This personal digital audio recorder would have two memory banks, one that constantly records and makes a copy of itself, and the other for rewinding when you want to re-listen to something that just happened. This might get kind of recursive when you start listening to recordings of yourself listening to recordings of yourself etc., but it would be invaluable as a "what did you just say" tool. You could just carry around two or three tape recorders, but I want one small, easily navigable unit that will make it easy to say, "lets go back and see exactly what you said" and keep a recording of the whole thing. This would be valuable in court too.-- JesusHChrist, Jul 29 2005 I think I'm correct in saying that 'audio recorders' exist. I have one.-- neilp, Jul 29 2005 This sounds kind of like a combination of existing voice recorder technology with a feature I saw recently on a digital camera - it's called "best shot". When you press the shutter button to record a movie it starts the recording from a point 5 seconds before you actually pressed the button. (If anyone needs a link I can provide one).-- Canuck, Jul 29 2005 There was a hybrid dictaphone in the late 70s/early 80s that used a short but continuously recording solid-state recorder to compensate for the start-up time of the tape mechanism. That was back when solid state memory was very expensive - the memory was probably a bucket-brigade, not digital.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 29 2005 Ah. The Tivo "eight second button" claims another victem. You will be assimilated. resistence is futile.-- ato_de, Jul 29 2005 random, halfbakery