Nine months after Apple's introduction of its fifth-generation video iPod, there's finally a 44.1 kHz stereo recording accessory, Belkin's TuneTalk. Though inexplicabily still "Coming Soon" according to the Belkin website, I nonetheless was able to order one from the Apple Store. I'm happy to report it works quite well.

It's small and light without being flimsy. It has a stereo mic, a stereo mini jack for an external sound source, and it's simple to use. Plug it in and you're immediately taken to the record screen. If you've navigated elsewhere in the iPod's menu, the Quick Memo button on the left side of the TuneTalk will return you to the recording screen.

To record, press the iPod's Play/Pause button or its Select button. To stop recording, press the iPod Menu button; to stop recording and save, scroll to the "Stop and Save" menu option and press Select.

The iPod menu path "Extras > Voice Memos > Quality" leads to a choice between high quality (44.1 kHz) and low quality (22.05 kHz) recording. TuneTalk stores recordings in the .WAV format, with the time stamp as the file name.

An included mini USB cable allows the iPod to be charged and to record while attached to the TuneTalk.

For noise-free recording, Belkin recommends using an external mic to avoid picking up the whirs and clicks of the iPod's hard drive. I don't expect this will be much of an issue when recording interviews.

At the very least, I'm looking forward to being able to abandon my cheap Sony digital voice recorder for something with many gigabytes of storage space. Whether the iPod will prove easy to use for playback and transcription remains to be seen.