Olympus VN-90 Digital Voice Recorder

The VN90 is a cute device that looks like a cell phone but feels like a light plastic toy
i have mine for more than a year and it still works. Unlike tapes, digital is magic and seems it will last forever. I wish they were playing with these on the Titanic so we could listen to old conversations and notes from the past, provided they were left in air pockets, a posting says it does not survive washmachine :-(

i use it a lot! i also still use paper notes, it's a competition
voice notes are easier to take, like during a hike, and much safer while driving
taking a phone number or an address is so convienient
then at the end of day i can just review latest messages, add more when going to bed and have a more relaxed sleep (except when i come accross a rush note where I do not understand myself anymore)

i regret the ergonomy; all buttons feel the same so it is still necessary to look at the device quiclky to operate it and at night some dim light is necessary
the size is good (nice fit in hand) but i wish a mini version existed that i can attach to my keychain along with my car alarm, always
the device is easy to use, sturdy, and the 2 batteries last almost forever
note that at replacement messages are NOT lost
i like the 3 folders A,B,C capability and the fact that folder C has date-month compartiments is great, though it takes forever to review messages in these 365 boxes the sound is of pretty good quality (i wish my answ machine had such a sound, so i can record music in my greeting) An when it's not clear it's because there was noise around. Unfortunately there's no feature 'record my voice but not the background noise of the street or restaurant'
the device has no computer link capability. Too bad, it would
be nice to put some 'voicessages' on hard disk.

now a few tips if you have one:
tip1: write your phone number on it on the back. This way i lost and recovered mine one day. Think that the recorder with messages of sentimental value on it is then worth much more than the original cost.
other tip: deposit some wax glue dots on the buttons (eg 1 blop on play and 2 blops on stop, imitating braille) so you can operate the device without looking at it
tip3: the microphone is not on the front but on the back! still talk as if it was on the front. However when recording on a phone handset (for example i am in Paris in a phone booth remotely reading an important message and need a copy on my olympus) please apply the back (the tiny area with 2 grooves above the word battery) on the speaker of the handset, and your ear on top of this like a sandwich. You can then hangup and replay at no cost. Works great.

I Bought this peace of crip to record different things that I hear. It only records fuzz. I hate this piece of plastic. It cost me a few dollars to buy, and when I record sounds that I hear, it distorts them and makes them sound like flatulance. I can not believe that this peace of crud works so badly. Don't buy it. It should burn!

I bought this recorder because it can record 180 minutes. There are three recording modes. For 180 minutes, you have to put up with very poor sound quality. The sound of standard play mode is excellent, but only record 67 minutes.

I came to feel naked without this thing. It was light and inconspicuous, aside from the fact that I felt like James T. Kirk attempting to contact the Enterprise when I used it (I don't do cell phones). I forgot to empty it from my pocket when I did the wash. I guess that's one of its low points--it's unable remind you to listen to it. Otherwize, nice device. Suffice to say, I'm back to steno pads and ball point pens. It doesnt matter if I wash them, aside from the random ink stains deposited on my clothes after the spin cycle.

I use my Olympus daily to capture ideas, wishes, anecdotes, pipe dreams, and a lot of prosaic stuff that I might either forget after 10 minutes or not remember on cue.This recorder's small and light so you can pull it out anywhere you're not self-conscious about speaking into a microphone.Sample entries: the name of the dish I had at the Thai restaurant, a memo to add "Return videos"to my pre-travel checklist after watching someone ahead of me in line pay a hefty fine for not doing so, to-do items, work gossip and gripes, purchases to consider, requests made and favors promised, diary entries in real time.Technical: It is only really useful (intelligible) in the SP mode, about an hour.It is durable and reliable, but the battery cover and clip are vulnerable to breakage.If you need to record lectures, you should consider another DVR with removable memory media.Finally, I wish this recorder had user security. Maybe they could come up with password protection using "chord" combinations of the buttons.