Someone asked the following question – so I answered it.
On Dec 7, 2008, at 12:05 AM, Matt Hampel wrote:
I’m searching for a small digital audio recorder that uses common media formats and connects to Macs without extra software. Do you have a favorite you can recommend?
Thanks,
Matt

My Answer:
Yes – I love the Sansa MP3 Players as voice recorders:
http://go.shopsansa.com/content/clip
They have good sound and record into compressed WAV files – The clip clips to your lapel like a microphone. You can get them at Best Buy off the shelf.
They are just a USB drive on the mac – so it is drag and drop – you do have to convert from WAV to MP3 before putting them up for podcast – I use the software called “Switch” for that to convert from WAV to MP3.
There is something weird w.r.t the mac and Sansa – at least the older model Sansa that I have and use daily – when you eject the player’s disk it re-mounts instead of staying ejected – maybe this has been fixed in later models. My workaround is to do my copy/delete/empty trash – eject the disk – let it remount the disk and then just yank it out and tolerate the warning.
Note: I do not use the Sansa as anything other than an Audio recorder. I don’t leave it plugged into my Mac – I just plug it in, copy data and unplug it. I actually charge the Sansa using a Wall USB charger (for my ipod). I use an iPod for my music and Sansa only for my audio recording.
/Chuck