There are a myriad of iPod accessories on the market, but most of them are of debatable value. Not so the Tune Talk Stereo. If you’ve already got an iPod Video, it’s a quick and easy way to get a cheap dictaphone, start podcasting or (if you have the right external gear) turn your iPod into a cheap field recorder.

In high quality mode, it records 44.1 KHz, 16-bit stereo wav files. You can select a lower, 22 KHz 16-bit mono wav recording rate to conserve space and battery life through the iPod’s interface. You do this through the ‘voice memos’ option, which is added to the ‘extras’ submenu of the iPod. You can add this option to the top of the GUI hierarchy through the iPod’s ‘settings’ option.

Recordings are written to a ‘recordings’ folder on the iPod. You don’t need to use iTunes to access them; you can simply pull them off the iPod through Windows Explorer once you’ve connected the iPod to your computer. You don’t even need a proprietary iPod connector to do this, as there is a Mini USB connector at the base of the unit which will do the same thing as the iPod cable.

The built in microphones are more than acceptable for note taking; however there is a 3.5mm jack into which you can plug an external microphone or a line level source. Using a slide switch at the base of the unit, you can select line level or microphone level, where the gain is adjusted on the fly.

The only problem we have with the unit is beyond its control, as the data that it generates has to be written to a constantly spinning hard drive. This means that your iPod will get hot, and you’ll get roughly two hours of recording time on a full charge -- depending on the condition of your iPod’s battery.

It would be nice if it displayed a recording level meter, and we would have liked to be able to record to MP3 and to have seen more manual options. But once you take the Tune Talk Stereo for what it is, it’s hard to resist wanting one, even if it's a little pricey.