Voice note without Remember
 

I just moved from an older Blackberry Curve to the BB Classic, for one reason: I needed the WiFi hotspot capabilities. However, I now find myself rather mystified as to how to get to the things I need every day.

One of the main ones is that I often need to make a voice note--while driving (to avoid having to write down things via the screen or on a post-it note). This was not a problem with the Curve, since I had it on the main screen, and it was a simple roll-click, then record. Eyes off the road for maybe 1 second.

But now, it seems, I have to unlock the screen (U-Enter), press the button, roll to the right, then up to the icons, then right to Remember, press the button, then down to the bottom, over to Voice Note, then press the button, then press the button to Record, then press the button to finish, then press the Back button to exit, press the button to save, then press the button to Save the note associated with the voice note.

Or something like that. I understand it may seem clever to make devices that have a lot more capabilities than I may ever use, but this is all downright unsafe, and it seems rather like a backwards step for me to have to buy a dedicated voice record because my phone has so many steps that it is blatantly unsafe to even do such a simple thing as record a voice note.

Then, my old method of using a simple batch file to move all my voice notes from the BB onto a folder on my desktop where they are easy to see, in my face enough to not be missed or forgotten, and easy to listen to, transcribe, & then delete--leaves phantom references to no-longer-existing voice notes associated with notes on the BB, and I seem to have to delete all the blank notes one-by-one from the BB.

Now, why do I have to associate a voice note with a note for which I have no use? And why so many steps to get to what used to be a button press or two.

I am sure somebody can tell me how to get this all working through voice commands and without associating the voice notes with notes I will never use. I am just too busy working to take the time to figure it out from scratch.

So--thanks in advance.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

You do realize the fines for getting caught using the phone while driving. I'm not sure where your working but if in the north east or NY they will catch you. As for the one second you say it takes, remember your on a cell phone forum and we see all the exaggerations.

For your question go to page 266

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/b...ListHelperImpl

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

Taking the smokescreen of driving out of the equation, since that is not the only time I make voice notes: on the Curve, I had hidden all but a few items on the menu and so was able to get to the couple things I needed most often--voice notes being the most critical--with very few motions. Compare that to the 18 clicks & rolls (I counted) that it takes to get a note into Remember--and then all the complications of leftover phantom references to the voice notes when my script moves them. Although I do understand that sophisticated systems do often require more input, this particular one just complicated things significantly for me.

Still, I assume from your response that the documentation at the link you provide sheds light on a way to voice-activate all of this, so thank you in advance.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

So, you're sure that documentation gives me an easier way to do this? Page 266 gives me the exact 18 steps I am already using:

U & then Enter to unlock
Enter to menu
Swipe right to get to first page of icons
Swipe up to icons
Swipe right to Remember
Enter to open the app
Swipe down three times to get to the bottom icons
Swipe right to get to voice note
Press Enter for Voice Note
Press Enter to Record
Press Enter when Done
Press back to get out
Press Enter on Save to save the voice note
Press back to get out
Press Save to save the note
Press back twice to minimize, then close, Remember

And what about managing voice notes without being required to associate them with notes. I do not need notes--only voice notes, unless there are voice-to-text options there somewhere. I am looking through the BB Assistant documentation, but it is all still very new and unclear to me, and I posted here to get a jumpstart to the things I need most.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

Much simpler.
Skipping the part of unlocking the device, assume it is.

Press

1. and hold the side edge MUTE button two seconds.
2. Voice assistant opens
3. say "record a voice note"
4. speak

your voice note.

Should you want to use your own path above, you can move the icon UP on the screen or to the initial icon screen, or even use a third party app to create a KB shortcut.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

If you just changed the Curve for a Classic because of the hotspot functionality you could have upgraded to OS 7.1 which introduced the hotspot functionality. I don't know if the Curve allowed OS 7.1, but the Bold 9900 could be upgraded to 7.1 and the hotspot is fantastic.

Anyhow, now that you have a Classic, it is true that voice notes can only be used through notes or tasks (i.e. the Remember app). I don't like this either. I am using a shorter way, though:

• Hold the D key for 2 seconds (this creates a new note)
• Tap on the microphone icon
• Tap on Record
• Speak
• Tap on Stop

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

MUCH closer. This is the kind of shortcut I was looking for. Voice-activated would be my first preference, but when I say "record a voice note", I get a couple of tones, then a message back that says, "Cannot connect to the voice server."

