Catering to both reporters and students, Philips today released three recorders as part of its Digital Voice Tracer lineup. The 860 and 880 are the Dutch electronics giant's first recorders to support recording while powered directly from the USB port, letting notebook owners capture long lectures or meetings without running down the smaller battery inside the Voice Tracer. USB on all the recorders, including the baseline 660, is used to offload the MP3 recordings to more permanent storage.

The 660 carries 1GB of memory for either capturing audio or playing MP3 and WMA songs and supports placing recordings in up to four folders to organize multiple sessions. Moving to the 860 doubles the internal storage to 2GB, while the 880 adds an FM tuner and radio recording. Philips is reluctant to immediately announce pricing but expects all three Voice Tracer updates in October.