tool: open format digital audio recorder (for posting MP3s to web)

[hg4]

My criteria was that it save files to a USB thumb drive, in
an open format like mp3 or wav. The purpose is to record
meetings, speeches etc, so I can post them to (for ex)
radio4all.net.

Over the holidays I researched, and then bought an

IKEY plus

It's a compromise - actually better quality than I wanted,
but a bit large. It defaults to a high sample rate - good
for music, but you will want to scale it back for speech.

The microphone it comes with could be more sensitive.
I'm considering buying this court reporter microphone.

After I received the IKEY, I noticed a ~$35 IRCA pocket sized MP3 recorder
at Walgreens. I have not tried it, nor can I recommend the store I linked to.