XtremeMac MicroMemo Digital Voice Recorder for iPod nano 2G (Black)

• Compatibility: iPod nano 2G
• Record interviews, meetings, lectures, or any audio content directly to your iPod nano
• Flexible, detachable mic for exact positioning
• Menus and controls display on iPod nano screen
• Accepts other microphones with 3.5mm plug; records directly from line-in sources

I've been an Ipod user since Gen 3, owning as many as six at one time. The full Ipod's Gen 3&4 had add on features like recorders, the Mini, didn't (sadly). When I discovered I could conduct interviews and use the Ipod as a voice recorder, I was thrilled. I conducted an average of 4 interviews a week, some at the office, some out in the field. Many times, I didn't have advanced notice when I be needed to conduct an interview, (I'm an investigator)so I always had to carry either my laptop or my Sony MC-11 digital recorder in my car. The Ipod changed all that. Now I had a device I carried with all of the time anyway, and with an add on some from Belkin, I could conduct an interview with no advanced warning. Granted unless one added Linux to the 3rd gen, you could only record in mono, but that's all I needed for an interview.

As I moved to smaller and smaller Ipods, (I bought a mini thinking it would work with my recorders but later learned Apple withheld that ability) I was now in the position of having to carry two Ipods with me. This was defeating the purpose of one all around device.

My latest Ipod is the 8 gig Nano 2gen, which when it first came out, didn't have a voice recorder out on the add on market though Apple had put the recording feature back into this product line.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn Apple had enabled stereo recording, but as yet there was not an available product to access this feature.

Than came along the XtremeMac IPN-MIC-20 Micromemo Digital Voice Recorder. I did my research and all of the reviews were glowing. A big selling point was you could remove the small mic and add one of your own. From time to time, I did employ a mic disguised as a pen, so this seemed perfect for me and my line of work.

Like a kid waiting for Santa, I spent every day running to the mail box to see if my order arrived. When it did, I rushed home, read the small (very small, almost non existent instructions) and plugged it in. It took me a couple of tries to get it to work, but it did finally appear.

I made a couple of test recordings, which played back fine. I was thrilled.

The first time I went to use it in the field, out of habit I carried a back up recorder. I'm glad I did. For while the XtremeMac did record the interview, after I detached the recorder, I couldn't get the Nano to respond to anything.

I plugged it into a wall charger after I couldn't get Itunes to recognize it, did a hard reboot per Apple's support page. Still no luck.

I called Apple support, but was informed that since the product creating the problem was from a third party vendor, I was out of luck with Apple support.

I ended up having to let the battery run itself down. As the Nano doesn't spin like the other Ipod models, this was going to be a challenge.

After many tries, I was able to get the back light on, and drain the battery over four days.

I had to than reformat the Nano, which of course wiped out my music and the interview. So much for ease and dependability of use.

I did try it once more, got the same result. Now, it just sits in my drawer with various other third party add ons which have become either redundant, or old and replaced by something better.

You may have better luck than me, however as I continue to see positive reviews from various magazines. Though I'm left to wonder if any of the reviewers actually used the recorder, or just wrote up the marketing material.

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This is a great product. I have the incredibly small recorder for the Nano. Voices and musical instruments sound very life like. The bad news is that there is a lot of hiss. Not being a sound engineer I don't know if this is unavoidable or not. I use a software program called Soundsoap to clean up my recordings. It would be great if this was part of a bundle.

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One star is too many.

I purchased this item with some concern based on previous reviews. One review in particular that worried me described how his Nano froze and had to be restarted only after letting the batteries die, after several days, because the recording unit software somehow had basically hi-jacked the Nano and would not shut down.

I had the EXACT same experience, and had to wait 2 days to restart my Nano (my daughters). OK, fair enough, I was warned, and sometimes SHhhh..."STUFF" happens, thats fine. Lets fix it and move on. BUT, then it gets frustrating. When I sent the item back to get my refund, they (the re-seller Electro Galaxy) are now charging me a restocking fee... for an item that sometimes works, and sometimes doesnt... SO.... if you want to avoid the excess charges, hassle of filing a complaint, and just get something that works, DO NOT buy this unit (or anything else from Electro Galaxy).

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It is so easy to use that I didn't think I had done all that was necessary. Easy to record and playback (I used it to record 62 pages of script for memorization and have been playing back as I walked/drove/watched the ball game!). The device is small and flexible so is easy to stow. Judging by the fact that my husband's voice speaking to me in the background is easy to hear on the recording, think it would work to record conversations, etc.

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I highly recommend this product. I am writing a book that involves conducting a large number of interviews, and I have found the micromemo to be a wonderful device to get great recordings.

I looked into buying a very expensive digital recording machine, and when I researched this product and found it for around $30 on sale, I thought, why not take a chance on it, since I already have an iPod, before I drop a bunch of money on something else. I'm very glad I did.

I have done over a dozen interviews in noisy restaurants and cafes with the micromemo exactly as it is, without any additional microphone. I was very hesitant because I didn't want to conduct an interview and it to have a problem during the fact or afterwards (such as find out that it didn't record!), but I was very pleased with the results. In fact I was surprised at how high of a quality the result was! The voices were very clear despite lots of ambient noise at the time of the interview such as background music and people from the tables next to us talking.

Everyone who saw this simple set up was very curious and surprised that it would work so well. I was anxious that it would have problems saving larger files, such as when I let it record for longer lengths of time, but I made recordings of nearly 2 hours without pressing PAUSE or RECORD & SAVE, and when I finally did, the recording instantly appeared in a complete form ready to be listened to.

My only negative comments is that the recordings are a little quiet, and when I listen to them on my iTunes (they are automatically imported into iTunes when I plug the iPod into my Mac Powerbook), I have to listen to them at full volume, which does create a hum because the sound is being amplified to such a high degree.

This isn't a problem for my purposes, but I do think that if someone was using it to record lectures in a large auditorium, an external battery powered microphone would well to increase the recording volume. I did order the Sennheiser ME3 headset as well, and that was a bust since it didn't work with the iPod at all. I'm very disappointed about that but I was also warned that it might not work.

Also the little speaker is a total joke and to hear anything you have to turn the iPod volume all the way up and press the speaker up against your ear to hear anything. I don't know why they even bothered.

The little switch on the bottom which is purely mechanical, stiff and awkward that is supposed to switch the microphone input to a line in jack, as well as into a headset jack is really crap and is a total design flaw. Other people said they had trouble with it getting back into the correct position, and after I played with it a few times, I just left it alone because I didn't want to have any problems. I would have liked a separate headphone jack so that I can listen to the recording either while I'm making it or to do a quick test.

This little thing is a little clunky, and I am a little anxious about plugging it in and pulling it out of my iPod over and over again, which I don't think can be good for either device. I did have the iPod freeze on me twice after unplugging this device and trying to play music, but that is simple fix (hold down the MENU and SELECT button for 5 seconds or so, until the device reboots).

Nevertheless, it does shock people to see me pull my whole recording set up out of my dress shirt pocket and put it on the table in front of them! People are very surprised that this thing could actually work so well! I have a 4GB iPod and I can easily record 5 hours at the highest recording setting without using up even half of the memory or battery power!

Nevertheless, this is by far the best deal imaginable! If you already have an iPod, then this is a no-brainer! At least try it out like me, and then if it's not good enough, get something more serious. But I am very glad that I didn't spend a couple hundred extra dollars when there was such an inexpensive solution right here.