iTrip

iTrip Product Photo I just ordered one of these for my iPod — it’s simply too well designed, and too “exactly what I need” to not purchase.

When I bought the iPod, I also purchased an iRock (must everything start with i now?). This unit works well, has a good battery life (though my father had a bum unit that needed to returned because of poor battery life).

It has two big drawbacks.

First, it only broadcasts on one of four frequencies (88.1, 88.3, 88.5, and 88.7 FM), which is a Really Big Problem here on PEI because Radio Canada broadcasts (or leaks heavily) onto all of them. A drive from Summerside to Charlottetown with the iRock tuned to one of those four frequencies will inevitably drop out at some point along Rte. 1 or Rte. 2.

Second, the “on/off” switch is a simply push button, with no lock, and it’s impossible to carry in your pocket (or anywhere else, really) and not mistakenly turn it on (or off).

The iTrip addresses both of these problems: it’s tunable (apparently using the iPod itself somehow) to any FM frequency. And, as it has no batteries (it gets its power from the iPod itself), there’s no on/off switch problem. Indeed it powers off automatically after 30 seconds of silence.

It’s not shipping until the foggy date of “Spring 2003,” so I’m not sure when it will arrive; I’ll report more when I’ve received and tested.

Comments

dave moses's picture
dave moses on January 11, 2003 - 17:47 Permalink

there’s a similar thing available already pete. we’ve carried it for a while now.a dr bott ipod connection kit. more info here:
http://www.drbott.com/prod/db….

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on January 11, 2003 - 18:56 Permalink

Yes Dave, but that is ugly and this is not.

Jevon's picture
Jevon on January 11, 2003 - 20:33 Permalink

(I can highlight text, but it doesn’t have proper behavior)

Jevon's picture
Jevon on January 11, 2003 - 20:33 Permalink

I can’t highlight text on these pages.

Call NNG.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on January 11, 2003 - 20:54 Permalink

What is “proper behaviour”?

Jevon's picture
Jevon on January 11, 2003 - 22:49 Permalink

When I click-and-drag over text, said text is highlighted.

It is a CSS thing I think.

Steven Garrity's picture
Steven Garrity on January 11, 2003 - 22:58 Permalink

It is a CSS-think and from what I understand, it is unique to Internet Explorer on Windows (does this match, Jevon?). I did some searching for a fix I remember seeing, but I can’t dig it up anywhere.

Dutchman's picture
Dutchman on January 12, 2003 - 04:46 Permalink

This checks Steven.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on January 12, 2003 - 05:44 Permalink

From here:

http://diveintomark.org/archiv…

I learn this:

This is actually a bug in the Macintosh version of Internet Explorer, which refuses to select text in a DIV positioned absolutely.”

Oddly, there are no DIC’s positioned absolutely on this site.

Ken's picture
Ken on January 14, 2003 - 21:12 Permalink

Trick to highlight text from these pages:
In Explorer, View Source, then highlight in Notepad

Jevon's picture
Jevon on January 15, 2003 - 03:41 Permalink

Old trick, but it’s no fun now is it?