This item is everything it claims to be, no doubt about it. It's easy to operate, convenient, good quality and kind of stealth (people have no idea it's a recorder really). The price seems to have gone up, though there are plenty of used ones in great shape to be found, if they're willing to give it up. I have this model and also the more expensive one that actually does transfer to PC via USB cable. I think I'll break down and sell the VN-1000, I have no use for 2 recorders.
What do you do with the recordings if this model does not transfer to PC? Well it can transfer so to speak, more like re-record though, with an 1/8" connector cable plugged into the 'ear' port and connected to your audio port like any other device that's not USB (certainly not 1/4" like a previous poster claimed, that size is for guitars and some headphones etc). Truthfully, my other model that does have a USB port requires a special Olympus program that has been a bit of a bear to keep track of, at least it works. On my VN-960PC you cannot transfer audio files from this device with any other program via USB, your PC won't even recognize the device without the little Olympus transfer program. The transfer is very slow, and I never had a use for the files after I filled in my notes, even no matter how much I thought I would someday use them again.
Or you can simply delete the files on the recorder and they're gone. The delete function is intuitive, like all the functions on this recorder.
I have used both models extensively as an undergrad and grad student, recording lectures while taking bits of notes, that way I was able to actually listen to the lectures and then go back later and fill in the parts for awesome notes. Like I tell my own students now, from my experience students do not remember everything in class, so notes are imperative! This recorder is like a flash drive in a way, you can simply throw it in your pocket. And you'll probably only miss 4-5 seconds of audio by the time you've got it out and press 'record' because it's that simple.
One thing I do not recommend is trying to record the VN-1000 onto the VN-960PC, the audio was horrible because it picked up every nuance of crackly garbly noise. And this was a direct connection of 1/8" plug from one ear port to 1/8" plug in the other's mic port. I recorded an interview with my grandmother so I re-recorded the audio onto my PC via audio ports so I could edit the tracks - worked just fine. I used to connect my mini-disk recorder the same way, and my cassette player to 'convert' the analog to digital audio files.
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Olympus VN-1000 Digital Voice Recorder: excellent design, good controls, good sound; great value at under $50.
EXTRA UNADVERTISED INFO regarding the Olympus VN-1000: You can play/feed your digital voice files to your computer by separately purchasing an inexpensive generic 1/4" male to 1/4" male audio cable: Plug one end of the cable into the voice recorder's ear phone port and plug the other end to your PC's microphone port. Similarly, you can play your digital voice files through your stereo system if your equipment has an auxillary port.
