These days, a lot of people travel with their entire music library in their pocket, lovingly downloaded onto their iPhone or iPod. Whether you’re on the street, at the office or at home, when you want to listen to your favourite song of the moment or just need a break, all you have to do is fish out your earbuds and voilà! - instant audio therapy. But in your car? Well, that’s another story. Auxiliary inputs, USB ports, iPod plugs and even adapters, most automotive audio playback solutions require a cable. Enter the Griffin iTrip FM transmitter.

Photo: Sébastien D'Amour/Auto123.com

No bigger than an eraser, this little gadget allows you to listen to the tunes on your iPhone/iPod without any cumbersome wires getting in the way. Installation (if you can call it that) is child’s play: simply connect the iTrip to the iPod’s dock connector. The iTrip draws power directly from your iPhone/iPod’s battery. The device features four buttons, three for radio frequencies and one for the menu, which is pretty basic. It offers few options, and in three or four clicks you’ve seen it all.

With the iTrip, Griffin wanted to create the simplest device possible – and succeeded. The SmartScan feature automatically finds the best available frequency; it works very well and saves a lot of time. The option is practical in town because there are fewer available frequencies, and at the touch of a button you can see your three best bets.

And to make things even easier, Griffin offers a free application in the App Store that allows you to control the iTrip directly via your iPhone. It uses the same features as the actual device and makes for an even more efficient and intuitive experience.

Of course, sound quality with the iTrip isn’t as good as what you’d get with an auxiliary input. And you probably won’t be surprised to hear that during my daily commute the sound would sometimes drop altogether because of interference. Disappointing, but that’s part of the game. To counter that nasty static, you can play around with the Smartsound features and/or switch to mono mode. That being said, listening to your tunes reduced to mono while stuck in traffic is not my idea of a superb auditory experience.

In a nutshell, the Griffin iTrip isn’t perfect, but it has a lot to offer and is worth trying out. It’s not limited to your car, either. You can use it anywhere, at a friend’s house or even with your home entertainment system.

To find out more, check out Griffin’s website at www.griffintechnology.com