Overview

The iTrip FM Transmitter is a small add-on device that resembles the shape and form factor of the Apple iPod. As you can see below, the iTrip looks quite at home with the iPod when attached to the top.

The back side of the iTrip has an indentation designed to make it easier for you to grip and remove the iTrip from the iPod.

The front of the iTrip has the iTrip logo and a small LED.

The iTrip is preset to 87.9 on your FM radio but you can change this easily via MP3’s that represent different FM frequencies. These MP3’s are copied to the iPod. Once there, you can configure the iTrip by selecting the MP3 that represents the frequency you want to use. That’s it – once the FM station is set, the iTrip is ready to transmit your audio over the chosen frequency.

Setup

Setting up the iTrip requires the following basic steps:

1. Copy the MP3’s that represent the FM stations to the iPod
   
2. Create a playlist with all the MP3’s listed above and copy that to the iPod.
   
3. Go to the playlist section of the iPod and select the iTtrip Stations playlist
   
4. Select the FM frequency that works best for you
   
5. Play your songs

For the purposes of this review, I will be looking at the setup process from the Windows viewpoint. The Apple setup is a breeze and there shouldn’t be any issues with using the Apple version of iTunes. Here's what the setup program will look like under Windows.

The steps above sound simple right? Well it is simple if you use MusicMatch to copy your music to the Apple iPod. The setup program included on the CD will allow you to use MusicMatch to copy the MP3s and the predefined playlist to your iPod

If you use the Windows version of the Apple iTunes package to sync your music collections, then the setup process is slightly more complicated. You'll get the following error if you attempt to run the setup without MusicMatch installed:

You can find detailed instructions on how to install the MP3’s on the CD at the Griffin Technology website here.

The basic premise is as follows:

1. Copy the FM Frequency MP3’s to your PC and then import the MP3s to the iTunes library. You'll need to use Windows Explorer to find the MP3 files on your CD:
   

2. Create a smart playlist within iTunes.that contains only the Griffin Technology MP3s. Label this playlist as “iTrip Stations” and copy the playlist to the iPod
   

Once the playlist and MP3’s are on your iPod, it’s just a matter of selecting the frequency you want the iTrip to transmit over.

Find the iTrip Stations playlist

Use the iPod’s navigational controls to scroll to the FM frequency that you want to transmit over. When you find the desired FM station, press the play/pause button once. When the LED on the iTrip starts to flash rapidly, press the Play button again to pause the playback of the MP3. If you don’t stop the playback of the file, the iPod will proceed to play the next FM station MP3 file in the playback list. Once you have pressed the button, the LED will soon turn into a solid color (orange on my iTrip) and then the iTrip is properly configured. You can go ahead and now play your music of choice over the FM station you chose.

Find a suitable FM station MP3 file	and then play it briefly to configure the iTrip