Lloyd by Incipio is a sleek, slick, and reasonably-priced microphone adapter that enables Voice Memo recording on a 4th Generation iPod nano.

What's that you say? You didn't know the iPod nano 4G could record Voice Memos? That's not surprising. You see, the Voice Memo menu item only appears when you plug an appropriate microphone adapter into the iPod nano 4G's headphone jack.

We pause now for a brief off-topic discussion...

Question: Is it still a headphone jack if you can plug a mic into it? Wouldn't that make it an audio in/out or speaker/mic jack?

Answer: I don't know but Apple's official name for it is: "stereo minijack."

And while we're off-topic, what's up with the name "Lloyd?" Are the Incipio folks fans of HBO's Entourage (Lloyd is Ari Gold's assistant) or what? Furthermore, how should we refer to the thing? I mean, is it "The Lloyd," or just plain "Lloyd?" Enquiring minds and all that rot...

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming...

Lloyd is available in black or white,

and fits precisely on the bottom of an iPod nano 4G.

Lloyd works well in most recording situations. Placed between two people speaking at normal levels, the audio sounds quite natural. The quality wasn't as good when I recorded lectures and other distant sound sources, but even then the recording was listenable if I cranked up the volume a bit.

There's a headphone pass-through jack on the side so you can listen to anything on your iPod without removing Lloyd. And since it connects through the "stereo minijack," you can twist it out of the way to use the dock connector to charge or sync (using a cable, of course; you'll have to remove Lloyd if you want to use an actual dock).

Since Lloyd is shaped like the iPod nano 4G, I could even use it with some cases (i.e. Speck PixelSkin) without removing the iPod from the case. And I like Lloyd's rubberized coating, which makes it easier to handle.

I wish there was a way to adjust the recording level but I suspect that's a limitation of the iPod and not Lloyd's fault. The only other thing that gives me pause is that Lloyd is so small I'm concerned about misplacing or losing it, though this isn't Lloyd's fault either.

By the way, here's an interesting factoid I uncovered while testing Lloyd: If you plug in a headset with a microphone (such as the Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic that comes with the iPhone) into an iPod nano 4G, the Voice Memo menu item is enabled and you can use its microphone to record voice memos. So if you have an iPhone (or even just a headset from an iPhone), it does pretty much the same thing as Lloyd. The differences are that Lloyd is cleverly designed, sounds quite a bit better, and definitely won't make your ears hurt.

The Bottom Line

If you need an inexpensive microphone that provides good quality Voice Memo recording for your iPod nano 4G, you will almost certainly be happy with Lloyd.