Reviews – Griffin Technologies iTrip – Wireless FM Broadcaster for the Apple iPod

Reviews - Griffin Technologies iTrip - Wireless FM Broadcaster for the Apple iPod

"Listen to your iPod's contents though any

stereo that has a FM Tuner - Its illegal but hey!"

The stereotypical image of a pirate is the slightly fat guy with a huge beard, funny looking hat and half-witted bird nesting on his shoulder. But you'd be surprised how many there are living in this city of yours… Ahh he is talking about those wannabe radio DJ's who rig-up a microphone and a metal pole in their garden and broadcast a signal to those unfortunate to be within a few meters of the lot…

Well, kind of - Pirate radio is of course illegal but I'm not talking about the drum&bass kings of Pirate Radio Peckham. There is a much more sophisticated way to have your own radio station - and no I'm not even talking about online radio streaming… so stop trying to be smart!

What I'd like to introduce you to is the iTrip by Griffin Technologies in the States. This small white cylindrical device plugs in neatly on top of your Apple iPod and can broadcast a FM radio signal. That signal can be picked up by any FM radio in the vicinity of a few feet and thus your music on your iPod can be heard through the speakers of your stereo.

Let me give you an example; you and a few mates are bopping along the motorway on a trip to a gig somewhere. The conversation moves towards music and being the aficionado that you are, you have brought along your iPod. Now instead of sharing your headphone with one mate at a time so they can hear the song your talking about, you instruct the driver/fellow passenger to tune the car-radio to 89.1FM (or whatever station the iTrip is broadcasting on) and presto the music from your iPod is now audible on the car stereo.

It's such a simple device with excellent potential that mirrors the iPod's go-anywhere philosophy but it does have a darker nature to it. First of all the iTrip is in-fact illegal to operate in the UK. The law states that any form of FM broadcasting required a licence, but saying that, they are readily available from stores and the internet.

The other factor that seems like confusion for the sake of confusion is the iTrip's installation. You will need to load up the supplied CD, but If you have a PC you will need to download MusicMatch to sync the software to your iPod. Mac users can do the sync using iTunes, the very which is installed and compatible with the PC. Why bother installing a third-party application that's hideously horrible to use when you could use I Tunes? Beats us.

That aside the iTrip is a wonder, its small and requires hardly any battery life. Granted the sound quality of FM broadcasting is nowhere near that of CD or even some MP3 tunes but for a wireless hassle-free transmitter it is worth it.

Now then… an iTrip that could broadcast to DAB Digital Radio frequencies… now there is an idea… Quick! Hurry to the patent office before BlackBeard himself snaps up the idea and buries it on an undiscovered island somewhere.

NB: Because the iTrip is illegal to operate in the UK, and also because we know you will send us blackmail letters. For the sake of this article we travelled to the U.S to review the iTrip… *ahem* that's right. yes…