RE: 737

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10 Therefore, it would be another improvement over the prior art if before recording a message, the recording media could be tested to verify that it is nondefective. It would also be an improvement if after defective media was found that the defective segment be skipped, and that any message15 recorded on memory before and after the defect did not reflect this physical gap in memory space.
Another drawback of tape is the inability to index segments of a message, where the indexed segments can be found instantaneously. The inventors are not aware of prior
20 art that would permit a user to index the recording being made such that the user could instantaneously return to those message segments by jumping from index mark to index mark. Thus, it would an improvement if a user could index a recording as it is being made enabling a user to quickly
25 return to the indexed message segments.

these and other objects not specifically recited are realized in a solid state digital hand held recording device having a single function and multifunctional switch assembly. A printed circuit board including a microcontroller

45 electrically coupled to said switch assemblies operates to control the processing of sound into electrical signals and store said signals on a digital recording medium. A single, manually operable switch activates a recording process. A single, manually operable rocker-pad is centrally mounted
50 upon a pivot support of the hand held recording device and activates a multiple of functions. The record switch and rocker-pad actuate electrical signals coupled to said micro-controller thereby activating a sequence of actions (a program) stored within the microcontroller in a read-only
55 memory (ROM) device. A plurality of programs can be activated by the manually operable record switch and rocker-pad to process digitally recorded sound as the user desires.

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47 Whereas cassette tape must be wound to a blank segment of tape, the present invention uses digital flash memory that is particularly suited to provide instantaneous access to a blank segment of memory as disclosed in the parent application. Thus, one of the points of novelty is that the present invention can begin recording to a blank memory segment at the press of a switch. The perception of the user is that recording has begun instantaneously.

What that means, the memory used is conducive to being used for digital issues....as opposed to special analog memory used for analog issues.

My previous comments....

Just to clarify for you...and others

"Flash is digital" ..... Flash memory is not digital or analog ....flash memory can be programmed or electrically imprinted under a digital signature where that signature can be read back.....and certain specific types of flash memory (non-volatile memory) can be programmed or electrically imprinted with an analog signature, where that signature can be read back.

There is a difference between the two memory types and their respective read conditions and use, where digital is considered "classic".

Paraphrased source... Analog memory stores multiple voltage levels in high density ie... 256 levels, non-volatile memory. By contrast, the multilevel storage capacity of a typical digital non-volatile memory is 4-level per cell.

e.Digital is utilizing the cheapest devise memory (classic) for digital storage issues described in 737.

doni