I was having iPod envy so my wife bought me a new 8GB iPod nano, she has a 2GB original iPod nano. My old iPod was an OG 10 GB that is basically dead and only serves as a barely used backup drive. Anyways after I got the iPod I soon came down with car integration envy, her Toyota has an AUX jack. I wasn't willing to install the factory VW iPod kit in my Jetta and didn't want to spend the money on any of the other kits so I opted for a simple FM Transmitter and settled on the Kensington w/RDS transmitter and charger.
First off: it looks great. It is black with metal accents that match the look of the black nano nicely and looks pretty elegant in the car.
Next is how well it transmits: which is to say not perfectly. It just happens to work as well as any other fm transmitter. When you have a good signal it's great but if the signal gets weak changing stations can get tedious and on some softer songs the static from the station comes through. I'd say about 80% of the time it's working well and the other 20% you are searching for a better station or putting up with poor reception.
And lastly are the neat features: namely the RDS. RDS is a service most newer car radios offer in which the information from the station is displayed on your unit such as the song and station name. This unit sends the song and artist names from your iPod to the unit which is super convenient and makes up for the sometimes poor reception. Then there is the fact that the iPod is only tethered by a cord and not stuck on a fixed arm. There is also an off button for the charger so you don't have to drain the battery if you don't want. And there are convenient buttons on the charger that are used to preset radio stations for the iPod to use. And the final thing that I find neat is that if you pause the iPod when you turn the car off when you start the car up again it starts the iPod right away for you.
All in all the sound is obviously not as good as a line in but there are enough features to make up for that and it costs a lot less at only $70 compared to at least $100-150 for an aux jack plus installation costs.
First off: it looks great. It is black with metal accents that match the look of the black nano nicely and looks pretty elegant in the car.
Next is how well it transmits: which is to say not perfectly. It just happens to work as well as any other fm transmitter. When you have a good signal it's great but if the signal gets weak changing stations can get tedious and on some softer songs the static from the station comes through. I'd say about 80% of the time it's working well and the other 20% you are searching for a better station or putting up with poor reception.
And lastly are the neat features: namely the RDS. RDS is a service most newer car radios offer in which the information from the station is displayed on your unit such as the song and station name. This unit sends the song and artist names from your iPod to the unit which is super convenient and makes up for the sometimes poor reception. Then there is the fact that the iPod is only tethered by a cord and not stuck on a fixed arm. There is also an off button for the charger so you don't have to drain the battery if you don't want. And there are convenient buttons on the charger that are used to preset radio stations for the iPod to use. And the final thing that I find neat is that if you pause the iPod when you turn the car off when you start the car up again it starts the iPod right away for you.
All in all the sound is obviously not as good as a line in but there are enough features to make up for that and it costs a lot less at only $70 compared to at least $100-150 for an aux jack plus installation costs.