From a solar-powered battery charger that fairly shouts “eco-friendly rawk!” to a clock-radio fit for a space odyssey, there are better ways to run your iPod.
Feeding, clothing and caring for your iPod with accessories has become a major American growth industry, seeing as how Apple sold 21 million of its media players in the last three months before Christmas. Estimates put the sales market for iPod add-ons at $1 billion a year, and growing fast.
Companies like Griffin, Belkin, JBL and Bose have either launched or revived entire brand names by jumping on the iPod’s goodwill marketing train.
Many of the accessories are ridiculous, of course. Do you need the $40
iFish, that amplifies your iPod and flops around on the floor in time to the music? Or the iPod dock for the bathroom that also dispenses toilet paper? We think not.
Ah, but that $100 sun-powered battery charger from Solio.com – that’s a winner. When you want to be off the grid but remain in tune, the charger gives you one hour of play time for each hour soaks in the sun. It also provides eight to 10 hours of battery storage on top of your regular charge.The most useful iPod tools these days put the sound where you want it, when you don’t want it in your ears: through your car stereo.
Industry product reviews call the Belkin TuneFM a cheap, decent-sounding option for wireless transmission of your iPod’s signal into your car stereo and speakers. The TuneFM model ($40 to $50 online) plugs into the cigarette lighter as a charger for your iPod, and mounts on the bottom of the iPod to send the music signal through an unused FM frequency.
But many users of the wireless transmission gizmos are frustrated by static, or constantly searching for better frequencies as they roam a signal-filled city. Hard-wiring your iPod to the car stereo is a better option if you spend a lot of listening time in the driver’s seat.
There are a few basic options for car owners. Car Toys will hard-wire an FM modulator that connects your iPod to your existing stereo, leaving a connecting cord dangling through the dashboard. You’ll still have to control the music on your iPod’s panel, a dangerous pastime while moving at 65 mph. The equipment costs about $49, and the installation is about $75.
Newer cars and separately-purchased car stereos include an auxiliary or headphone jack on the front panel of the tuner. Your iPod can hook directly into that jack from the iPod’s headphone jack; you are still controlling the playlists through the iPod itself. New radios with that set-up include a Panasonic model starting at $120.
A more sane road-running option – though of course more expensive – is to buy a car stereo sophisticated enough to display iPod-
style controls when you plug in your iPod. These hard-wired options leave a charger-connector plug hidden in your glove compartment, so that the iPod is also safe from theft when you exit the car.
Once plugged in, all the iPod information from playlists to song titles is displayed and controlled on the tuner itself, so you can forget fiddling with the Nano while roaring down the highway. Alpine has a beginning model at $200, with improved displays and controls scheduled for release on models available in late spring.
A handy recorder
Recording lecture notes, interviews, band rehearsals or any other ambient sound is a lot more sophisticated on your iPod than cassette-based systems. A $40 to $60 plug-in called MicroMemo, from XtremeMac, turns your iPod into a digital sound recorder. A flexible microphone runs up the side of the iPod and can be directed toward the sound.
The MicroMemo has gotten rave reviews for another feature: instant playback of what you’ve recorded, through a small built-in speaker, so you know you’ve got what you need before you leave.
Feel the power
Sometimes you just want more power. Or at least, longer power. Sonnet sells an external battery pack called the Volta for about $45 to $60, adding 60 hours of music playback and nine to nearly 17 hours of extra video playback to a fifth-generation video iPod.
The pack takes about five hours to recharge. Look for it through
sonnettech.com, or through online shopping services such as
shopping.com, Amazon or eBay.
Swim to some tunes
Get swimmy with it. The iPod is a perfect tool for making long swimming workouts bearable, whether listening to a favored playlist or an audiobook. Problem is, you need two extras: a waterproof case and a set of waterproof headphones.
Good reviews pile up for H2O Audio’s waterproof case for the second-generation Nano, at about $79.95 at the Apple stores. They pair with the H2O Audio headphones at $40; reviewers warn the headphones are not interchangeable with your landlubber version; they are designed to exploit the underwater world for sound, and are a muddled mess above waterline.
Take it for a run
The iPod gets back to its jogging-aid, Walkman-style roots with a tennis shoe sensor by either Nike or Marware.com. It’s a two-piece kit: The Nike+iPod Sport Kit, for $29, plugs into your iPod. It receives signals from a shoe-mounted sensor, available from Marware for only $10, or from Nike for more.
The sensors track your exercise by number of steps, miles, hours, calories used, just about any measure you could imagine. The record becomes an exercise diary over time, stored on your iPod. You also can download the information to Nike’s website tracker, comparing your progress to a community of runners or walkers. The website can display your exercise regimen in all forms of way-cool graphics.
Reach Michael Booth at 303-954-1686 or at mbooth@denverpost.com; try the Screen Team blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
iPod accessories to avoid
Friends don’t let friends be dumb with the thumbwheel. For every cool iPod accessory, there’s an exceedingly stupid one. Here are a few to avoid:
TP tunes: Tops on every hater’s list is the iCarta, an iPod dock that doubles as a toilet paper holder. This $100 gadget puts the gag back in gag gifts.
Boxers? Maybe you need the TP-holder if you also have bought the iPod Boxers for $22. These tangerine-colored skivvies include a handy pocket for your music machine.
Money to burn: On the high price of dumb is a Wurlitzer One More Time CD jukebox with an iPod dock, for the ridiculous fee of nearly $8,000. When you can get a high-fidelity dock for $200, the Wurlitzer is an instant white elephant.
Let’s play pirates: Finally, for those people who insist on putting costumes on their pets, iAttire will let you do the same for your favorite iPod. Forty bucks gets you a Shuffle-sized pirate hat and sword. Aaargh is right.
–Michael Booth
