[Ti] Griffin iTrip - Review

[Jesse Girard]

The tech I spoke with at Griffin warned me that inserting the iTrip so that 
it's perpendicular to the iPod as you suggest is dangerous, because the 
iPod jack is quite fragile, particularly the outer ring. If you drop the 
iPod with the iTrip installed that way you risk destroying the jack which 
will be very expensive to repair. That has evidently already happened to 
several people.

According to the tech, Griffin added the dummy plug to fit into the 
FireWire port cavity for precisely that reason, to protect the jack on the 
iPod.

I loved the old Electra's by the way. My Mom had a powder blue convertible, 
can't remember the exact year... early/mid 60's. It was a rocket ship!

Jess

At 12:34 AM 06/13/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>I've had my iTrip about a week, too, and I'm not so elated with mine,
>either. But not for all the same reasons. My fidelity is acceptable in my
>'66 Electra 225 with it's 40 year-old factory radio.
>
>I'm not sold on the design of the iTrip. Jess stated that the iPod cannot be
>charged with the iTrip in place, but this is NOT true. If you insert the
>iTrip "parallel" (meaning horizontally across the top) to the iPod, then
>Jess is correct. However, the iTrip can be inserted "perpendicular" to the
>iPod - this allows firewire port access, as well as access to the lock
>switch.
>
>But: When I insert my iTrip in "parallel" the little plastic fake firewire
>plug doesn't sit comfortably, and as a result, the iTrip is little higher on
>the FW side as the lock switch side. I removed the firewire port plastic
>door on the iPod, and things worked a little better, but it seems that the
>plastic fake plug on the iTrip wants to push itself out after awhile.
>
>Now I've noticed that the iTrip has developed a little "play" while inserted
>"perpendicularly" - I can wiggle it, and the contacts seems to short out
>somewhat. I can still get decent sound out of the earphone port, so I guess
>the iTrip has started to give a little.
>
>I use the lock on the iPod a lot, so not having direct access to that switch
>is a pain.
>
>When I was using the iRock, I could simply switch it between 1 of 4
>stations, and it always played as well as the iTrip. But I wanted a greater
>range of stations, and I just didn't like the dangly thing. I also didn't
>like having to buy batteries every morning that I forgot to turn the freakin
>thing off.
>
>But here's a fun thing to do: since the iTrip/iPod combo is so small, I
>smuggled it into my local watering hole where all they play is the lame
>local classic rock station. I positioned myself pretty close to the stereo
>system. At the right time, I took over with the iTrip, playing a ton of old
>Nashville Country from the 50s/60s. I did this twice this week at the same
>place, and got busted after a couple of hours on the second night. Funny,
>nobody seemed to notice.
>
>Methinks I could've sold a few iPods that night.
>
>Rich Graham