Panasonic RR-US500 Compact IC Recorder with USB Cradle and Voice Editing Software

I was suckered into this by the small form factor. The sound quality is mediocre, but it was sufficient. What's really horrible is the software. It's ugly and takes too many clicks to do things thanks to its poor design. Guess what, though? You're stuck using it. These Panasonic recorders record in their own proprietary format, not standard like wav or MP3. You actually need to use their software to transfer and decode the files. It doesn't implement something as simple and user friendly like USB Mass Storage (like the Olympus recorders do). Lost the software? Good luck. Unlike every other device maker that provides their software for free, Panasonic makes you pay $65 for another copy. Thanks for showing your true colors with this device, Panasonic. I'm never buying another Panasonic device ever again.

Extremely disappointed with this product. Sound quality very poor, even at highest quality setting. Too much background noise - hissing and sounds similar to water trickling in the distance. Dictation quality is okay, but overall quality should be much higher for a product of this price.
It does come with some interesting software speech to text and translation. Perhaps the inclusion of this is what inflates the price, but Panasonic should focus more on greatly improving the quality of the voice recorder in the areas of sound quality and feel (cheap, lightweight plastic.
I ended up buying the Olympus DS-40. It has a similar price, sound quality is far superior, and the overall appearance is much better.

appearance + controls:
Very tiny voice recorder.
the buttons are at the right places to allow easy one hand operation.
nice cradle. but would like the ability to charge unit via the usb cable.
nimh rechargeable battery included--nice touch.


voice recording:
ok recording from the back of a lecture hall (20 rows fr the front).

software:
need to download vista update from panasonic; otherwise, included cdrom doesn't support vista.
the voice recognition function is a joke. took a long time... and it isn't even accurate.