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8/24/04
by David Engstrom
When I first started using Macintosh computers circa 1995, one of the things that struck me was the diversity of things you could do with them, from running a spreadsheet, to programing the computer to turn itself on in the morning and bark out at you " Get out of bed you lazybones" ... repeatedly ... in ever increasing volume. (When my brother and his girlfriend were visiting I actually did program my first computer to gently ease them into the waking state by issuing the following command "Hey you PC weenie, get your hands off of her" ... he didn't think it was funny). There seemed to be no end to the amount of things you could do with the computer, and the operating system made all the complexity, easily accessible.
I had never bought a technological gadget that didn't get old after a week or so ... after I had figured out all its angles. The exploration of my first computer went on and on ... I was in heaven. And if the machine did not do what you wanted it to out of the box, there was always some devilishly clever add-on (software or hardware), that would provide another layer of sophistication and utility. Which of course brings us to the iPod ....
One of the reasons that the iPod has been such a big hit is that it follows in the tradition of Apple products described above, sophistication, utility and accessibility ... wrapped up in a very attractive package. Of course nowhere near as complex as a Computer, the iPod still has been designed with enough technological loose-ends and openings to allow third-party developers to bring to market a boatload of products that extend and enhance the iPod's capabilities. And the popularity of the iPod makes it profitable for them to do so. In this three part review we will look at three products that bring wireless audio transmission from the iPod to an FM receiver. Each of these FM transmitters take different routes to getting a signal from your iPod to your radio, and as you will see, have varying levels of sucess
The way these FM transmitters work is that they take the audio signal either from the headphone jack, or the Dock connection of your iPod. Once connected you adjust the frequency of the transmitter to use an FM broadcast channel that is currently unoccupied in your area. Finally you tune your radio to that frequency as well. The results should be to, in effect, turn your iPod into a mini FM broadcast station, with a range of about 30 feet.
The first FM transmitter we look at is the TuneCast II Mobile from Belkin. While the TuneCast II is a great improvement over the the original TuneCast, it is the least compelling of the three transmitters we looked at.
The TuneCast II is an elongated oval shape of about 3 inches in length. It has a stereo mini-plug lead coming out of one side, at the top of the unit. You plug this into your iPod's headphone jack. The front of the TuneCast has a digital display and three buttons. Two of the buttons allow you to tune the transmitter to any FM frequency between 88.1MHz to 107.9MHz. The button on the other side allows you to switch between 4 presets that you have previously programmed into the TuneCast's memory. Setting up the presets is a little cumbersome, but other than that, the TuneCast is pretty much plug and play.
Before we get to some of the shortcomings of the TuneCast .... What did we like about it?
1) It seems like a quality product ... has a solid feel to it and comes with a commendable 3 year warranty
2 It is easy to operate and navigate through frequencies and presets
3) Turns itself off after 60 seconds if no audio signal is detected, thus preserving battery life.
3) Comes with a 14 inch power lead (note to Belkin .... Your literature states that the power cord is 14 feet -- Might want to fix that). The power lead can be plugged into a separately purchased Belkin Mobile Power Cord. The Belkin Mobile Power Cord is then insert into the cigarette lighter port of your automobile, giving you unlimited power when on the road.
4) Because the audio signal from the headphone jack is used as output, you can adjust the volume higher than you could if you were using the line out audio signal coming from the iPod's dock connection.
5) The biggest advantage that the TuneCast has, is that you can use it with any audio device that has a mini-plug port. It is the only FM transmitter in this review you can use with something other than the iPod.
So what didn't we like ....?
1) Once you have plugged it into the iPod ... What do you do with it. It just hangs there like a ripe fruit on a withered stock. I don't know if the TuneCast was designed specifically with the iPod in mind, but there is no obvious way to mount the thing, either in your car or in the home. We ended up attaching it to the dashboard using some putty, but this is a very inadequate solution. Belkin really should supply some mounting method.
2) As shipped it runs off batteries. We had this fact brought forcefully home to us during our road test of the product. As we were driving along, we were shocked to hear what sounded like a frog in a gurgling death dance, coming from our car stereo. After some confusion, trying to figure out what was going wrong, we discovered that the batteries of the TuneCast had petered out, and we had to replace them. Belkin says that you can get 10 hours of life out of one set of batteries. Even if this optimistic claim is true, you do not want to be feeding new batteries to your TuneCast on a continuous basis. To make this product practical for use in the automobile you really need to purchase the The Belkin Mobile Power Cord, which will Power the TuneCast II, and charge the iPod at the same time. It will also set you back another $25.
3) During quiet passages of music there was a slight hissing noise coming from the TuneCast broadcast.
Though solidly made, the TuneCast is not the best fit for the iPod. Though it is perhaps the most flexible of the FM transmitters that will be presented in this review, that is its only saving grace. Other FM transmitters do the job of getting the signal from your iPod to the radio, much better. The lack of mounting options, the fact that as shipped it runs off batteries, and the slight broadcast hiss, make it not the best option for the iPod.
On the other hand if you want the flexibility to use your FM transmitter with music players other than the iPod, and as well as the iPod, the TuneCast is the only FM transmitter of the bunch that will allow you to do that.
This flexibility is why we are giving the TuneCast II a passing grade of 3 out of five, however as a straight iPod transmitter it would only receive 2.5 points from us. There are just much better options, as you'll see in part two and part three of this review.
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