TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter
This accessory is designed to make it easier to take your tunes with you, whether you’re using your iPod in a car or another location such as a hotel room. Instead of taking a speaker system with you, you can use the Belkin TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter to “send” your music wirelessly to any sort of FM radio, be it a car stereo, a home stereo, a boom box, or a hotel alarm clock. I’ve heard that setting up one of these things can be pretty hard (the Griffin iTrip) so I was surprised by just how easy it is to use the TuneCast II, and by the very good sound quality.
Once you’ve wrestled the package open, you’re presented with the TuneCast II, a couple of AAA batteries, a 14 inch power cord, and a slender little instruction sheet. Plug the batteries into the TuneCast II and plug it into the headphone jack on your iPod. The TuneCast II turns on automatically, and then it’s just a matter of finding a non-broadcasting area on your FM radio dial. 88.1 worked perfectly for me; all it took was a couple of taps on the +/- buttons on the right side of the transmitter. Set the transmitter and the radio to the same frequency and start enjoying your tunes immediately. Unlike the iTrip, which requires you to preselect the frequency and send a configuration file to the iPod, you just use the buttons to tune in the frequency. This is of course much easier to do when you’re on a road trip or traveling to another city, where you won’t necessarily know in advance which frequencies to avoid due to powerful local stations.
Overall I found the TuneCast II to be very nicely designed with an obvious eye for detail. The small cord that plugs into the iPod wraps nicely around the unit and the plug fits into a small opening on the top so it doesn’t flop around when not in use. In the photo I pulled out the plug, so you can get a better idea of how it works. The unit is very small, just 3 1/8 inches wide, 2 1/4 inches tall, and about 7/8 inches thick. You can set four different memory stations, which is handy if you’re frequently on the road, so that you don’t have to do a lot of fumbling when you need to change frequencies. The battery life is quite impressive, I’ve been using it on the daily commute for two weeks now and haven’t had to change batteries once. Of course if you have the optional Mobile Power Cord from Belkin, you won’t even use the batteries, providing even longer playback times. It’s available from Stylus Central for $19.99 and is a great option if you plan to use the TuneCast and your iPod in the car on a regular basis.
The TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter is normally $49.99, but at Stylus Central you can get it for only $44.99. Just head on over to the Stylus Central web site to pick it up and start enjoying your tunes everywhere you go.
Backup Battery Pack
The Backup Battery Pack for iPod is designed to give you the power you need when you need it– such as on long/international plane trips, camping and hiking, etc. The iPod has pretty good battery life, but sometimes it isn’t enough to keep you jamming to the tunes for as long as you might like. Belkin’s solution is a small unit powered with 4 AA batteries that attaches to the back of your iPod with two suction cups and plugs into the dock connector on the bottom of the music player.
Stylistically, it’s a nice match for the iPod. The unit is made of white plastic, with the Belkin name on the back. It’s solidly built too, thick enough that I don’t have to worry about the casing developing a crack; in fact it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get it open to insert the batteries. There’s a small button at the bottom of the unit, close to the dock connector, that you push to release the cover. Insert the four AA batteries that were included in the package and close the cover. When you need extra power, attach the Back-Up Battery Pack to the back of your iPod with the two suction cups, plug in the cord, and turn on the unit with the power switch on the bottom. With the switch on, your iPod’s internal battery isn’t used at all to power the device.
The Backup Battery Pack does add about an inch and a quarter of thickness and quite a bit of weight to your iPod, but that is to be expected since it runs on AA batteries. AAA batteries would have been lighter and just a bit smaller, but they also wouldn’t give you an extra 15-20 hours of music. That’s what Belkin claims for this product, and in my testing they were right on the money. I also tried it with rechargeable batteries and found that they provided power closer to the 15 hour mark than the 20 hour one, but the cost savings in the long run may be worth it for slightly shorter life, depending on your circumstances. You can also check the battery level at any time by pressing a small round button at the top of the unit. When four green LEDs light up, you have maximum power, but when you get down to only one LED, it’s time to change the batteries. They shine through the casing, so you don’t have any extra openings, which is a nice design element.
This product is rather pricey at $69.99, though at StylusCentral you can get it for $59.99. If you take frequent international trips and like to listen to music on the plane, or if you’re a hiker/camper who would rather listen to Ozzy Osborne than the sounds of Mother Nature, then this is definitely a must-have product. It’s as small as possible, it more than doubles your expected play time, and it fits with the iPod quite nice in an aesthetic sense. I also like the fact that when you buy one, you get a complete package– your first set of batteries are included, along with two extra suction cups and an instruction leaflet. You can pick one up today at the StylusCentral online store.
