I have a rather nice Sony (stereo) microphone that plugs into the headphone jack of my sl-c1000. I know that the voice recorder program on/in the cacko rom only records mono, but I should be able to record "something" with a stereo mic.
Anyway, despite checking all connections and recording levels etc, I am unable to record anything at all.

Exactly how do others record using the clamshell Zaurus? Is there a way to get voice recorder working, or is a different program necessary.

Went to Radio Shack with the Z asking for advice: they said that the hedphone jack socket was merely an output socket, and it's impossible to record via it. However, there's no other means of inputting a signal from a microphone is there?

I just used the default Sharp voice recorder with input volume set at 75%
I tried this with my Sharp supplied headphones. I spoke into the "Right" speaker.
Voice recorder recorded this into /Documents/Recording_Files/
I attached it here, it's lousy, because I'm talking into a speaker instead of a mic.

EDIT: download the second one that I posted, it sounds a lot better.

I found a "real" microphone, one that came with my 5yr old PC
Here's a file recorded with these settings.
Input Volume 80%
Voice recording format: 16,000Hz, 16bit, mono (256kbps)
This file sounds a lot better.

Also I noticed that voice recorder takes some time to load, because it parses the filesystem for sound files before allowing the user control over the program.

EDIT: A better microphone with windshield and correct distance between mic and person speaking, should make this kind of recording sound better.
EDIT2: These two files are my "First" recordings, and thus a "New" folder was created by "Sound Recorder"
It's here on my C3100
/Documents/Recording_Files/
on a C3100 this directory is on the hard drive.
/hdd3/Documents/Recording_Files/
symlinked to
/home/zaurus/Documents/Recording_Files/

EDIT3: If your mic and connection are working properly, you should see this RED bar in the Voice Recorder interface, while making a recording.

My buddy and I were attending a seminar last week. He was using a sony digital voice recorder with the stereo mics. When he dropped it and busted the recorder I used his stereo mic with the C1000. With the Sharp Voice Recorder app set at 22,5000Hz, 16Bit, mono ( 352 kbps ) I was able to record the talker flawlessly. It worked perfectly. I was sitting at the back of the Long Beach Convention Center and recorded the presentation and took notes with the Word app. With my 4 gig SD card I had a total of 8 hrs to record. I also set the mic gain to 90% due to recording a speaker that was reinforced by the audio system.

you need to use a mono mic. i have one that can pick up any sound up to 50 feet away from an indoor room. depending on the mono mic you buy, it will determine performance. My mic is sooooo sensitive, it picks up whispers.

Your Sony stereo microphone may not be a dynamic mic. It may require a power source, either by installing a battery in the microphone (if that's an option) or by plugging it into a Sony device that provides "plug in power" (that's probably a Sony trademark).

In other words, it may be a very good microphone, but the wrong one for this application!

I use a sony mic too, one that I bought long time ago with my recordable walkman. It's very sensitive and can record things from the back of the lecture room. What I usually do is to plug a splitter into the port on the Zaurus, then stick the mic and a headset into the splitter so I can record and listen to stuff at the same time (nice for VoIP chats but I just listen to music while recording lecture)

Final report, and thanks for all the help:
I found it was recording just fine. What prevented me hearing it though, was that I had reduced the volume via the volume applet, down to about 20 percent !!!

Now, I guess the answer is no, but is there an app anywhere that'll permit me to record in stereo??