At NECC I got a chance to play around a little bit with the new Belkin microphone for the video iPod. It took them way too long to finally come out with a microphone for the latest generation of iPod, but I do have to admit that they did a nice job with it.
The biggest improvement is the quality. They say that it’s ‘cd quality’, which I assume is at least a 192kb bit rate. UPDATE via Brian Mull, quoted from iLounge: “Now you can record WAV files at 44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo - CD quality - which requires roughly 85 Megabytes per minute (1411kbps), or in 22.05KHz, 16-bit monaural mode, which consumes around 21 Megabytes per minute (352kbps). Either is suitable for voice or music recording, but the higher-quality mode is best for music, and the lower more than adequate for voice.” Additionally, the microphone is stero and set up to be omnidirectional. This time it attaches to the bottom of the iPod instead of the top, and since that covers up the jack used to dock the iPod, they included a USB port. So don’t worry, you can still charge your iPod while recording.
Hmm…. I wonder if you can just plug the microphone in the computer via USB and just use it as a USB mic? I’m guessing not, that might be asking too much 
Other highlights include an automatic gain control to drop the volume down if you’re clipping. Nice feature, but I”d much prefer a small screen showing levels and allowing you to adjust your own. Not a huge deal though. And as before, there is still a line-in jack so you can plug in a lavalier microphone if you like.
All in all, they did a nice job. List price is $70.00 ($60 with an educator’s discount on the Apple site, tip from Aaron Smith), which I think is just a little steep considering that you can get a 1GB MP3 player with a built in microphone for the same price. Of course, that MP3 player might not be white, so it all depends on what your priorities are 
Regardless, if you have a video iPod, you can now use it to start podcasting again and in much higher quality than you were ever able to before. Now, where’s the mic for the iPod Nano???
For a more complete review, the Academic Aesthetic has a podcast with some real hands on experience.
Steve, we were using these at the BLC conference last week. Going back and doing some of the editing, I can truly say that these microphones are pretty darn good. Pair it up with a lapel mic, and you’ve got a great little recording machine. For my Crisis to Community session, which should be posted soon, I used my iPod with the Belkin and a lapel mic. The quality was outstanding. Then, I exported the audio in mono (36 min long), added in slides for an enhanced podcast and got a file size of about 14MB. Not bad. In another session, I had the ipod and Belkin on a table w/o the lapel mic and still got very clear quality. The only downside, we had to give them back to Apple when we were done 
Oh well, guess I’ll have to buy one for myself. I highly recommend this mic.
10/22/2006
You can use the microphone for the Nano as well.
Hello,
What do I have to do, to make an audiobook file appear on the audiobook folder on my iPod?
I didn't get it how does it work.
Is there a special extension for audiobooks, because I've tried to convert to ACC (tutorial on this forum) but it didn't work.
Please, help me.
Thanks
Hi everyone.
What's a good alternative to the IPOD?
I'm wondering if any of you can recommend a good MP3 player that is comparable to the IPod but WITHOUT they hype and price tabe to go with it.
I was at the apple store a few days ago, and really liked the new 40GB or 80GB IPods that also show video, but was wondering if I could get the same kind of funcationality without that heftly price tag.
3/26/2008
For a multimedia podcast, a good way to go is using authorSTREAM - http://www.authorstream.com/ You can make a narrated PowerPoint presentation with animations and rehearsed timings and upload to the site. Your presentation will show up on a unique page and after some time (it takes some time so you got to be patient) you will see two extra icons next to your presentation of video download and iPod download.
When you click on the iPod icon, iTunes opens up on your desktop and downloads the presentation in iPod format. You can easily transfer to your iPod. You will also get embed code for your website of the presentation, which plays in a Flash player (like video) on your blog.
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