as an email attachment. Today, I found myself in class without my notebook, but I happened to remember that the Curve has a voice note recorder. I have never used this feature and was not certain that the storage capacity would hold 50 minutes of audio, but I gave it a try. The results were more than adequate.
The Curve stores audio in an .amr format. You do learn new things exploring. It turns out AMR stands for adaptive multi-rate and is a codex suited to voice. I discovered that Quicktime will play amr files and Quicktime Pro allows amr files to be saved out in other formats. When I searched the web to discover what amr files are I also discovered that there are several free programs that can be used to convert amr files.
We may be getting close to inexpensive devices that perform nearly all of the functions we expect of our traditional “computers” and perhaps some new ones that are useful in very mobile devices. These devices will be affordable. Now, if we could find an alternative to the monthly fees that accompany no limit “smart phones”.
