If you've got round cup holders, however (like the friend whose car I tested the unit out in), the FM Cup is a pretty cool all-in-one solution. The built-in dock supports most full-sized iPods with the included adapters, and takes care of charging and audio-out in one fell swoop, which is nice. A top-mounted LCD display with two buttons controls what FM frequency you're broadcasting to, so you can find an open spot on the dial and move to a new one as need be. A separate power adapter plugs into your car's cigarette lighter and tethers to the FM Cup with a cable. The expandable base of the cup works well and holds the cup and your Pod steady while driving. It's a simple solution that looks good and comes in black and white to suit your fancy.

The FM Cup performed very well in my testing driving through the fairly crowded airwaves of the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. Dialing in an open frequency was easy with the LCD display screen (a vast improvement over the first-generation iTrip and other transmitters of yore), and the transmitter was able to lock onto a frequency and broadcast clear, FM-stereo quality sound to the car stereo. Being used to running the iPod through a casette adapter as I am, having a fully charged Pod at the end of a drive was a nice treat; the FM Cup charges your iPod as it plays, where as audio-only solutions (like my tape connector) don't.

Conclusion

If you're an iPod user and have a car nice enough to have drink holders but not nice (or new) enough to have an iPod-compatible input jack on the stereo, then you need a way to get your music out of the Pod and into the car. An FM transmitter is your best bet unless you're interested in the more permanent and expensive route of jacking the iPod into the pre-amp section of your stereo via some DIY handiwork and/or a slick solution like Harmon/Kardon's Drive + Play system.

MacAlly's FM Cup is a very good FM transmitter and iPod charger. If you've got an empty round drink holder in your car, then it's a great solution, as it fits very nicely into most any cup-like shape. At $59.99 it's certainly not the least expensive car adapter in the iPod marketplace, but it works very well, looks good, and is oh-so-clever. Definitely worth a look.

The Macally FM Cup iPod car transmitter/charger is available in black or white and sells for $59.99 direct from Macally and is also available from online retailers (compare prices at PCPrices/Mac).