Introduction

The Apple iPod is definitely one of the best (if not THE best) MP3 player available on the market currently. It’s a great solution for anyone looking for access to potentially thousands of MP3s music files in a small portable device. However the iPod isn’t car friendly out of the box – you’ll need to find some way to power the iPod on the road as well as connect the player to your car stereo system. Now that I drive a car on a daily basis, the iPod becomes ever more invaluable to me since I have no desire to carry a lot of CD’s nor install an MP3 component. Today we’ll take a quick look at the Belkin Auto Kit which connects an iPod to a car’s cigarette lighter and also provides an audio jack and adjustable volume dial.

Overview

The Belkin Auto Kit connects to the new Apple iPod via the dock connector. This is important to note since the Auto Kit will not work with older iPods that do not have the dock connector interface. The other end of the cable connects to your car’s cigarette lighter. The Auto Kit itself is furnished in the same white finish as the Apple iPod making it an aesthetic match. The Auto Kit also contains an adjustable amplifier and a 3.5 mm audio-out jack in the cigarette lighter base. There is a replaceable safety fuse to protect your iPod from power spikes or short circuits.

Connected to the iPod	Connected to the Cigarette lighter

You can connect an FM transmitter or a Cassette adapter to the 3.5 mm audio out jack and bypass the headphone out jack on the iPod. There is also an adjustable volume dial on the Auto Kit but it’s on the cigarette lighter end of the cable. This makes reaching for the volume while driving a major pain. Make sure to turn down the volume on your car stereo when you are connecting the Auto Kit to the car as well as to the iPod. The volume of the output is dependent on the volume settings on both the iPod and the Auto Kit. It’s fairly easy to crank up the volume output from the iPod into your car stereo. There is a Velcro tie for convenient cable management in case all the wires in your car drive you mad.

Kit installed into the cigarette lighter	and then with the 3.5 mm jack connected

I used the Auto Kit on a recent trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and I found it to be extremely useful for the 4-5 hour drive. Who wants to always make sure that their iPod is fully charged before a long road trip? The new Apple iPod already has a fairly weak battery life when compared to prior generations so the Belkin Auto Kit was a welcome addition to my car. I have a cassette adapter that I used to connect the 3.5mm headphone jack to my stereo system. The audio quality coming from the Auto Kit was good though there were times the volume was way too loud and static could be heard during music playback. Music playback improves if you connect the audio connector directly to the Apple iPod’s headphone jack. Connecting to the Auto Kit is only advantageous if you want less wires tangling up your car console.

The iPod and..	everything connected

In an ideal world, it would be nice if there was one solution that both powered the iPod and allowed it to connect to the car stereo. Build an FM Transmitter into the Cigarette Lighter base – that would be cool. I hope someone would build a car deck component that utilizes the dock connector on the new iPod. It would be nice to be able to slide the iPod into a car dashboard and then take it back out when you’re leaving the car. Oh well – just a thought.

Conclusion

The Belkin Auto Kit is an excellent car accessory for the Apple iPod. Be aware that this is only part of the car audio solution that you’ll need when bridging the iPod to your car stereo system. You’ll still need either a cassette adapter or an FM transmitter to connect the audio jack to your car stereo. However, the Auto Kit provides a simple solution to power the iPod as well as simplifying the connection to the iPod. The volume control could be in a better spot but otherwise the Auto Kit is well conceived (heck it’s a simple thing isn’t it?). As with many Belkin products, the Auto Kit is a simple and elegant solution for a very specific problem. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in our forums.

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