Stereo and iPhone

Helena bought me an iPhone for my birthday last month (my old phone was on its last legs, crackling, freezing up and cutting out).   It’s a great piece of kit (it must be – it’s electronic but I still like it, and that’s no mean feat).   Of its many features, useful ones for motoring include its iPod function (with a huge amount of storage for music and films) and its GPS based moving maps (“Google Maps” comes as standard, and OS maps can be downloaded from the Appstore).

To get the most out of the unit, I have bought an FM transmitter unit that cradles the iPhone (or an iPod) and recharges its battery while broadcasting the iPod mode to the car’s stereo.  It costs about £20 on the web and about £30 on the high street.  For those of you who have bought such units a while ago for an iPod, be careful – the one I already had charges at 12V, which is the iPod requirement, but iPhones charge at only 5V – you need to make sure your unit is approved for iPhones if that is what you are using.

The device is not very well designed.  While it will accommodate a plain iPhone, it won’t accept a phone fitted with any kind of protective cover.  It also tends to wobble and even twist around in the cigarette lighter socket because the flexible arm is far too long.   Because I seem to be unable to leave anything the way I bought it and because I will not remove of the phone’s cover (an Otterbox Commuter TL), I have modified the cradle to accept the protected phone.   This just required the use of a Dremmel to remove some of the plastic around the connecting plug and make recesses for the Otterbox’s plastic end and rubber connection port flap to sit into.  I still need to solve the mounting of the unit so that it doesn’t move about so easily – it’s a shame to fit the unit permanently to one vehicle and I may be able to do something that allows it to still be quickly moved from vehicle to vehicle while being sturdier.