does such a thing exist?
basically like a hand held tape recorder but digital so i can load it on my computer

im looking to pull in about 4-5 hours of audio

 

i think there is. I believe I saw some at best buy. Nifty little thing.

 

if there is youre gonna pay out the *** for it

 

These things have been around for ages. You can get them pretty cheap depending on the features and size you want.

They have been at cain stores like best buy, circuit city ect for at least 5yrs now. Even longer in cataloges for businesses.

 

Check out Sony's NETMD HD Minidisc player / recorders. You have to get a newer HD unit (which also holds more audio) to be able to transfer to your computer faster then real time. It will hold anywhere between 2-45 hours (it could be 40) depending on how much compression, if any, you want to run. They are quite popular for sneaking into concerts and recording them. It will also do double duty and be your audio player.

 

x2 on the minidisc. Theres quite a few options once you get into pro audio but not sure what your purpose is or how much you want to spend.