I’m avoiding working on “Miss Pavlichenko” even as I type. I’m trying to add in some new scenes to help flesh her out a little but it’s like trying to move a boulder in a river bed. I need to post a final draft Thursday night (although I could get an extension) and I guess I’m grateful for a deadline, otherwise it would just sit. But that’s what I should be doing right now instead of blogging.
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The iTrip firmly belongs in the “Does Not Work As Advertised” category. I’d heard bad things about iPod FM transmitters for cars that don’t have tape decks, but I’d also heard that it was only a problem in larger cities where most of the radio waves had been claimed. Not so. |
| We bought the iTrip for our Portugal trip and found that you can indeed hear the iPod through the car speakers—sometimes. Rarely without static. And only after holding the iPod in three hundred different positions until finding out it only gets a clear signal if you hold it at a precise angle between your feet. And then that only lasts for a few miles before you need to find a new position because the signal’s faded and now all you get it blaring static. In a word, this product sucks and there are painfully few alternatives if you want to listen to your iPod through your car speakers that doesn’t have a tape deck. | |
| On the other hand, the JBL On Stage is a product that performs better than advertised.. I keep mine within touching distance at all times. It’s basically a set of speakers for the iPod and, despite its size, it puts out hefty volume. It also charges the iPod while you listen. I use it when I’m working in the kitchen, when I’m at the in-laws, and it has become my solution for audiobooks during my commute. |  |
| The new car has a plug in the dash, so I just pop this in and go. When I get to Milwaukee, the iPod is all charged for a day on campus so it actually works pretty well. I still wish I could listen to the iPod through the stereo speakers (as you can’t really crank music this way) but it’s not a terrible solution. | |
Is anyone else already tired of hearing about the Microsoft Zune? Oi.
Version 1.0 of my Christmas/birthday list is now available. Don’t worry, this list will grow between now and mid-January, but this is a good place to start. Go to it.
Current Mood: Unispired | 
4 Comments
For quite a while I used a Sony adapter on a Discman which went from earphone jack to cable to a casette adapter and voila — crank that sucker. Went through two of those over a couple of years because you have to fool the capstan roller into thinking its turning and not binding, and the roller in the adapter seizes up eventually.
This assumes you have an archaic casette player in your car. (grin)
Many of the low power FM transmitter adapters suffer from drifting frequencies, which is why you have to fiddle with them all the time. It was always the case I had to retune the FM transmitter adapter rather than move it — until I went with the wired approach.
No wonder some carmakers are putting iPod plugs right in the dash.
And Microsoft thinks they’ll get the market to shift from iPod to Zune. Dream on, boys.
Dr. Phil
Hey, you forgot the Amazon affiliate links. :)
The Jeep has a tape deck and therefore iPod cassette adapter, but it also gets lousier gas mileage, about 20 MPG on the highway as opposed to the Vibe’s 33 MPG.
For a couple hundred bucks I can get a new car stereo with a built-in audio jack. I’m seriously thinking about it.
The Zune confuses me. From the reports I’ve read, it’s a comparable price to the midrange iPod, only has 30 GB of space, doesn’t outperform the iPod, and the WiFi gadgetry doesn’t have a useful enough function. What’s the market segment looking for this device?
It’s another Microsoft Version 1.0 product with no marketable base to it. Idiots.
Dr. Phil