TuneStik with remote for iPod
Company: Digital Lifestyle Outfitters
Price: $59.99 MSRP
http://www. www.dlo.com
OK, you’ve really grown to love your iPod and you use it all the time. You exercise with it, you run with it, you read a book listening to it, you ignore your significant other listening to it… but you really can’t throw your headphones on and drive around listening to your iPod in the car because most jurisdictions have certain prohibitions about wearing headphones and not being able to listen to the world around you. You know, like the sound of the siren on the police car or the ambulance that is approaching you but you can’t hear anything because you’re too busy zoning out to the music.
Options available to you to solve the problem? Well, you could run out and buy a brand new car offering iPod compatibility, buy a brand new car stereo system with iPod compatibility and either install it yourself or pay to have a tech do it or you could just get an external FM transmitter that you plug your iPod into and then broadcast your signal to your car’s FM radio and you’re off and running. As they’ve done in the past, DLO again offers iPod users another way of listening to their music, this time with a change or two.
TuneStik with remote for the iPod, offered by DLO, provides the iPod user with a little bit different way of plugging in and turning on. Rather then inserting your iPod into a unit that then plugs into your cigarette lighter, TuneStik instead lets you plug the transmitter into the iPod, place your iPod where you want and using the steering wheel mounted remote control unit, use your iPod without having to take your hands (and eyes) off of the steering wheel and the roadway.
When you open up the TuneStik package, you’ll find everything that you need inside. The package includes the TuneStik FM Transmitter (also a 30-pin dock connector), the Velcro steering wheel strap, the steering wheel cradle and the TuneStik Remote control. Unlike other FM radio transmitters for the iPod that plug into the cigarette lighter, DLO’s model permits you to plug in the TuneStik FM Transmitter, place it in a good location (I found that the best place for mine was secured to the sun visor, where it’s out of sight) and then with the Remote mounted on the steering wheel, everything you need to control your iPod is at your fingertips. No more looking down to the cigarette lighter to control the frequency or anything else. The Remote Control unit allows you to move forward and back, track-wise; Play or Pause; raise or lower the volume, turn the iPod’s backlight on and also cycle through the TuneStik’s preset frequencies.
Setting up the TuneStik isn’t hard at all. The unit comes with four preset frequencies- 88.5, 88.1, 94.9 and 107.9. If you tune your FM car system to one of the preset frequencies and there isn’t an existing local FM station broadcasting on it, you’re good to go. If there is an existing station on that frequency, DLO provides simple, easy to follow instructions for you to tune the TuneStik to another frequency and set it in place. In my case, 88.5 and 107.9 had existing stations while 88.1 and 94.9 did not. I simply retuned the TuneStik to 98.1 in lieu of 88.5 and 104.5 instead of 107.9. I might suggest to those of you considering a purchase to just check out your local FM frequencies ahead of time to see if you’re going to encounter any changes. Those of you lucky not to be close to a major city will probably find the going a lot easier, just plugging in and going.
Another interesting use of the TuneStik is to control your iPod by the remote control when you are using a cassette adapter or a MP3 audio jack. Set your iPod up with the TuneStik, connect the cassette adapter or the car MP3 audio jack into your iPod through the headphone jack and use the remote control to manage your iPod, again without having to take your hands off of the steering wheel.
Unlike other iPod FM transmitters utilizing the cigarette lighter, you can use your TuneStik with your home stereo system or any FM radio. Again, connect the TuneStik to your iPod, connect your iPod to the stereo via the headphone jack or use the transmitting capability to send the tunes to your stereo. Of the two, I would recommend the use of the headphone jack.
While the TuneStik will not recharge your iPod, there is a pass-through dock connector on the bottom of the unit. Just use any standard iPod charging cable, either an auto charger unit or a wall charger, and charge up the iPod. Since the TuneStik uses power from your iPod, this may be an option you want to consider.
I have utilized the TuneStik and found it to be easy to use, easy to set up, and the remote to be the best point of the unit. It permits ease of use while still keeping you focused on driving and keeping your hands on the steering wheel. Things to consider however are that you are not going to have symphony hall quality sound (which is something that any remote unit is not going to provide) and unless you have a charger, you will drain your iPod’s power. Power drain was the primary point of concern for me for a user that may not have a charger unit, auto or wall, and relies primarily on using their USB connection to recharge their iPod through their computer. However, taking all of the pros and cons into consideration, I will still give the TuneStik a MyMac rating of 3.5 out of 5.
Recommended.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.