VR+ Voice Messenger – Review

Our rating:

By: SHAPE Services GmbH

Version #: 1.5

Date Released: 2009-02-19

Developer:

Price: 2.99

User Rating:

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Having been so impressed with shape services I am a plus application I was excited to see their VR plus voice note recorder and look forward to having the opportunity to review it. The application has proven to be quite excellent offering a nice range of flexibility and functionality while also offering a clean, bright, easy to use interface.

When you first start the application you’re presented with their main recording screen and a list of previously recorded voice notes. At the upper left hand side of the screen there is a settings button. The settings area is divided into two parts. The first is your account credentials. This gives you free use of shape services cloud storage for your voice notes. It makes it quite easy to share with others. The "general" area allows you to choose from four different voice qualities so that you can find the right balance between quality and the size of the file that will be created. It also allows you to toggle the "voice activity detection" on and off. This feature allows the application to skip periods of silence during recording. Finally, you’re able to remove your user information with one simple push of a button.

In the upper right hand side of the screen you find the volume control which is large enough to easily tap but small enough that it doesn’t consume a great deal of screen real estate.

The lower right-hand corner of the home screen presents you with your requisite "I." button that allows you to directly reach support, tell a friend about the application, or browse the other applications available from shape services.

The lower fifth part of the screen is consumed primarily with the three recording buttons. The largest and brightest is the record button while the others, the pause and stop buttons, are the same size as one other. I found the while holding the iPhone in my left hand the buttons were perfectly located for easy use but not so easy accidental tapping.

When you start recording you are merely presented with a nice large digital readout of how long you’ve been speaking. You can pause the recording along the way and when you’re done you simply hit the "stop" button. By default new recordings are saved using the date and time. They also show the length of the recording with ease. By tapping the date itself you can listen to the recording you just made.

By tapping the arrow to the right you brought to a new screen which offers you a number of choices. You can —

— send recording by e-mail. Tapping this choice brings up a new screen that invites you to select as many recipients as you like.

— share the recording. Each application comes with a free account that allows you to use the are pluses online service. This allows you to keep all of your recordings in a safe, non-resident location and it allows you to send to the recordings to others without using your precious data subscription.

— a button to directly send the recordings to the online service.

— the option to continue recording

— the option to delete the recording

— the option to name the recording whatever you like.

I found the application to be laid out quite nicely. So much so, in fact, that I was able to use it without even a thought within seconds of loaded it on my iPhone. In addition, I found that the quality of the voice recordings is very hard. This is definitely a good thing application that is intended to do one thing and one thing only.

The application is relatively inexpensive at its normal price of $4.99. It is, however, currently on sale for $2.99 which makes it an even better deal.

Is it a better application than it would have been using thus far — Note2Self? I’m not sure. I actually did the same recording with both applications and find that each works quite well and offers a slightly different user interface. We’ll do a direct comparison in a later post but for now, I suggest taking a look at both applications before you choose one over the other. Both offer excellent quality and value.

Quick Take

Value: High. The apps works well and works well easily
Would I Buy Again: Yes
Learning Curve: Low, part of the attraction of the app is the simplicity of use
Who Is It For: Anyone who needs on the go voice recording with ease
What I Like: Easy to use, works well
What I Don’t: Requires a number of screen taps to make some use of recordings

Final Statement: This is an excellent voice recorder that is worth a look