This pocket AI voice recorder took me back to the good old days of dictation (and shorthand)

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I'm old enough to have been taught a bunch of skills that are now essentially dead. Shorthand is one of those skills that I learned and used, and has since been pushed out of my brain by "Simpsons" quotes. I look at the lines and squiggles now, and it makes absolutely no sense.

Another skill that's come and gone is dictation and transcription. I had a number of recorders over the years -- from tape to electronic -- and used them extensively. I've lost count of how many recorders have burst apart when they were dropped.

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Dictation and transcription gave way to speech-to-text software. I remember trying this in the late 1990s and feeling it had potential, but it was also frustrating. As someone taught to type, the keyboard was always quicker and cleaner... until recently.

Thanks to a hearty chomp from a disease-ridden Scottish tick, I've been left with a small amount of cramping and neuropathy in my hands. The symptoms are more annoying than debilitating, but they did leave me wondering if non-keyboard options had improved.