Your smartphone can do many things, but because of legal restrictions, it can’t easily be used to record a conversation. This Bluetooth handset happily will, though, documenting over 340 hours of calls, whether or not the other party knows it.
The act of recording a phone conversation isn’t necessarily illegal; it’s when you do it without the other party’s consent that problems can arise. So this handset, which connects to any Bluetooth-equipped phone like a headset, can be set to automatically play a custom “this conversation is being recorded” message before every conversation. But only if you want it to.
The $200 recorder has just 2GB of storage on board, but it uses enough compression to hold over 14 days’ worth of conversations which can be annotated with comments to make sorting through them a little easier. For reporters the device is perfect for transcribing interviews, or finding a specific quote, but it’s also handy if your conversation has important legal implications. And since people tend to be more honest when they know they’re being recorded, it could even have the benefit of scaring off telemarketers who might not be on the up and up. [Hammacher Schlemmer via The Red Ferret]