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As far as I know, these are the only real options for professional-level dictation. The Olympus DS4000 and Phillips Pocket Memo 9360/9600 also have this switch. Most of the other ones have features (stereo mic, etc). I researched the available choices for digital voice recorders for quite some time before settling on this one. All the others don't have the all-important "slide switch" mentioned previously. that are better suited for other uses (recording lectures, etc.- which the BM1 can still do).I'm quite happy with the ICD-BM1A, and the latest update to the editing software auto-saves your new dictation files into mp3 or wav, to the directory of your choice, upon inserting the memory stick into your computer's reader, or connecting the usb cable to the recorder. It turns out the Sony ICD-BMx series is the only professional level "dictating" recorder available from Sony (discounting their DAT models). Couldn't be easier, aside from may be having a docking cradle to make the process perfect.
Sony Customer Service staff told me that if you lost the CD that came with the box, you had to buy a new one. Only patches of the software are available to download.This immoral policy violating the norm of digital appliance industries and should not be encouraged. Sony is demoting its brand name by offering poor post-sales services. I bought a Sony ICD-MX20 digital voice recorder a week ago. I was surprised that Sony does not provide downloads of the associated software named "Digital Voice Editor". Think twice before making your buying decision.
It records for less than a hour with the included 32MB card. RIPPED OFF BY SONY Just purchased this for my daughter at college. ALL HIGHER CAPACITY CARDS ARE INCOMATIBLE AND ALL COMPATIBLE CARDS ARE OUT OF PRODUCTION.
I was almost "drummed out" of an organization where I am the secretary, for spending that much on this item. We have a competitor's product for half the price, that rivals this Sony ICD-BM1 Recorder. Don't buy it. The transaction went fine. The product is comparatively far over priced.
It records in a proprietary format which you can't convert out of (or even play) in mac, and it's not exactly easy to convert out of the msw format in windows either (requiring multiple different downloads, or an initial conversion to aiff with the provided software). What's annoying about this solid recorder is that Sony hasn't elected to make it compatible with mac. For a while I had to run virtual pc to get my recordings - and that is just way too much hassle.I used to love Sony's products, but now, I just wish they would work with other technologies in my workstream (Sony should look to how apple learned its lesson with interoperability).
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