Griffin iPod and iPhone accessories April 2009
Griffin iPod and iPhone accessories
Griffin has for many years made accessories for iPods and iPhones, and here we take a look at some of the latest, innovative developments - including FM transmitters that allow you to play your iPod through your car radio, windscreen mounts to turn your iPhone into a sat nav, speaker docks that allow you to play music around your home, and lens covers, which improve the macro capabilities of your iPhone's camera.
The Evolve wireless sound system is a speaker dock for your iPod
The Griffin Evolve wireless sound system is a speaker dock for your iPod that allows you to place speakers anywhere around the house.
The main dock is plugged into the mains and charges your iPod and the speakers when they're connected. Griffin claims that a charged speaker will provide around 10 hours of use when separated from the docking station.
The dock communicates wirelessly with the speakers using an RF signal, and the speakers, according to Griffin, can be placed up to 150 feet away from the dock and in different rooms.
For around £280, you can buy the speaker dock with two speakers, though you can add as many speakers to the system as you like – allowing you to play music in each room of your house simultaneously. Getting hold of extra speakers may be a bit tricky, however, as they're currently only available to buy individually from the US.
While imported speakers will be compatible with units sold in the UK, the cost may outweigh the gain. One way to get around this problem is to borrow speakers from your friend's Evolve.
Placing a speaker on the Evolve allows the two devices to create a pairing, and the dock won't play music through a speaker unless it has been paired with the device. This means that you won't have music playing through your speakers if your neighbour has the same iPod docking station.
The Evolve wireless sound system is available from John Lewis for £279.99.
Check out our full MP3 player speaker dock reviews here.
Griffin iTrip Universal
Play MP3s through your radio
The Griffin iTrip Universal not only works with iPods, but also with any MP3 player that features a 3.5mm headphone jack output.
The device is plugged into the MP3 player's headphone socket and then transmits an FM radio signal. Radios in the vicinity can then be tuned to the broadcast frequency and used to play the music stored on the MP3 player. The iTrip will work with any FM radio, and is an effective way of sharing your music library with friends if you don't have a MP3 speaker dock.
It can be used in the home, but is particularly practical for use in a car, where MP3 docks are quite thin on the ground. It's not new technology, as many sat navsalso feature FM transmitters so that the audio instructions can be played over the car's stereo, but the Griffin iTrip Universal can also detect and save the best frequencies to transmit across.
The device takes its charge through a USB connection to a PC or laptop.
The Griffin iTrip Universal is available from Halfords for £24.99
Griffin iPhone WindowSeat
This device allows you to connect your iPhone to your car's windscreen
The Griffin WindowSeat is a very simple device that allows you to connect your iPhone to your windscreen with a suction cap, much like you would with a sat nav.
iPhones now offer turn-by-turn directions, so can double up as basic sat nav devices. This dash or windscreen-mountable iPhone holder holds your iPhone in such a way that you are still able to plug into the 3.5mm jack socket and the 30-dock connector, which is commonly used for charging the iPhone.
Access to these ports allow you to not only charge your iPhone as you drive, but also connect it to an FM transmitter, which will enable you to play music through your car's stereo when the car's radio is tuned into the relevant frequency.
The Griffin WindowSeat is available for £19.99 from Carphone Warehouse
Check out our in-depth sat nav reviews here.
Griffin TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick
Charge your iPod through your car's cigarette lighter
The Griffin TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick allows you to charge your iPod or iPhone through a connection with your car's cigarette lighter, and play your library of music through your car's stereo.
It also comes with a wireless remote control and a velcro mount for your steering wheel. The mount easily fits around the wheel for easy access when driving, but the control itself can be removed from the mount and passed around the car for use – handy when you have people in the back of the car who want to control the music.
The velcro mount and remote control are magnetic, so pairing them together isn't a fiddly task and shouldn't require the driver to take their eyes off the road.
The TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick are available from mid-April 2009 for £59.99 from John Lewis.
Griffin PowerJolt Reserve for iPods and iPhones
Charge your iPod as you drive
The Griffin PowerJolt Reserve is a 12 volt USB car charger that allows you to charge your MP3 player as you drive.
As you drive, not only will your iPod charge, but so too will the PowerJolt's reserve power pack. This can be removed from the charger, and it can act as a spare battery from your iPod – so when your iPod's battery runs empty, you can connect your iPod to the PowerJolt and get an extra boost.
The power pack connects to the cigarette lighter connector using magnets, making it easy to connect when on the move, and creating a secure connection irrespective of the location of your car's cigarette lighter.
The Griffin PowerJolt Reserve can be bought from May onwards, from Apple for £24.99.
Make your music louder with the Griffin AirCurve iPhone speaker
Griffin AirCurve iPhone speaker
The Griffin AirCurve is rather like a plastic ear trumpet, or an old gramophone.
It's designed to amplify the tiny mono speaker at the base of the iPhone to allow you to play music at a louder volume. The device is purely mechanical, and works without any electricity.
The sound quality is only as good as the sound quality achieved through the iPhone's tiny speaker, which isn't great, but the concept is appealing.
It's a far cry from the capabilities of a decent iPod speaker dock, but it's also a lot cheaper, uses less power and is less likely to break. The volume you can achieve is sufficient to fill a small room, but is likely to be drowned out by conversation.
The Griffin AirCurve is available for £16.99 from Carphone Warehouse.
Griffin Clarifi iPhone macro lens converter
Take better pictures on your iPhone 3G
The Griffin Clarifi is an iPhone case with a lens converter that slides open and closed across the front of the iPhone's camera.
The quality of the iPhone 3G's 2Mp camera has come under considerable criticism since the handset's launch, as many consumers expected it to be an improvement on the 2Mp camera you get on the original iPhone.
The lens converter fitted to the Clarifi improves the iPhone camera's macro capabilities, allowing it to take better pictures of small objects up close, which could be particularly useful when photographing text.
The Griffin Clarifi for the iPhone 3G is available for £24.99 from Carphone Warehouse.
New iPod Shuffle 3G
The 3G iPod shuffle features 'VoiceOver' technology
Check out our video review of the Apple's latest iPod to hit the shelves: the iPod Shuffle 3G.
This tiny device can store up to 4GB of music files, and features unique 'VoiceOver' technology, which enables the iPod to speak to you.
The iPod Shuffle 3G video and hands-on first look review can be found here.
For full test results on more than 200 other MP3 players, including the iPod Classics, the iPod Nano and the iPod touches, check out our MP3 player reviews.
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