Would any one recommend the ipod recorder?

I assume you mean the Belkin voice recorder. That or take a look at Griffin Technologies iTalk.

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italk/

I have asked several times, how much time can you record (running on battery)?

My Belkin recorder works great. I recorded almost two hours continuous a few weeks ago, with no issues. I don't know how full my battery was...I can just say I wasn't worried about it.

It appears to work similar to how it plays a song....it remembers as much as it can in memory, then writes it to disk.