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I’ve had the Griffin iTrip Auto FM Transmitter and Auto Charger for iPod for a little while and I really really like it. I did have to send the first one back (only bummer), but overall it is just right for my vPod.

Kills all kinds of birds: Before this combo unit, I used to have to plug in a power cord to the bottom of my iPod to charge it, and then an iTrip (last generation) to the top of the iPod to play tunes through my car stereo. This design solves all of that. One plug into the dock and I get FM transmission plus power. It makes a huge difference - I can take the headphones off my ear, plop the Pod on the passenger seat or wherever, and pick up right where I left off. A nice touch is that when the car is started or stopped, the Pod goes into pause mode, saving battery life. Either way, when I get to the gym, it’s freshly charged and ready to go. That’s key, since video massively drains the battery on the video iPod.

Good sound: Curiously, the #2 unit that I got sounds better than #1 (the one I sent back), which was a little too soft. Unlike the last generation of iTrips, this one doesn’t force you to mess with the iPod’s volume when you plug it in. Dock-based output doesn’t rely on the volume off of the iPod. Another time saver. Unit #2 does not pick up stray signals. Unit #1 did (maybe this is just my flukiness, just reporting what I found), so I’d be on the freeway and hear gospel in the next car over. No fair to Paris Hilton!

The first unit saga: This was not a huge deal. After about 3 weeks and a lovely trip from Miami to Orlando in a rental car with my friend Daniel where this thing saved the day,

I plugged it into Trevor’s auxillary power, and then into the iPod, at which point the display zapped and the thing went dead. I couldn’t wake it up at all. I called tech support and they were cool about the whole thing.
We thought it was a blown fuse. This product does have a visible fuse, but unfortunately, there’s no way to tell if it’s blown or how to replace it. The new unit came about a week later, and it’s been flawless ever since.

This is worth noting because my last iTrip, also a great product, failed in its first 2 weeks too, and was quickly replaced. My sense is that these products are pretty sophisticated on the inside (that’s what they told me when I sent the last one in) and maybe the first go around they may not all be ready for prime time. All of that said, though, Griffin makes great products, and this does have the perfect feature set for the iPod user whose car is jammed with so many electronics that there’s not auxillary input (we love you Trevor!).

So overall, I would definitely buy this again and really love using it.

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