Review on Aketek 8GB Multifunctional Rechargeable Audio Voice Recorder Dictaphone MP3 Player FM Radio (12) by Shakim Yates

Played with it for a few days and here is my opinion. Pros: - Pretty easy to use, just press and hold the record button until the red light comes on. - Small size makes it easy to carry in your pocket. low volume - the sound is pretty clear and I was able to record in a large tiled room of 30 people and hear the speaker pretty well. - Plays MP3 files so you can load them with music too. After all, it has 8 GB of storage space. Supplied with lavalier or lavalier microphone, headphones, USB cable and phone jack. Cons: It takes a while to turn on the device and get to the point where you can press the record button. I find about 14 seconds before he writes. You have to hold down the record button for about a second to start recording, but you have to release the button to start recording. So you don't know if you've pressed the button long enough until you release the button and see the red light come on. You have to hold down the stop button for a few seconds for it to actually stop, and you don't really know if it'll stop until you take your finger off the button - it doesn't stop until the button is pressed - the time resets when turn off the device. This is actually quite annoying as I have to sort the conversations by date and time. It only records in WAV format. It says "MP3 function" but it doesn't mean "record MP3". mini usb, not micro like most cell phones. While there are far more cons than pros, I'll probably buy a few more to give to my co-workers. I've found that I still need to run the file through my Audacity program to remove background noise, but I also need to do this with my HD camcorder files.