If you’ve been suffering with a pathetic iTrip or getting by with the barely acceptable Belkin TuneCast II, then you will love the AirPlay FM transmitter for iPod from XtremeMac. I don’t know how they did it, but it packs a much more powerful transmitter into a device about a fifth the size of the other two. It’s all hardware-based, like the Belkin one, so you don’t have to worry about installing any clunky, stupid software or playlists onto your iPod to get it to work. If you’re in LA try 107.9 104.7 — that’s what’s been working the best for me.
Update: Bad news. Perhaps my FM-transmitter karma is just tanked. Perhaps it was a temporary cosmic conflux of excellent atmospheric conditions. Perhaps the thing is just a piece of crap. The XtremeMac is now useless. It worked for two wonderful days — very cloudy, damp days. Now I get nothing. Bupkiss. Zilch. It looks like I’m going to be forced to pay a nerd with more time than me down at the dealership to install a hard-wired connection so I can listen to my iPod in the car …
Update 2: Wait! Not so bad news. Perhaps it was just that I used it too much. On a full iPod charge the XtremeMac works great still! I recommend it again!