14 February 2004
by Noah Kravitz
Reviews Editor

The Best FM Transmitter for Your iPod

AirPlay, XtremeMac's new FM transmitter for iPod, has dethroned Griffin's iTrip as the best way to get your iPod's music onto your FM dial. While I still prefer the old school cassette adapter for connecting my iPod to my car stereo (now that I've moved to California I drive sometimes, you see), some of you kids with those newfangled car audio systems don't even have tape decks, so the cassette adapter isn't an option. To you I say: Get yourself an AirPlay.

Using AirPlay is easy. First you snap the unit into the top of your iPod, connecting to the headphone and remote inputs. AirPlay draws power from your iPod so there are no batteries to worry about. Next start a song playing and find an unused frequency on your FM radio. Finally, tune AirPlay's transmitter to the same frequency via built-in LCD display and +/- tuning buttons. That's it. No software or playlists to deal with, no car charger necessary (although it works with any charger that works with your iPod).

It's hard to say if AirPlay actually outperforms iTrip, but at the very least it's a draw. Neither is a perfect solution for crowded FM markets like New York or the San Francisco Bay Area (where I used to live and now live, respectfully), but both do the job somewhere between adequately and very well depending on where you are. AirPlay wins out in its size and ease of use: AirPlay is tiny enough to leave the "Hold" switch accessible on your iPod and it has an integrated LCD screen with two buttons to dial in the desired FM frequency whereas iTrip relies on clever but relatively clunky iPod playlists to do the same.

At $39.95 AirPlay isn't cheap, but it's the best solution I've ever seen for transmitting your iTunes over FM radio. If you want to connect your iPod to your car stereo and it doesn't have a tape deck, AirPlay is the way to go.

AirPlay is available for $39.95 plus shipping direct from XtremeMac.com. Compare prices at PCPrices.

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Noah Kravitz runs the Technology and Culture blog Threebase.com. He is an educator, musician, and writer who lives in Oakland, CA and is the author of Teaching and Learning with Technology.