Then, in subsequent tries, I got "The voice request wasn't understood." Do I have to train this thing, or does the BB Assistant require an active internet connection to work? I am largely out of cell phone coverage area when I use my phone for things besides calling. It is, after all, still my data organizer.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

OK, so later in the day (maybe when within range of a cell phone tower somewhere, or maybe that was irrelevant), I was able to record voice notes using purely voice prompts with no "Cannot connect to the voice server" or "The voice request wasn't understood messages".

I did one voice notes and a couple of voice-to-text notes. But now, when I connect my BB Classic to my computer & open BB Link, I cannot find my notes. I opened the drive letter for the BB as a mass storage device--no notes, only the one voice note I managed to get done. I looked through BB Link. Still no notes. Oh, where, oh, where, have my little notes gone--oh, where, oh where can they be...?

That is, I can see them if I open Remember on the Classic, but where I need them is on my computer. They were on my phone only so I could get them to my computer later.

And how do I clear all the MP4 voice notes from Remember when I already moved them to my computer. That is, they appear in Remember, but when I click on them in Remember, it (correctly) indicates "This file can't be opened because it was deleted from your device". Sure, I can delete them one by one from Remember, but I am not finding any way to move them en masse to the computer (although none of the notes had anything except the now-missing voice notes that I already moved to the computer independent of the notes). The delete button does not seem to function like it does in e-mail, where it deletes all prior messages.

Not something I am finding in the manual...I figured out the part in the manual on my own before I read the manual...I think I am well into the "undocumented features" (or at least not documented where I have found it yet...)

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

The voice notes are .m4a files and can be found in the "voice" folder.

If you open the "File Manager" app on the Classic, you will see the folder besides "books", "camera", "documents", "downloads", "misc", "music", "photos" and others.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

I incorrectly referred to voice notes as mp4 instead of .m4a files in my prior post.

I never have a need to listen to or see the notes on the BB. There are there only so that I can retrieve and transcribe them when I get back to my computer. Even with the Curve, I went several steps further and continue to do so with the Classic: when I open BB Link, it assigns a drive letter to the BB folder. I use a simple batch file that moves them from the BB voice subfolder to a folder on my desktop, then opens that folder.

I just plug in the phone, open the BB Link, and double-click my batch file. It moves the voice notes, then opens the destination folder on my computer where I then play them in Windows Media Player through my headset/speakers easily at my computer.

But on the BB Classic, each voice note is associated with a reminder note (that is empty, except for the voice note), so after I move the voice notes to my computer via my batch file, the reminder is still there on the BB, and it still shows a voice note. But when I try to open the voice note, it (correctly) says it has been deleted. Then, it seems, my only option is to delete all the reminder notes one by one.

Furthermore, when I today tried doing voice-to-text notes, I could not see them from my computer--only on the BB, where they are useless to me. I was hoping they would appear in their own folder, where I could just script a way to transfer them to my computer, where I could put them into my time log, expense, log, etc.

None of this is a complaint about the Classic--I don't expect the BB engineers to be thinking about me when they design new projects. I am just finding that it takes longer to do the same things with the Classic than it did with the Curve. And the reason I went with the Classic is because my cell phone provider (Verizon) had them on their standard list of phone and, in fact, in stock the day I walked into the store.

Unlike the other 99.9% of mobile phone users, my needs are very minimal, but specific. My business is managing small business networks: routers, servers, workstations, printers, applications (and a good dose of programming)--yet I still have very minimal needs from my mobile device, since I work 99% remotely from my home office, with my BB forwarded to my home office number. So I do not need BB gadgets; I just need to be able to take calls when out of my office, occasionally use the WiFi hotspot, and--more than anything else--a quick way to add voice notes while on projects so I do not forget to bill my clients for time & materials when I get back to the office. But it is turning out to be less simple with the Classic than with the Curve.

Re: Voice note without Remember
 

So, in summary:
voice notes can be created using two methods
Remember App
1. Open Remember
2. Tap Voice Note

Assistant
1. Launch Assistant
2. Say Record a voice note