Olympus TP-7 Telephone Pickup Hands-Free Cable

First rate piece of kit. I can't praise it enough. It's simple, and it does exactly what it says from the moment you take it out of its box.

I am a 'one-person-band' supplying computer support and training to small business and individuals. As well as occasionally offering complete lessons via the phone, I often get calls asking for help with a problem ("It suddenly started doing...!" or "I don't know what I did, but now it won't...!"), and have to go through a lot of questions to ascertain exactly what's happening, or has happened, before offering to find a solution and get back to them. This little gizmo is a godsend, saving me writing copious notes at great speed in a shorthand I often can't then read back. Similarly invaluable for recording detailed instructions on how to find customers' premises, or lists of requirements before researching the best suggested buy for new equipment. It's also proved worth its weight in gold in recording a personal conversation about a potentially very volatile situation, thereby making it possible to be totally accurate when recounting what was said.

If it was bigger I would hug it!

So, the practical details. What you get appears to be a straight forward earpiece, with the usual little 'jack' plug on the end of the wire. However where the outer side of an earpiece would normally be solid/closed in, with this little beauty the outside forms a tiny, flat, microphone. So you put the earpiece side into your ear, and hold the phone against the tiny flat microphone side. As the microphone is nestled in your ear, it feels hardly any different to putting the phone directly against your ear, but as you and the caller speak, the microphone picks up the entire conversation, while you still hear the caller as clearly as if the microphone wasn't there.

I don't (yet) have any sort of digital recorder, so I bought it in the hope that I could use it with my laptop. Easy as 1-2-3.

When I took it out of its box, I chose the most comfortable of the three provided sizes of earpiece (in a matter of seconds) then scanned the brief but entirely adequate instructions to ascertain which connector to use if I wanted stereo rather than mono results. I plugged it in to the microphone socket on my computer and chose "microphone" from the pop-up list asking what it was that appeared on the screen.

I then, to my joy, discovered that Windows - certainly Windows Vista Home Premium that I have - comes with a little programme simply called Sound Recorder. It opened in a minute window with a button that said Start Recording, so I did. I wittered on for a few seconds, conscious I was talking to myself, and then clicked on Stop Recording. A Save As window immediately opened on the screen, I named the recording appropriately (in this case with the unimaginative "Test 1") and chose to save it into My Documents. When it was saved, I opened the My Documents folder, double clicked on the file to run it, and it automatically opened the Windows Media Player (again something that's included on any Windows computer), and in a few seconds I was listening to my own very clear sharp voice.

My first opportunity to try it out for real with a phone call came shortly afterwards, with the aforementioned personal call, and an hour later I had a complete recording as proof of the revelations it had contained! (You'll need to wait for my book to come out to find out more LOL!)

As my laptop is always on and at hand using it as the recorder isn't a problem. But when I can afford to buy a more compact and portable digital recorder, this little bit of excellence will be even more of a joy to use, allowing me to walk around freely while recording with the recorder slipped in a pocket. Until then recording straight to the computer has the benefit of letting me file the completed calls immediately and easily.

Useful, practical, simplicity itself. And for non-businessy use - how lovely to record (with their permission of course!) happy conversations with family and loved ones who are far away, to replay whenever you're missing them.

This nifty gadget allows you to record any phone conversations - landlines and mobiles - without complications, and with excellent sound quality. I have used mine in combination with a WS-40 digital recorder for the past year and it is fantastic for phone interviews. I rave about it so often that two colleagues have purchased it based on my recommendation.

For occasional and mobile recording, this device does the job quite well. Its not the most comfortable solution though - so I doubt you would choose it for daily use. I have plugged it in to my Olympus voice recorder and directly into my laptop for recording - both work fine. It sits OK under my telephone headset too. Came with 3 rubber ear inserts of different sizes. Its fitted with a mono 3.5mm miniplug but adapters for stereo 3.5mm and mono 2.5mm were also supplied with mine.