Ask NerdGirl: Converts and Recordings
by n3rdg1rl
May 10, 2010 7:13 AM –
Good questions today! Keep ‘em comin’! And thank you to my beautiful, smart sister, Missy! Without her this article would be called “Ask NerdGirl: *slams head against wall for title ideas*“!
As a journalist, I often need to record phone interviews. As far as I can tell, there are no apps that record calls. There are some voice recorders, but they get mediocre reviews in the Android market, and they only work over speakerphone.
Bob Finn
Because of the hardware itself, Android phones can’t record incoming voice without using the speaker phone. Yes, this is obnoxious and I understand how this is frustrating. I’m not sure of why it can’t record from the regular call speaker.
There’s a half-workaround with Google Voice. You can record incoming calls by pressing 4, but not outgoing, so this only solves half of your problem.
The full solution, right now, may be to use a site like SaveYourCall.com. It’s $0.10 a minute, but maybe you can get your employer to recoup the cost. It’s worth a shot until an on-the-phone work around comes up.
I’m excited to hear that you are willing to answers questions regarding androids other smart phones. One question I would like to ask today is how can you convert or change a .sis file into an .apk file? Can you do it with ASTRO, if not, how???
Thanks in advance!
Taiowa
Unfortunately, Taiowa, I have not been able to find a converter for .sis to .apk. I think I’ve determined why this doesn’t exist.
The file type, .sis, is for the Symbian Operating System. This OS is mainly used by Palm devices. The file type, .apk, is for the Android Operating System. Finding a converter for .sis to .apk is somewhat comparable to finding a converter for Mac OS to Windows. If life was only that simple…*sigh*
ASTRO File Manager is really just that. It manages files, applications, and tasks. It is not a converter. The fact that is does unzip files may be where the confusion lies.
Can the HTC Incredible play movies? like the ones I have as a Digital copy on my computer that are locked up by copyright software? is there an app for that?
As far as I can tell, the Incredible can only play 3GPP (.3gp) and MPEG-4 (.mp4) file formats. There are, of course, ways around everything!
You can copy your DVDs with copy protection using your computer and a program like AnyDVD. AnyDVD can strip away any protection the DVD has with it so you can copy the disks contents. You can also use something like HandBrake that will allow you to convert the file from the DVD directly into MPEG-4 format.
For Blu-rays it’s a little more complicated. First you’ll have to have a Blu-ray player in your computer. Then use something like AnyDVD HD and Ripbot264 to copy and convert the file.
As far as playing the movies, you can use your Gallery application to access the file and just go ahead and click on it! Please remember, only do this with legally obtained movies since a lot of time and effort went into them and we don’t condone stealing from other people.