A handheld device with both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recoding allows users to switch between at least two of the following three modes: (1) recording audio without corresponding speech recognition; (2) recording with speech recognition; and (3) speech recognition without audio recording. A handheld device with both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recoding enables a user to select a portion of previously recorded sound and have speech recognition performed upon it. A system enables a user to search for a text label associated with portions of unrecognized recorded sound by uttering the label's words. A large-vocabulary system allows users to switch between playing back recorded audio and speech recognition with a single input, with successive audio playbacks automatically starting slightly before the end of prior playback. And a cell phone that allows both large-vocabulary speech recognition and audio recording and playback.