[General Topics] Menneisyys:
I've long been looking for a solution to record my phone calls (for archiving for my electronic diary database - it's just fun to listen to, say, calls you've made twenty years ago. Yeah, I've archived my calls back even then - then, onto audio tapes, with my self-built automatic call recorder circuitry and automatic tape recorder controller).

As you may already know, except for some (in Europe / the States, rare, Asia-only Gigabyte models) NONE of the current Windows Mobile Pocket PC's (and only some MS Smartphone models) support this. It's just not possible to record the other party, let alone directly saving the GSM-based encoded stream to greatly preserve sound quality while keeping the same low speed (without recompressing it), just like how the vast majority of non-Windows Mobile-based call recorders do on both Symbian and in many "dumb" phones like the Sony-Ericsson t68i and the t610.

Yeah, sure, there're some software titles capable of recording conversations (most importantly, the brand new, 4.x series of Resco Audio Recorder, superseding PMRecorder, the, before the new release of the new Resco app, best phone call recorder app), but, as the restriction is hardware / OS-based, they can't lift the restriction either.

I've bought a Nokia N-Gage (got it for comparatively cheap with several original game cards - they're far better than I've previously imagined, particularly when you play multiplayer games at Nokia Arena! Highly recommended if you're into mobile phone-based multiplayer games - many titles are far better than anything else multiplayer-enabled on any other mobile platform) some days ago and played a lot with the current, compatible audio recorder solutions, most importantly, Ultimate Voice Recorder For Series 60. (The other, well-known solutions like ALON MP3 Dictaphone for S60 (2nd / 3rd), Total Recall (which, BTW, according to the homepage, will soon receive a Windows Mobile 5+ version too), LivePVR for Symbian Series-60 etc. are all Symbian S60 2nd / 3rd edition only and, therefore, don't run on the first-generation S60 OS of the N-Gage.) It worked just great (in automatic mode) and offered everything one may want to except from a decent automatic call recorder, except for the hardware-initiated beeps, which seem to be a non-fixable issue with the latest N-Gage firmware, unlike with some other Nokia models like the Nokia 6680, 6681, 6630 and N70 (and some more). (BTW, if you're interested, also see this thread on the beeping issue. Note that Beep Off can be found here for $20. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a trial version so you can't check for yourself whether it really eliminates in-call beeping during calls.)

Guys, Microsoft, hardware manufacturers, why do you want us to go for a Symbian device (or, for that matter, any "dumb" phone like the above-mentioned t610) for making phone calls? Can't you understand a LOT of people want flawless call recording capabilities? Why can't you enable this feature?

BTW, many ask whether it's legal to record phone calls at all. Please refer to this page - it's really useful. Well worth a read, particularly if you're in the United States (it lists all the states that allow for free call recording, and the ones that don't.) In Europe, to my knowledge, you're allowed to record calls in all countries without letting the other party know.

(Please do check out my already-mentioned PMRecorder article for more info on call recording issues. You may also want to explicitly check out the Windows Mobile Audio Recording Bible for alternative sound recorders. Note that, currently, I recommend the brand new, 4.x series of Resco Audio Recorder for call recording. Follow the link for a (linked series of) comparative reviews.)