Deal Alert: San Disk Cruzer Micro 4GB $8.95 @ BUY.COM

I can hear you now. “What! Why would Graves be recommending a plain vanilla USB memory stick? Not especially cheap nor especially large? He must be mad!” That may well be true, but it remains comfortably beside the point.

As you may know we do like our Polycom SoundPoint desktop phones around here. In fact, the IP650 has perched upon my desktop longer than another other single device. One of it’s great conveniences is the software option called the Polycom Productivity Suite, which I purchased for all my IP650s.

This software includes the ability to record calls locally on the phone with just one or two button presses. This has been tremendously useful for podcasting, technical and normal business applications.

The feature records the call to a USB memory key plugged into the back of the phone. The trick is that not just any memory key will work. The IP650 is essentially a little embedded system. When a key is plugged into the phone it queries it for a product ID code. Every make/model of key is different. Based upon the product ID the phone determines if it knows how to access the media.

Polycom published a list of USB keys that are known to work with their phones. It’s not a huge list but it’s long enough. When last I checked it included drives from various major and minor name manufacturers, at sizes up to 16 GB.

Of those on the Polycom list my preference has been to buy SanDisk USB sticks. I find that the Cruzer Micro with the retractable USB connector are both durable and reliable. These are not too difficult to find, but as the world moves to ever larger flash media models at suitable sizes are not becoming more common either. So when I see just the right device offered on sale it’s worth noting.

By the way, 4 GB holds around 32 hours of uncompressed wav file recorded in mono at 16 KHz sample rate.