Sunday, April 26, 2009

Sitting on a Thumbtack

Well, perhaps not sitting on it, but keeping it in a pocket for sure. Perhaps even my back pocket.

The Switcheasy Thumbtack that is. The size of a plastic pushpin, it's a $13USD microphone that allows Nano 4G and Touch 2G owners to record on their iPods. There are mics that get slightly better reviews, but none as small.

Or near as cheap either. Which, given that my thought is to encourage 'citizen journalism' amongst union members, is a far bigger deal.

It will be a while before I check it out other than indoors and under near ideal conditions, but so far, so good. I'm actually rather impressed, but that initial take may be the gadget freak in me coming out (not that it is ever far from the surface). Clarity, recording levels and sensitivity/distance - all quite good. Given the physical design and size I'm a little concerned about how it will perform in a wind, and it'll be interesting to see and hear how it handles lots of background noise.

More later here on those points.

The idea is to have it and my iPod handy to record quick and dirty interviews and such which can then be sent on to a podder or two. And then to convince millions others to do the same...

2 comments:

Chris said...

And here I was expecting to listen to your first podcast. Disappointed.

Derek Blackadder said...

Problem: once started on such my addictive personalty would lead me to...well, to 4-5 editions a day.

It's enough that I have LabourStart and UnionBook and Our Times and other stuff, I need a podcast project like a hole in the head.