Webcams and microphones for the USB port are almost a requirement for any computer or laptop these days.  One of the companies that makes them is Blue Microphone, who makes the Snowflake. 

I’m not certain why the company who makes the Snowflake calls themselves Blue Microphone, because very few of the products are blue in color.  Okay, enough joking aside, because Blue Microphone produces some really quality USB microphones in the past few years, and one of their top sellers is the Snowflake. 

The Snowflake has the traditional mesh ball look of a lot of studio/stage microphones.  It is definitely professional recording quality for anything that you want to record on the computer. 

Getting it to work is as simple as plugging it into a spare USB port.  There wasn’t any software to load, on the device itself or on a CD.  I had to change the default setting on Windows Control Panel, but there was a clear set of instructions that allowed me to do it easily.  From there, I did a voice recording that worked right away. 

The design of the Snowflake is extremely elegant as it folds up into a neat little box that you can see on the picture.  Sure, the spherical part of the mike sticks out a bit, but the unit is, for the most part, as compact as it can be. 

The microphone swivels out of the box, and it can turn around at any angle.  The casing has a hook shape on it that will enable it to hook onto the top of the computer or laptop’s screen.  If you don’t have a flatscreen monitor, then you can swivel the microphone around and stand it up atop the monitor.

When it is time to fold it up and take the Snowflake on the road, the user can wind up the USB to mini-USB cord and stash it away.  Just to let you know, you’ve got to wind it up pretty tight in a small circle. 

The Blue Microphone Snowflake is terrific for all sorts of applications such as podcasting, voice recognition software, iChat, dictation, field recording, narration, and VoIP software such as Skype or Vonage.  It also makes a handy microphone for the ever-so-popular Garage Band on iLife ’09. 

You should be able to purchase the Snowflake at Amazon for a little over $30.00.  You might want to check out this quality product and other products like the Mikey and the Eyeball, which will be available soon.