iPhone Voice Recorder Utility
My iPhone broke. The screen just died a slow death, getting brighter and brighter and then very hot and then...nothing...over the course of a morning. With no phone to play with this morning, I did a lot of thinking and hunting through iPhone foundation files instead. And I seemed to find quite a lot of interesting calls in the Celestial framework, specifically the AVRecorder class.
I was pretty sure the capability was in there to begin with--after all, didn't the Steve promise us one back in the January Keynote? So that certainty made the class hunt go a little quicker.
When I returned home from the Apple Store Genius Bar with my new loaner, I put all that thought into code and this is what turned up: my newly written iPhone Voice Recorder utility. Yes, it is little more than a proof-of-concept but (a) it works, and (b) is the first step towards iPhone VOIP.
The recorder saves in Adaptive Multi-rate format (.amr files) that you can play back in QuickTime. I put them into the /tmp folder and tell you the name of the file when you finish your recording.
As always, I'd love to hear feedback and questions.
Update: Improved version with app wrapper is here
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jay B said 5:43PM on 8-05-2007
Erica, you rock.
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James said 5:48PM on 8-05-2007
OK, so what do we do with this file once downloaded?
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Erica Sadun said 5:51PM on 8-05-2007
James, it needs to be run from the iPhone. If you download the app version, install it into /Applications. If you download the command-line version just stick it into /usr/local/bin or wherever.
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izahn78 said 6:10PM on 8-05-2007
Whoa! Erica you are amazing. This is freaking great!
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Ahoten said 6:10PM on 8-05-2007
Great effort Erica, this is something I've been waiting to see folks play with since the completion of the cross-compiling toolchain.
My only question is: where's the code?! All the other iPhone apps developed by you guys at TUAW have been released with complete source, and since this 3rd-party development push is still so new, it's infinitely more valuable to the community when you release the code along with your app.
Anyway, great job again, but lets see that source!
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Gabe said 6:29PM on 8-05-2007
I have a question, what is the exact process to install this, and other apps on the iPhone? I believe some of us lack the technological know-how to install this and other apps. It sounds great and I can't wait to try it!!! Has anyone tested to see if this can record a phone call/conversation? i.e. I could finally capture a recording of the terrible AT&T customer service! Thanks again!!!
Gabe
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Bob said 6:17PM on 8-05-2007
I have a feeling Apple will be calling you soon to offer you a job on the iPhone dev team!
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dan workman said 6:22PM on 8-05-2007
Erica: you rock indeed. Let me ask a neophyte question? I'm trying to download this from Safari in my iPhone, but I get an error message: Safari can't download this file. I'm assuming that I need to download it from the phone's browser, right?
Regarding one of your other comments, I'm DYING for voip. Just how close do you think we are? Do you think it will be implemented on iPhone v1?
Thanks for you work and patience.
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Francis said 6:22PM on 8-05-2007
I'm surprised Apple let you bring the iPhone back after all the hacking you've put it though.
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Erica Sadun said 6:28PM on 8-05-2007
At this time, to load applications, you really need to be able to use Unix. First, you jailbreak your phone, which is a command-line utility. Next you run the ssh installer shell. Then you start sftp'ing over files and making them executable. If this all sounds like something you'll be comfortable doing, check out http://iphone.natetrue.com/ and http://iphone.port21.com/Code/iPhone_SSH_Install_for_Mac.zip
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manny said 8:21PM on 8-05-2007
Haha, erica you rock.
I really love how everyone hates and downs you and demands you get fired etc, but now you create something for them and they are all "ERICA WE LOVE YOU", funny little thing the internet is
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John said 8:28PM on 8-05-2007
Neat stuff. I also was surprised Apple didn't include this app from the get go.
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G said 8:39PM on 8-05-2007
Erika - does this application record phone calls?
Thanks
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James said 8:40PM on 8-05-2007
Is there a GUI program for the Mac like iFuntastic that will let you browse the contents of the iPhone so that I could install this app via the Applications folder in the iPhone?
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Erica Sadun said 8:40PM on 8-05-2007
G: Not at this time. However, it may be possible.
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Erica Sadun said 8:41PM on 8-05-2007
James: pretty much all the tools you need are in the http://iphone.port21.com/Code/iPhone_SSH_Install_for_Mac.zip bundle
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Erica Sadun said 8:42PM on 8-05-2007
Oh, and sorry, no GUI installer that I know of yet other than using sshfs. And for that you need to jailbreak and install ssh
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Gui Leite said 9:06PM on 8-05-2007
Great work, Erica!
Do you know by any chance what kind of screen your first iPhone had? There are rumors that LCD panels that have IDs starting with a 7 are more prone to have problems, so I was just wondering.
Cheers
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Techslacker said 9:04PM on 8-05-2007
This is a nice accomplishment but seriously don't you think that talking about this in the same context as voip going a bit overboard? It's close to saying something so bold as I have internet now so I've taken the first step toward doing voip.
I don't mind hearing about these accomplishments. I think they're great to read about but I could do without the added hype.
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Reg Muffet said 9:14PM on 8-05-2007
So, what's the next rank up from iPhone code goddess?!
I think Apple is going to have to hire Erica before she writes all the next gen iPhone apps before they do!
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