REVIEW: Delighted By iCarPlay!

I use my ipod primarily for audiobooks and I was getting annoyed by having to listen to 2 books at a time -- one on cd's while commuting in my car and another on my ipod while exercising etc. I had had a bad experience with an fm transmitter some years ago, so I wasn't sure one of these things would work for me. On the other hand, I also wasn't quite ready to invest in the ultimate ipod accessory -- a BMW or Mini with ipod plug-in feature.

After doing a lot of research -- reading articles in various magazines and user comments posted online in several places and talking to sales people and friends -- I chose the iCarPlay for 4 reasons. 1) It seemed to have the most favorable user comments; 2) it had pretty good reviews in magazine articles I read; 3)it recharges while in use by plugging into the cigarette lighter (the big problem with the fm transmitter I had before was that it sucked power out of batteries so fast as to be nearly unuseable); and 4) it plugs into the firewire slot of the ipod, not the headphone slot, which apparently makes the reception more robust.

At the time of ordering, I regarded my purchase as an expensive risk. My biggest concern about iCarPlay was that it has only 8 preset settings to choose from, while some of the other brands had a full range of settings. I live in the Boston area, where the airwaves are chock-a-block.

I am happy to report that I have been delighted. I plugged it in and it worked immediately and has been problem free with constant use ever since. I've had almost no trouble with reception. Very rarely (once every couple of weeks) the reception will falter for just a second, but not so long that I miss anything. I've tried all the settings and they all seem to work equally well. I sometimes drive down the Mass Pike to the western part of the state and there, too, I have had great reception the whole way. And I've had no problems at all with power, the recharger works very well so I can always plug in the headphones and continue listening as soon as I park the car without worrying about battery life!

I thought about buying some kind of holder for the ipod in my car, but I'm glad I didn't. The cord on the iCarPlay is quite long enough to reach the cup holder built into the console of my car and it works perfectly as a place to put it. All in all, I'm delighted with my iCarPlayer and highly recommend it.