Gear4 AirZone FM ‘Follow Me’

As I mentioned in my previous post (Vectra SRI CDTi), I was bugged that it didn’t have an MP3 player. Well I thought, maybe I can change the head unit, or pull this one out, and see if it had any auxiliary sockets at the back, then I thought….Ooooo, why don’t I just get one of the FM transmitter thingys.

First off I bought myself a ITrip, which even though it stated on the box that it was compatible with the Ipod touch, this apparently didn’t mean the 2G. I bought it, plugged it into my ipod, sat in the car, turned on the stereo, pressed play….and nothing, no LCD display, nothing. So lucky for me, I hadn’t even left Curry’s carpark, so took it back for a refund Pretty glad I did, as it was almost double the price that is was online at other leading retailers.

That night I came home and did a little research, and found that Gear4 also did one, however this used the RDS technology to a, display the ID tags as the radio station, and b, send a signal to the headunit, if it moved stations.

This turned up on Thursday at work, ripped it out of the box, plugged it in…..nothing……

Luckily, my office seems to have been taken over by Apple in the last couple of months, it went from nothing apple to, 4 Iphone 3G’s, and 4 Ipod Touch 2G’s.

I kindly as a few people to try it in their, and it worked….DOH !

Got home that night pretty gutted, as my Ipod seemed to have a fault with it, so C decided she ought to by an Ipod Touch as it had been tested and working with several in the office.

Long story short, C bought an Ipod Touch from the shiny Mecca that is the Apple store (there are no Ipod touches anywhere…..believe me, we tried, but that’s another story), and we got to try it out.

It works, and works well.

The button on the left scans the radio waves where you are and finds the clearest frequencies, once found it sets itself to this (eg 99.9 FM seems good near me). Hit play and your away, it scrolls the ID tag along it’s own screen in a very cool blue LED font, as well as displays the frequency it’s using. Program your radio to pick this up, and all is cool.

The quality is good, I wouldn’t say is it CD quality, but around the same as a well tuned in radio station (I know, I know, obviously, however just thought I’d point that out if anybody though it was going to be as good as the MP3 dock you get is some cars, personally I don’t think it is).

We did get a little interference, however this was fixed by moving the Ipod from underneath the head unit, to a SunGlasses holder above the centre console, we realised we were actually getting interference from the windscreen wipers.

While driving from home to Leicester, it did adjust it’s frequency from 99.9 to 99.7 and with it being RDS, the Head Unit re-tuned itself (very cleaver I thought).

Conclusion, for £30, it beats buying and fitting a new head unit, the quality isn’t perfect, but very good.

Spec Below.

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The Universal Dock Adaptor

Well, I have to say I’m impressed with this doc.

I like most people tried to do things on the cheap, and bought a dock from Ebay. It was a genuine Apple dock, however not for Touch 2nd Gen. It did work, however fitment was sloppy and the doc adapter didn’t fit.

This one just works, plugged it in, dropped my Ipod Touch on it, and it synced straight away, the good thing is, if I don’t use the dock adapter, it fits with the case on

Finally, the remote control that comes with it, also controls the MacBook

I was shocked at the presentation of this box, to say all it is, is a dock , I think they really pushed the boat out.

Tags: 2g, 2nd gen, adapter, Apple, boat, Box, case, cheap, control, doc, dock, ebay, fitment, Gen. It, ipod, ipod touch, macbook, presentation, remote control, thing, touch, work

LOGIC 3 SONY PSP MINI THEATRE SYSTEM DOCKING STATION

Got one of these puppies for Christmas, and until today I didn’t have anything to test it with. While I was in Game today, I stumbled across Family Guy: Blue Harvest for only £4.99 ! Bargin I know !!

So I’ve just fired it up, and OMG ! this thing sound fantastic !, comes with a little carrying case which holds the cables and dock.

The PSP sits good as well as charges as it docs.

Full spec below

Product Information

A ‘mini theatre’ to play movies or music. This SoundStation for PSP Slim & Lite produces astounding sound using a high class amplifier, deep bass sub-woofer and 3D surround-sound circuitry to pack a punch more powerful than its compact size suggests. Includes mains adaptor, carry-case and line-in cable

• 2.1 Sub-woofer Speaker System
• 12 Watts RMS
• Operates from AC Adaptor (included) or Batteries 4xAA (not included)
• Internal 3D surround sound processor
• Docking station for PSP re-charging
• Blue soft-light illumination
• 3.5mm Stereo line-in for playing other audio devices like MP3, MD, CD player. etc
• Dimensions: 104 x 278 x 38mm (H x W x D)
• Weight – 550g
• 3.5mm Stereo Line-in (Cable provided) to allow gameplay, or play back of other audio devices including MP3, CD player, MiniDisc etc.
• Carry Case for Sound System & PSP console.
• 1 x 2.5″ Sub Woofer 4ohm = 6 Watts RMS
• 2 x 30mm full range 4ohm Neodymium aluminum speaker cones = 6 Watts RMS
• PSP Slim & Lite not included

Tags: 3, Adaptor, amp, anything, AVI, Blue, blue harvest, cable, Carry Case, carrying case, Christmas, compact size, dock, docking, family, family guy, game, Got, guy, illumination, internal 3d, Lite, logic, mp3 cd player, mp3 md, ohm, player, PSP, psp slim, RMS, s mp3, Slim, sound, sound circuitry, sound processor, soundstation, speaker cones, Speaker System, station, stereo, stereo line, sub woofer, today, umd, umd disks, Watts, watts rms