Anyone used this [link] (it's the iTalk Voice Recorder that plugs into an iPod)? Any idea what the sound quality and recording level would be? (Quality wouldn't have to be that great if it's just used for voice.) Any other solutions for recording audio with a mic into an iPod?

I just got an external firewire drive to store my music on. I've copied my iTunes music folder to it. Do I now delete that folder from my hard drive? Or just the contents of the folder? Will iTunes automatically find it on the external drive, or do I need so tell it to look there?

Now this IDE To USB Drive Adapter would be useful for anyone, even techs when helping, transferring old hard drive data to a new hard drive. You won't even have to open the new machine and attach the drive.

Just got two. Thanks Daniel!

do I need so tell it to look there?

Pretty sure you have to tell it.

Go to iTunes / Preferences / Advanced - you can change the iTunes folder location there.

This is a guess, but I think you should tell iTunes about the new location before you delete music from the old location.

eta:

Also, once you do this there is a chance iTunes might lock up if you open it without the external drive attached. I mean, either that will always happen, or it won't be a problem. Mozilla has this problem when I click "save as" and the last place I saved something to is on a filesystem that is not currently mounted.

At work (which is going really well so far) we have a form, made available online, which we have to fill out. It is created in Adobe. At this point my company only has Adobe Reader.

The form is badly designed: for instance, it permits only numerical entries in some fields which should also allow letters and symbols, and in some fields it displays numbers as integers even when you input a decimal.

The other problem is that Fill-in Forms is not enabled, so we can't save the values.

I know that buying Acrobat would give us the ability to save the data we enter. Would we also be able to change the formatting of the fields? My boss is trying to decide if it would be worthwhile. As it is, we have to edit the printed form in pen to make it correct.

Thanks!

tom, what are you thinking of doing with the iTalk? We tested them at work for the looniversity give-all-the-kids-iPods project, although only a few of this semester's projects are really using iTalk.

As far as quality goes, I've used the thing successfully for voice recordings (I wouldn't try using it for music -- the sound you get is quite clear but not terribly rich or detailed).

The big limit is range: It's good for anything from a handheld dictaphone or interview kind of use, on up to plunking your pod down on the table at a meeting, but beyond 6-10 feet away, the level really drops off. (I actually failed to get good background noise when I tried recording next to a really loud construction site.)

So it's not great for, say, students recording lectures (or sneaking a Pod into Hecubotic bookstore readings). However, if the bot in question has the iPod at the lectern, the iTalk works just fine for recording a master copy to be distributed later.

amych, yes I was thinking about recording the Quimby's reading with Hec et al.

I've done a little more research that backs up your observation about the poor range of the iTalk. There is another product by Belkin that's similar, but doesn't have a speaker. And then Belkin also has something where you plug your own microphone into it (rather than having a built-in microphone). Maybe that last one is the way to go, with the kind of microphone that records from where you aim it (i.e. not an omnidirectinal one).

Or maybe this whole thing will be too much trouble, as a separate microphone would require a stand of some sort.

I know that buying Acrobat would give us the ability to save the data we enter. Would we also be able to change the formatting of the fields? My boss is trying to decide if it would be worthwhile. As it is, we have to edit the printed form in pen to make it correct.

Ouise, I have Acrobat. You can certainly edit the text of the form if needed. I've never tried anything with fill in fields, so I can't answer the field formatting question, but since since Acrobat was probably used to create the form, it should do what you need it to do. At very worst, you'd at least be able to recreate the form.

Thanks, DX. Unfortunately I can't recreate the form; it's an official government form on "letterhead", so I don't think making my own version would be ok.

Thanks tommyrot.

Later when I have more time, I'll probably have questions about getting iTunes to talk to my CD burner.