E-Digitals response to the examiners rejection was a description of the power management of the flash that makes it unique from the prior art that HTC had supplied the USPTO.

For those that are not familiar with flash operation requirements, back in the mid 90's designers had to supply a high voltage (12 volts) to a flash component in order to erase portions of the flash, which would turn every bit into a "1". You would then program in a "0" to the bit locations you did not want to be a "1". You also had to supply 5 volts to the part for normal read operations.

Young engineers today dont realize the challenges we had back in those days to get flash to work properly. E-Digital in their response describes how they handled the power management for the Norris Voice recorder.

For the last 10 years or so, none of that is required. Flash is very easy to design with today, and only requires a single 3.3 volt power supply that does not have to be manipulated. In fact flash devices are so smart today, there is some sophisticated processing logic that allows software to do all the work, leaving the hardware design quite simple.