The New iTrip

I can't believe I'm about to write an entire post about a two-inch piece of plastic, but I'm going to. Griffin Technology released their new iTrip last week. It's a lot like the old one, but with one new key change: it is easy to use.

The old iTrip was previously the best FM transmitter on the market. The reason? It tunes down to 87.9, something that, oddly, none of the other FM transmitters were able to do (most stop at 88.1). So as a result, you can actually hear what you're wanting to hear -- instead of static all the time. But the way that you used the old iTrip was, well, somewhat painfully confusing.

You load software onto your computer, which installs iTunes playlist songs -- one for each station. So you've got a "song" named "87.9", a "song" named "88.1", etc. To tune the iTrip, you start playing the song and the iTrip starts blinking and then goes solid when it's set (the technical aspect behind it: each song consists of audible beeps of various lengths - like a Morse code that the iTrip device listens to to get which station to set to, which was actually a pretty neat idea).

Neat. They made it so you can control it from the iPod. But... since they're regular songs, wouldn't they like, appear in shuffle and stuff like that?

Yeah. They would. So to make sure you didn't accidentally re-set your channel, at the end of each of these "songs", it actually just cancels out the set. So it goes beep-beep-beep-beep, then sets for a few seconds, then (if you keep letting the song play), it cancels it back out.

So to set the station, you have to let it blink, wait until it goes solid, then PAUSE. Now go back to the menu and start playing what you want. If you ever encounter an iTrip station song in the future, just let it play and it will eventually cancel out the request and move on to the next song.

So they actually covered all their bases. So where's the problem? Well, the problem was that it takes several paragraphs to explain, as evidenced above. Being behind this first hand at the Apple Store (and considering the fact that most people don't even understand the concepts: "Can't I just play music through the cigarette lighter? My friend does that, I swear!"), it can take 10 or 15 minutes to explain about the iTrip, why it's the best because of 87.9, and then how to actually use it.

By the end, they're almost always wary, and even though it's the best choice and I do my best to explain that while giving respect to the other products, they still sometimes go with a device that I just *know* they'll be returning (we got a *ton* of those back over the three months I worked there, because no one can ever find a static-free station with it!).

So, to summarize the iTrip experience: station-setting hard, music-listening easy.

And that's where everything stood... until now. Enter the new iTrip - wildly easy easy to use, finally! It's just a knob you twist to set the station! No more software and no more hassle and no more confusion - everyone can use a knob! So I picked one up and plugged it in right away only to discover to my horror that....

IT NO LONGER HAS 87.9! NOOOO!!!

What now? This is clearly an improvement, but if it can't play down to 87.9, is it worth it? What would I tell the customers?

So I walked around for a day with this literally haunting me (I hate to admit it, but I actually had a dream about it, in which, of course, I discovered a crazy hack to get it to go down to 87.9. I know...)

Then, a day later, I finally figured it out. HORRAY! THE NEW iTRIP CAN TUNE TO 87.9! The setting to do so is, ironically, somewhat of "a crazy hack" (I must be clairvoyant in my sleep!). The trick is to tune it to INTL mode (as opposed to US). You have to hold down the knob for a whole 5 seconds and then it will let you switch over. Thank goodness - 87.9, how did I live without you?

Honestly, though, I don't know why they hid it away like that. INTL just lets you get a range below 88.1 so it seems to me like they should have just put them all together and done away with the mode switch, but it works at least so that's the important thing. They probably did it because -- without some confusion, the device might be, you know TOO easy to use... Grrr....

... Of course, this all will be potentially moot come tomorrow. ;)

UPDATE 9/7: The new iPod nano ROCKS and sadly... as was seemingly inevitable... does not support the new iTrip.

UPDATE 10/12: It appears Griffin has announced (but not yet released) yet another new iTrip that uses the dock connector on the bottom of the iPod. It says it works with the new iPods with video released today, but it is strangely not clear whether or not it works with the nano.

UPDATE 10/17: Griffin has clarified on the new iTrip's product page that it does in fact support the nano. Nice. It ships in "late October," an impressive turnaround for a company who has, in the past, been known for their somewhat long manufacturing times.

UPDATE 3/1: Well, it's been quite a few months since I originally wrote this article, and several iTrips have shipped since I did, but the iTrip is still the best FM transmitter on the market. There are now three options you can choose from. The dock connector version that I mentioned on 10/12 is still available. It fits all iPods and it a lot like the one pictured in this article, but oriented on the bottom. It's okay. There's also a new iTrip that I didn't mention that came out in late October or November that is designed specifically for the nano. It's intriguing. But by far the coolest iTrip is the new (as of November or December, at least) iTrip auto. I got one of these recently and I absolutely am loving it. Kudos to Griffin for improving on an already excellent product and totally keeping up with Apple's fast changes to the iPod lineup. Oh, and the best part of the iTrip auto? 87.9 is included as an option in the default US mode. Confusion gone. (Or, as Steve Jobs might say, "boom.")

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