The unfortunate trade-off of a smart speaker is clear: for the convenience of having something to yell at that can tell you what the weather is, what the traffic is like, and whether your front door is unlocked or not (to name a few items), you have to give up your privacy to a giant corporate entity.

Skype announced this week that it has added a cloud-based recording feature to its video chat service, which you can now access on almost any version of Skype save for the Windows 10 version. It’ll gain the call-recording feature “in the coming weeks,” according to the Skype blog.

I'm a journalist. (Kind of.) I have to record calls a lot, to supplement my notes. When I make a call over Skype, I use Ecamm Call Recorder, a simple but full-featured Mac-only Skype extension.

Suppose you're trying to troubleshoot a family member's computer, you want to show a friend some issue you're having with your system, or you want to make a quick recording of some crazy thing you're about to do in a game. With the Chrome extension Loom, it's incredibly easy to capture and share a quick recording of your screen right from of your browser.

iOS: You have a ton of voice recording apps for iPhone, but a lot of them don't work super well. Cassette manages to offer up a good organisation scheme, solid recording features, and a handy, yet pricey transcription feature if you need it.

Recording quality audio all comes down to preventing major problems from the start. This guide, from NPR's Rob Byers and NPR audio engineers, will help you avoid recording problems, as well as fix editing and mixing problems.

In the digital age of smartphones and instant messaging, it has never been easier to record and send videos and conversations involving other people. App features such as Instastory and Snapchat’s instantaneous video messaging abilities allow users to share real-time events and conversations to their friends and the public.

In many cases these secret videos spark significant public interest by providing a fly-on-the-wall perspective to an unusual event or crime. But is any of this legal? Let's find out.

For whatever reason, the iPhone has tons of different voice recording apps, but very few of them do anything more than Apple's free Voice Memos app. We like Just Press Record because it manages to make itself worth its asking price by offering a different experience and feature set than Apple's offering.

Video: If you're looking to create a quiet recording environment without breaking the budget, a stack of old towels might be all you need.

Video: When you're a one-person film crew, you don't have an extra pair of hands to hold your shotgun mic. But if you have an extra tripod, this DIY clamp will be your extra hands, and it only costs around $20 to make.

Starting your own podcast goes beyond having a topic idea and knowing how to use your equipment. Take your podcast or blog to the next level with this in-depth collection of training materials from the team at NPR.

iOS/Mac: For whatever reason, Apple's Voice Memos app doesn't sync up with any software on the Mac, which means you have to email recordings to yourself or drop them into a note. If you want something that just automatically syncs, Just Press Record does the job.

Recording your own podcast is a pretty complicated affair, but Zencastr is a web app currently in beta that allows you to record audio on multiple computers, then upload that all to Dropbox.

Mac: Handoff in iOS 8 allows you to take a phone call on your Mac computer running Yosemite. With Call Recorder for FaceTime, you can record that call.

VLC is easily one of our favourite media players (and yours too). However, it's not just a one-trick pony. Under the surface, there's a wide range of features that you might not have known it offers.

If you want good quality audio in an interview recorded on an iPhone or need to add a voiceover for the video you're editing on your iPad, it's best to connect an external microphone. Here's how to do it.

Hi Lifehacker, There have been a lot of stories recently from the US about customers recording calls to demonstrate how bad customer service can be. I'm wondering if it's legal to do that in Australia.

Recording audio streaming through your computer -- whether that's an internet radio station, video game music or an online presentation -- is always a pain to do. Digital Inspiration shows off a way to do it easily with Audacity and a couple of cables.

If you take a lot of video calls over Skype or Hangouts, record podcasts, make music, or you're a burgeoning YouTube celebrity, you'll need a decent microphone for your desktop -- one better than whatever's already built-in. This week we're looking at five of the best, based on your nominations.