Inflicting My iPod on Others
I've read that listening to music through headphones is ultimately bad for a person's hearing. I'm not completely sure why this is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that a person tends to crank headphones up to a higher level of volume. I know that the noise of the car engine tends to drown out an ipod's drums and bass when I'm driving, tempting me to do exactly that.
Whatever the case, I've been interested in finding a way to listen to my ipod shuffle via speakers.
Kristen, in a combination Father's Day/birthday gift, bought me Extreme Mac's iPod Shuffle FM Transmitter. One might reasonably ask why I didn't buy an mp3 player that included the ability to transmit to radio instead of the shuffle. The answer is simply that the main purpose for buying an mp3 player was to allow me to go running. The mp3 players with transmitters aren't flash players. They have hard drives. Thus, they're much more likely to break if I fall.
So now I've got an add-on to the shuffle that I plug into the cigarette lighter. It then transmits to the frequency of my choice.
I had a little trouble initially, but that was actually my fault. I wasn't pushing it far enough into the cigarette lighter and it wasn't getting any power. Once I figured that out, I still had a little trouble finding the frequency I wanted, but in the end, things worked.
As it turns out, the signal is pretty strong, even blocking out frequencies that a radio station is actually using. I don't recommend that though. There is still some bleed through from the station. I tend to use frequencies that are pure static, preferably without used frequencies on either side.
Though the sound isn't as good as it would be if I could plug the shuffle directly into the radio, it's as good as most radio stations.
I'm actually curious as to how far out from my car it goes. Imagine finding a station only to find out it comes from the car ahead of you in traffic.
For the moment though, I'm happy to have the ability to inflict my musical preferences on my family. Nearby drivers are just a bonus.