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Uisce · Nov 30, 2002, 05:11 PM

Okay, what an interesting Thanksgiving for Apple and my family. On several occasions, my Apple products were able to shine when other electronics failed.

I drove to the family get together for Thanksgiving this year, bringing my iPod, iRock, and iBook. After I exceeded the range of my public radio station, I switched to the iPod and iRock to provide me with quality tunes and no annoying DJs or commercials. Cool.

Where the four i's came in handy, however, was on Thanksgiving Day. First, the CD player at the house crapped out, and we were almost without music for the holiday! No worry though - I went out to the car and grapped my iPod and iRock. Music issue settled.

Later in the day, some family members were trying to download images from a Kodak digital camera onto their Viao, but the drivers were not working. Actually, nothing seemed to be working.

After about ten minutes of watching my family members buried in wires, port extension thingies, and manuals, I pulled out my iBook and connected the USB cable from the camera to my iBook. Never done this before, but I had confidence in my little computer (from all those switch ads).

Voila! The computer and the camera saw each other, and iPhoto imported all the pictures without any problems. Several people are looking at Apple products in an new light now, all without any proselytizing on my part!

dillerX · Nov 30, 2002, 05:20 PM

"My name is Uisce, and I saved Thanksgiving!"

Ozmodiar · Nov 30, 2002, 05:27 PM

that's awesome. i've gotten some WinTel, anti-mac guys at school to look at Apple in a new light because of some things you mentioned.

mostly because of OS X though.

Nebagakid · Nov 30, 2002, 05:56 PM

what is iRock?

OldManMac · Nov 30, 2002, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by Nebagakid:
what is iRock?

iRock is a device that plugs into the headphone jack on the iPod, which allows you to play your iPod through unused frequencies on your car radio. It's about $30, and I rarely use my car CD player anymore, because I carry a decent sized chunk of music with me in my iPod. It runs off AAA batteries and sends the signal wirelessly to your car radio.

Uisce · Nov 30, 2002, 06:02 PM

iRock is an aftermarket radio transmitter for the iPod, or any music player. You plug it into the iPod and you can play music over a radio tuner if you do not have a line-in or line-in wires.

I usually use mine in the car since I don't have any other way of listening to my ipod while driving. It works well enough and is great for distance drives.

ccrider · Nov 30, 2002, 06:30 PM

I recently went to my friends wedding in Hawaii, bringing my ipod and powerbook and "sold" a few people there. Played music in the big house we shared, and everyone downloaded their digital images to my powerbook after their cards filled up. I burned cd's for everyone before we left with all the images (and movies). Even my best friend there who was getting married started asking "hmmm, how much could I get one for?" - He's a BIG pc guy...

iRock is fine if you don't have a tape deck. If you do, get a good sony cassette adapter, plug it in to your remote control (if you don't have a newer iPod with a remote, you can purchase it separately), plug that into your ipod, and all is good.

The sound from a cassette adapter is SO much better than the iRock. I had one too- I used it for my honda which didn't have a cassette deck. I sold it for an MR-2 with a cd and cassette and now I don't use it.

I also purchased a cigarette adapter that powers your ipod on the road. Very Happy.

sek929 · Nov 30, 2002, 07:17 PM

iRock is nice and all but I have an MP3 input right on my reciever. I plugged my friends iPod in (hes a PC guy too, heh) and it read all the MP3s fine and displyed their IDv3 tags too.

Might have to get me one of them iPod dealies

marusin · Nov 30, 2002, 10:58 PM

What type of plug do you use to do this? I don't see how this would work if it's just a standard 1/8" stereo cable (male to male)? Is there some sort of funky cord that goes from the contacts around the headphone jack to some special plug on the stereo? Just confused on how this would work...

Originally posted by sek929:
iRock is nice and all but I have an MP3 input right on my reciever. I plugged my friends iPod in (hes a PC guy too, heh) and it read all the MP3s fine and displyed their IDv3 tags too.

Might have to get me one of them iPod dealies

sek929 · Dec 1, 2002, 12:25 AM

Though I didn't inspect exactly what he had I would imagine it plugged into the firewire on the iPod end and on my stereo it looks like a normal 1/8" gold jack.

The only thing is that it doesn't read the playlists as playlist, just directories that are numbered 1- however many plalists he had. Only saw it in action for like 5 minutes because he was on his way somewhere, I'll have to check it out more next time.

Spheric Harlot · Dec 1, 2002, 01:04 PM

Originally posted by KarlG:
iRock is a device that plugs into the headphone jack on the iPod, which allows you to play your iPod through unused frequencies on your car radio. It's about $30, and I rarely use my car CD player anymore, because I carry a decent sized chunk of music with me in my iPod. It runs off AAA batteries and sends the signal wirelessly to your car radio.

It is also quite illegal in most places outside the United States, due to radio frequency regulations. After all, you've basically got a pocket-sized radio transmitter.

-s*