IPhone Cafe

Next week we drive from San Fransisco to Las Vegas.  The rental car is picked-up in San Fransisco. Expect will need lots music on hand for the two day drive through Yosemite and Death Valley. 

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Since my iPhone is loaded with downloaded music, an FM transmitter is a logical choice for playing iPhone music through the car stereo. The local Apple store sells lots of FM transmitters from different vendors all of which plug into the car’s cigarette lighter. Two particular transmitters provide a rigid stem to position the iPhone for the driver, both of these sold for $89 USD.

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For this trip, I went with Belkin instead of Griffen because; 1) Belkin claims to scan automatically for unused FM radio frequencies, and 2) I bought a Griffen in January and wasn’t super impressed with sound quality.

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Belkins home page provides this nifty picture of the installed transmitter and here’s a picture of the unit as purchased from Apple.

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The road trip from San Fransisco to Vegas will be a good chance to evaluate Belkin’s TuneBase.  More to come.

June 22nd

Good Points:

• Automatically finds unused FM frequencies
• The rigid stem.  It holds the iPhone in position for the driver to use iPod or other features such as google maps. With a Toyota RAV4 SUV, a 1 to 3 cigarette lighter expander from Radio Shack positioned the iPhone higher and provided additional 12 volt sockets.

Bad Points:

• Auto-frequency finder can be annoying while driving through mountainous areas or other areas where radio signal come and go.
• Audio quality is not quite as good as a CD or listening via a direct, wired connection. The FM transmission and reception process cuts into frequency response and dynamic range.
• On a Toyota RAV4, opening the driver side door killed the FM connection.  The radio needed to be retuned once the driver side door was closed.

Conclusion

I like the Belkin TuneBase.  The stem serves as a convenent iPhone holder and positions the phone for more than just listening to music, like for instance, checking Google maps; or getting the weather. The iPhone recharges while connected with TuneBase meaning you can turn off Auto-Lock from the General Settings menu. TuneBase was useful on a rented a houseboat in Nevada, near Las Vegas because the boat was equipped with an FM radio and a cigarette lighter. Plugging the TuneBase into the the cigarette lighter gave access to iPhone music which was piped over built-in shipboard speakers.

Griffen ITrip Auto 

The Griffen iTrip Auto is an FM transmitter that plays IPhone and IPod audio on your car’s FM radio.

iTrip Auto’s package lists compatible devices. The compatiblity list contains only iPods, but a picture on the front shows iTrip connected to an iPhone.  The Apple salesperson said ITrip would work with IPods or IPhones so I bought it for my IPhone. The Apple sales associate warned to be sure the device is not connected while starting the car.

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One end of ITrip plugs into the cigarette lighter. The other end plugs into the IPhone (or IPod). After starting the car and connecting the IPhone, a message displays on the IPhone saying the iTrip is not designed for use with an IPhone (disappointing!) and offers to turn on Airplane Mode to reduce interference (why?). Ignoring this message, the next step is to set the transmit frequency. The unit comes with three preset frequencies and  the idea is to pick a frequency not used by a local radio station. The default frequency is 106.9 which, in Seattle, is occupied so I ended up on 94.5.

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With everything connected and tuned, the IPhone’s IPod really does play music through the car’s stereo. Audio quality is good enough (for me at least), however, the iTrip does produce some static when driving under overhead utility lines.  Maybe the transmitter isn’t strong enough to overcome radiation emitted by some utility lines.

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Because it needs to be unplugged before stopping or starting the car, the iTrip is  inconvenient for short city trips. This hardware accessory is better suited for longer trips with few radio stations, few sources of static interference, and minimal pit stops.