4 cheap 'tape-unwrapping' tools for journalists

However, not all options are suitable for every budget. For example, Trint, a popular option, costs $48/month, which puts it out of reach for many freelancers.

4 cheap paper cutting tools for photo shops 1 — Photo: Unsplash

Here is a roundup of some affordable ice removal tools and additional information.

Otter.ai

Otter, which has been around since 2016, was created by Sam Liang and Yun Fu in Silicon Valley. The software automatically transcribes audio into text, allowing users to freely edit it. Otter also has a handy phone app that you can use to record new audio or upload existing recordings. In the Pro and Business versions, Otter Assistant can record online meetings, such as Zoom, when you can’t attend.

The free version allows for 300 minutes of recording per month and up to 30 minutes per individual recording. With the free version, you can record interviews in real time, but are limited to only 3 recording files being processed at a time per account.

At $8.33/month or $49.98/year, the Pro version will allow for 90 minutes of recording per individual recording and up to 1,200 minutes per month. The Business version, at $30/month or $240/year, allows for up to four hours of recording at a time and up to 6,000 minutes per month.

Otter currently only works in English.

Otter adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European regulation on data protection and privacy. Otter says it does not sell your data and complies with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), a law that enhances privacy and consumer protections for California residents.

Otter has also stated that it will not voluntarily provide data to any foreign government organization or official unless compelled to do so by a US court.

Happy Scribe

Happy Scribe was created in 2017 by Marc Assens and Andre Bastié in Barcelona. Similar to Otter, this tool can turn your interviews into editable text.

Unfortunately, Happy Scribe doesn't have a mobile app, nor does it offer subscription plans. If you want to use it, you have to pay by the hour. Happy Scribe also doesn't allow you to transcribe directly. However, the app does offer more languages, such as Mandarin, Persian, and Arabic.

The service costs $12/hour, performed by AI with 85% accuracy. They also offer a human-powered service for $135/hour with 99% accuracy.

Currently Happy Scribe can work in 62 languages using AI and 10 languages using experts.

Google Pinpoint

Google Pinpoint was launched in October 2020 as part of the Google News Initiative. It offers more than just clipping, similar to a project management app for journalists.

Google Pinpoint is currently free to use, with no limits on minutes per month or number of projects, and each recording can be up to two hours long.

Currently supported languages include English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish.

Good Tape

Good Tape was created by Danish media company Zetland. Launched in December 2022, it is still in beta and may see more changes in the near future.

You can now submit an audio file to their site and get three text versions back: one without timestamps, another with timestamps, and a third in the SubRip (SRT) File Format, which makes it easy to add subtitles or captions to your video .

The app is currently free. In the future, there will be a paid option with more privacy and fast copying, among other features.

The app was developed using Whisper, a software owned by Chat GPT's OpenAi company. The software was trained online and the developers are focusing on fine-tuning their service in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Dutch, French, Swedish, Ukrainian, Norwegian, Finnish, Slovak, Greek, Czech, Croatian and Danish. Users have also reported that the software has worked in other languages such as Farsi or Catalan.

Hoang Ton (according to IJN)

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