Teenage Engineering's master class audio device TP-7 is designed for true, one-hand operation, emphasizing the senses of touch, sound, and sight.

The touchscreen display is one of the greatest ? and polarizing ? inventions in modern times. While a display interface on a mobile device can transform into an endless array of configurations and purposes, that adaptability in utility comes at a price: losing the sheer simplicity of operating by tactile feedback. It is almost always easier to press a button or turn a dial than navigating a graphical interface ? “tap to open, scroll, and press.”

This is particularly true when capturing audio, a task I often rely upon while interviewing subjects using my iPhone. I make it a habit to have the app ready ahead of recording to prevent the dreaded instance of “GAH! I wasn’t recording” every journalist runs into at one time or another. Even when operating correctly I’m perpetually checking to make sure it’s recording because of the lack of physical (and aural) indications my device is correctly recording.
The Teenage Engineering TP?7 field recorder is an interesting proposition, not so much a compromise, but a digital recording device designed to invite the fingers to intuitively utilize physical controls just like an analog tape recorder of yore: the index finger triggers fast forward, the middle finger rewinds, the thumb records a memo, and the pinky selects the mode.

Just as early...