iPod has LINE-IN and recording capabilities!

ElDiabloConCaca

ElDiabloConCaca

U.S.D.A. Prime
I just returned from a wedding trip to Dallas, TX, and decided to stop by the local Apple store in Plano to get some hands-on time with the new PowerBooks and iPods. I met a friendly sales rep there, and since I was interested in the iPods more than the PowerBooks, he decided to let me in on a little, secret, hidedn feature with the new iPods.

They have LINE-IN and RECORDING capabilities! Apparently, from what he told me, you can record up to 30 seconds of audio with the new iPods... but what about a microphone to do this with? It's HIDDEN IN THE LEFT EARBUD! No kidding!

Anyways, I didn't write down the procedure, but here's what I got from him demonstrating it to me: do a hard-reset by holding down the middle two buttons (or however you do the hard reset). Then, hold down the left most button, the right most button, and the button in the center of the scroll wheel all at once while the iPod is starting back up. You'll be presented with a mirror-image Apple instead of the correct Apple on the screen to let you know you've done it right. Voila! Secret menu! Scroll down to recording, and the scroll wheel button starts and stops the recording. I didn't have time to look at all the other "hidden"features, but there was quite a lengthy menu.

The way the sales rep described it to me is like he hard-reset the iPod, then brought up a sort-of "open firmware" menu... anyways, enjoy!
 
word is that there will be an apple-branded microphone add on in the near future.

whether or not any of that is true, we'll just have to wait and see...
 
Well, the left earbud is the microphone for the time being -- and the rep also said something about the line-in and line-out being "special" in the fact that they're the SAME port on the new iPods.
 
I think right now they said that it is limited to 6 seconds of recording, although once the rest of the hardware is done they'll have an update to include this feature.

Truthfully, I really don't see what is so special about the same line in/line out on a device. I've done that many times to devices that I've built over the years. You just have to insure that you have no line out sound when you're recording from line in. They are wired to a common port.
 
Well, I'm not reporting it. I'm confirming it. ;)

I don't know about the 6 second limit, though -- this was tested on a 30GB iPod, and we sat there and recorded once for over 10 seconds. We didn't push the supposed 30-second limit, but we did exceed 6 seconds more than once when we were playing with it.
 
Originally posted by ElDiabloConCaca

I don't know about the 6 second limit, though -- this was tested on a 30GB iPod, and we sat there and recorded once for over 10 seconds. We didn't push the supposed 30-second limit, but we did exceed 6 seconds more than once when we were playing with it.
Click to expand...

That's awesome. Maybe it was some of the first pods that had the 6 second limit.

I guess with a 30 second limit you won't be able to use it for recording a presentation in class or anything like that... I guess it'd be more for voice notes. Still a very cool feature though.

On a side note... would they be limited by the amount of memory in the pod? they'd have to either be constaintly spinning the HD or writing the sound to RAM. For longevity and battery conservation you'd think they'd write it to RAM, but I don't know if the processor would be able to handle real time encoding as well as writing ~30 meg to the HD.
 
True, that is true -- kinda like my digital camera -- no matter what size CF card I slap in there, my "movie mode" recording time on the camera is limited to the actual amount of buffer memory hard-wired in the camera... I get the same amount of recording time no matter how big a CF card is in there... it can't write to the CF card and still keep recording.

I think the line-in audio recording would use and be limited to the amount of hard-wired RAM in the iPod, not the size of the hard drive. I think it would probably use the RAM that is set aside for the "skip-free" playing on the iPod.
 
Does anyone have one of the new iPods that could try out the secret menu and take a picture of it and post it? Or link to a site that already has pics? It's not that I don't believe ElDiabloConCaca, it's just that I'm so excited that I want to see how it looks.
 
Well, I don't have a picture, but I CAN describe the menu... it looks VERY unfinished, since it's like an open-firmware menu or something -- no fancy scrolling, no fancy screens sliding out of the way, just a big long list of cryptic things like "input" and "recording" and other things... one big, long list... looks like the font is Geneva or something VERY basic and serif-y.

The coolest part is the mirror-image Apple logo when you boot it up this way. :D
 
There's no hidden microphone. The new iPods have a recording feature and you can test it with the diagnostic menu using the earphones as a microphone. Since its set up to just do it in mono, only input from the left earphone gets recorded. It seems that some sort of recording software or hardware addition will be announced at some point, whether it will just be a few seconds, or more likely, directly to the hd (hopefully!). From what I've read, this will only work on the new iPods but its very cool and a much needed feature.
 
This would be fantastic, it would be a great way to record concerts. I bet security would even let you walk right in with the iPod. Get a nice Seinheiser mic and you'd probably have just as good, if not a better recordings than with DAT. Of course, only for bands that allow taping :-D
 
Originally posted by monktus
There's no hidden microphone. The new iPods have a recording feature and you can test it with the diagnostic menu using the earphones as a microphone. Since its set up to just do it in mono, only input from the left earphone gets recorded. It seems that some sort of recording software or hardware addition will be announced at some point, whether it will just be a few seconds, or more likely, directly to the hd (hopefully!). From what I've read, this will only work on the new iPods but its very cool and a much needed feature.
Click to expand...

If the HD was constantly spinning you wouldn't have enough charge to last the entire concert... even on a full charge.
I believe the power consumption would be way too high.

as far as the microphone/earphone goes... any microphone can be used as a speaker as well as any speaker as a microphone. Essentially they are the same units. One is just used as the inverse of the other. One uses variation in electrical current to produce mechanical vibrations, the other does exactly the opposite, creating electrical current through the absorption of mechanical vibration.

If a speaker was acted upon by an external force, creating a vibration, it will create a small electrical current.

I wouldn't doubt it a bit if they sold the hardware (a microphone) with a software update that would enable the feature. At least this is what they may have planned anyway.
 
I think I am Missing the point here!

You can record for 6 to 30 seconds in MONO on an ipod.
What the hell is that good For???

Give me a couple of Hours recording in Stereo then it will be worth while. but 30 seconds in mono.........Pointless.
 
It still doesn't match pdas such as the Tungsten T. I can record hours on it for my SD card, then carry it over to the Mac, then iPod it.
 
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