In a nutshell, the WS320M is a tiny 1GB device that records voice, plays music and acts as a USB drive. But it does it all well, which is why this device would make a good addition to your briefcase.

To start with, the microphone is sensitive enough that you can leave it in the middle of a conference table and know you’re getting a good recording. There are four recording modes, depending on the quality you want. With 1GB of storage, the high-quality stereo setting can grab 35 hours of audio. Nonstereo, high-quality recording (good enough for most needs) nets 70 hours. And you can play back interviews at various speeds to find the info you want.

But many of us like to get our voice recordings onto a PC as quickly as possible for long-term storage and easy transcription. With the WS320M, you remove the AAA battery compartment, exposing a USB port, and plug the device into your system. Recordings are in Windows Media format (some older recorders use a proprietary format), so it’s easy to copy them over or simply launch them from the drive.

As a thumb drive, the WS320M works like similar devices. And you can lock files so you don’t accidentally delete them. But keep in mind that even though it’s small for an MP3 player/voice recorder, it’s big for a thumb drive. So be careful it doesn’t get jostled when you plug it into a notebook PC on the train, for instance.

As a music player, the WS320M supports both MP3 and Windows Media Audio formats. It comes with stereo headphones and more sound settings than many MP3 players, including something called Wow, which lets you set levels of SRS 3D surround sound and TruBass quality. The results are impressive for a multitool gadget.

Yes, 1GB will probably fill up fast, but with a little file management discipline, the Olympus WS320M could be just the tool many executives on the go are looking for.