Griffin iTrip - Review

[Jesse Girard]

Hi:

The iTrip is a pretty, small FM transmitter from Griffin Technology which 
mates with the original-design iPod and allows you to send music to an FM 
receiver. It plugs into the top of the iPod. A piece of plastic extends 
down from the iTrip and is inserted into the FireWire port for stability. 
Griffin's web site for this product is 
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/

I ordered an iTrip from a reseller in April. It finally arrived Friday 6/9. 
I returned it to the reseller yesterday, because:

In my car its output was barely sufficient to allow enough signal to travel 
from the dashboard to the whip antenna, even with the iPod volume turned up 
to the limit. The fidelity was poor.

In my wife's car the FM antenna is built into the back window. I was able 
to get it to play decently by placing the unit only by placing in on the 
back ledge. Of course it couldn't be controlled from the front seat once I 
did that so I simply let it play continuously. The fidelity was poor.

In my office the iTrip had to touch the antenna of my FM radio to produce 
sufficient volume to overcome the RF noise from several nearby computers. 
The fidelity was poor.

The supplied software is designed to load a lot of tiny files into the 
iPod, each for a different FM frequency. You "play" them to change the 
iTrip's output frequency. The software didn't function on either of my 
Powerbooks under Jaguar. It produced an error which reminded me of a 
Realbasic error report ...which I don't mind, but it didn't work! I phoned 
Griffin about that problem. The person who answered the phone said he'd 
never heard of that problem and was going to email me a few MP3 files for 
certain key frequencies. That has not happened.

The plastic piece which is designed to extend into the FireWire port is 
there for physical support since the iPod's output jack is evidently rather 
fragile... especially the outer ring, according to someone I spoke to at 
Griffin. But it prevents the user from recharging the iPod when using the 
iTrip. That would be a problem on long trips.

IMHO this is not a great product. Sorry for a negative review.

Jess Girard
(A.R.S. ND1L)