A Gift From Hallmark

by Bernie S.

My heart's out to FyberLyte for his efforts on "The Magical Tone Box" article in the Winter 1993-94 issue of 2600.  While his efforts deserve plaudits, the week after his article saw print it became obsolete!

Once again, the mass-market consumer electronics industry has succeeded in bringing down the cost of very sophisticated technology to ridiculous levels.  Hallmark, Inc. (the greeting card company) has teamed up with Information Storage Devices, Inc. (who makes the chip RadioShack sells (ISD1000A) which was used in FyberLyte's project) to produce the "Talking Greeting Card."

For a mere $7.95, you can buy a completely assembled digital audio recording device (complete with speaker and microphone) built into a greeting card.  The idea is to record your 10-second voice greeting on the card and mail it to the person of your choice.  The possibilities abound...

If you take the card apart, you'll find a plastic and cardboard frame inside containing a tiny 1-inch square circuit board, four 1.5-V batteries, two switches, an electret microphone, and a decent 1.5-inch, 16-ohm speaker.  This is basically the same thing FyberLyte took pains to gather parts for and assemble, except it is much smaller, much cheaper, and ready to go!

My hacker friends and I have removed these modules and concealed them inside all kinds of unlikely containers: a chewing-tobacco tin, a Zippo lighter, a dental floss dispenser, even a coat collar!  The voice-band fidelity is quite good, and it's excellent for recording (and playing back) ACTS coin-deposit tones, Sprint voice FONcard codes, call-progress tones, telco recordings, etc.

Thank you, Hallmark, for "caring enough to send the very best" in a cheap, accessible, and readily hackable device!