ack, the three inch thing doesn't sound like fun, however i think theres going to be lots of competition between this and the pdAudio device. Granted, size doesn't matter for most of you, but for the stealthers, its hard to stealth all your gadgets and widgets, so sometimes we have to cut back on what we take with this. The pdaudio device will still require preamps and adc's, plus you'll have to carry 40 compact flash cards with you.
those 3 inches might be worth it, i dunno, i'm gonna buy myself some mics first and worry about this when the prices drop. but hey, way cool advancements are on the horizon.
ed