Several companies have come with MP-3 or MPEG-2 recorders designed for radio journalists. They are all based on the use of flash memory. This is the latest from a US company called EdiRol and is sold through the music trade (shops that sell guitar amplifiers and the like).
The US$440 unit (street price in the US) includes two electret mics, a 64MB Compact Flash card, an optical-output jack, and 9 recording modes from 64kbps MP3 to 24-bit linear WAV. It can transfer a max-resolution 60 minute recording (908MB) to a PC over USB-2 in around 3 minutes.
I tried one for a morning in August 2005 - but I was disappointed that the input circuitry for the microphone was not that sensitive. It would be great if I wanted to record a guitar, but not a podcast interview. In short, I was disappointed. Anyone had similar experiences?
