The Belkin TuneCast Auto with ClearScan for iPhone 3G is available and can be purchased in iMore Store for $79.95. If you are looking for a charger/ FM transmitter in one for your iPhone, this might be for you. Let’s see how it measures up after the break!

Design

The Belkin TuneCast Auto is a charger/FM transmitter that sends your iPhone's audio directly to your FM radio.  The device is made of plastic and has been quite resilient. The cord length is just about perfect. I currently plug it in under my car's arm rest and it is just long enough. The transmitter is compact and easy to use.

Daily Use

I admit it, or perhaps I shouldn't, but I am one of those people that sometimes drives with my headphones in. I liken this to the same as someone playing their boom-box loudly in their car. So, being a good citizen, I wanted do the right thing and find a way to listen to music without headphones; in comes the Belkin TuneCast Auto!

I have a 45-minute commute each way to work, so I use this thing A LOT and for extended periods of time, driving through several parts of town before arriving at my place of employment. Why is this important? Well, the way this device works is, it sends the the iPhone's audio to a radio channel that is not currently being broadcast on. So, in theory, you find an "empty" channel and you are in business. Well, like I said, in theory anyway. The reality is where I live, there are very, very, very few stations (like 3) that don't broadcast anything. What is the magic station for me? 96.1, for about 75 percent of my commute. Since I am driving from suburbia to downtown, as I approach the city, there is more and more static encroaching on the crystal-clear audio I enjoyed from my home; frustrating indeed.

So how do you resolve this? Well the Belkin TuneCast Auto gives you a few tools at your disposal. First up is the scanner. You press the button and if finds a station, based on your location, that has the least amount of static or stations to transmit to the radio. You can adjust by numerical increment if you like too. For example, the device select 105.4, but you find that 105.5 provides a slightly clearer listening experience, you can adjust at that level.

Next, you can save up to two favorite channels. This is quite helpful in my instance. I choose one channel for most of my commute, then as I get closer to work, I switch to another. It would have been really handy to have more then two saved presets, but alas, what can you do.

Lastly, you have "Pro" settings that help improve the audio performance. There are Pro levels 1-3 that essentially increase the volume of the music if it is muffled over the air with the FM reception. The last level plays in mono, further decreasing static.

Conclusion

I really like the Belkin TuneCast Auto for iPhone 3G. The problems I have with it are really just inherent of the technology and its compatibility in my city; there just aren't any available stations that don't have anything being broadcast on them. This issue, however, is not Belkin's so I feel it is unfair to knock them any points for this. Instead, the disappointments I have with the device are listed below, that just prevent it form being a 5-star device.

Pros:

• Hey, instant iPhone to Stereo transmission in your car!
• Ample cord length
• Good reception (when there is a available channel)

Cons:

• It would be nice if the 30-pin connector snapped into place to make it more secure
• Having more than 2 presets for stations would be nice

TiPb’s Rating:

With my original iPhone 2G, I used a Monster solution to output the audio to my no-dock, no-RCA equipped car. Along came the iPhone 3G and while the Monster still worked, it no longer provided power. See, Apple in their Infinitely Looped wisdom decided to remove the FireWire pin from the iPhone 3G dock connector, and that was precisely the pin many peripherals used to transmit charge.

That was a problem for me, since my daily commute to work is an hour to an hour-and-a-half, and I typically listen to podcasts and audio books there and back again. Without power, my iPhone's charge was taking a hit!

Enter the Griffin RoadTrip with Smartscan. It transmits iPhone (or iPod touch) audio to your car's FM radio, and most importantly for our perpetually draining devices -- it charges as well.

I've spent a month with it now, putting it through it's paces on the Hoth-like roads of a Montreal winter. How did it hold up? Read on to find out!

Hardware

The end of the Griffin RoadTrip with Smartscan plugs into your car's cigarette lighter (is that still what we're calling it?). A long, malleable neck connects the end to a head which is solely composed of a few buttons and, at the very top, an iPhone dock.

The buttons on the face of the head include FM (which scans for usable frequencies), Play/Pause, and Skip.

Also included in the box are dock adapters for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2G, and both generation iPod touches.

Usability

The tail plugs easily enough into the cigarette lighter, and the neck is very easy to position into just about any position that best suits your car setup and personal preferences. However, when an iPhone is plugged atop the RoadTrip, gravity has a tendency to slowly (or not so slowly) drag the whole thing down. As it rotates in the cigarette lighter, it also tends to come a little loose. So, I found myself losing FM reception quality from time to time and having to push it back in. Not a huge deal, but definitely a problem with this type of form factor.

My car has lousy radio reception -- the Monster worked fine but most others were nearly unusable. The RoadTrip worked well. It was incredibly easy to choose a usable station. Smartscan "just works". You press the button, it finds the best station, and you’re good to go. It remembers the station as well (least it always did for me), so set up is really a breeze.

Audio quality was excellent in general. Again, my lousy reception meant I had to carefully position the RoadTrip and make sure nothing came between it and my radio (including my hand!), but otherwise everything from music to podcasts to Audible books came in 5x5.

Aside from the FM selector, the buttons may seem to duplicate the functionality of what you can already do using the iPhone interface itself. That's true. However, in below 0 temperatures, when your fingers are going numb inside of your gloves, not having to touch bare skin to capacitive iPhone screen is very welcome. For those in warmer climes, they're also useful in saving you having to navigate to the iPod app (or double-tapping the Home button) to get the on-board media controls. Just hit pause/play or skip, and no matter whether it's on or off, locked or unlocked, in the iPod app or doing something else, your iPhone will listen.

The only real trouble I had with the device was the dock connector itself. It fit well enough, but because winter reduces the already terrible Montreal streets to ice and snow covered, cratered battlefields, I found that as my car bounced up and down, my iPhone would often become disconnected. This seldom happened on the major highways or roads, but on the less well cared for side streets, it was pretty frequent. I can easily imagine people who frequent dirt roads, go off-roading, or otherwise travel over rough terrain on a regular basis will have a similar problem.

Conclusion

If you live in an area with fairly smooth roads and have a car that allows the device to sit in a fairly straight-up position, the RoadTrip is a fantastic FM transmitter and charger solution.

If you have poor driving conditions and need to set up the device in a way that will tend to make it sag down, your mileage may vary.

If they could somehow beef up the dock connected -- perhaps use an old-school locking dock-type connection where you have to squeeze to remove it -- it would be darn near perfect for my needs.

Pros

• Charges iPhone 3G (and other modern iPods)
• Flexible positioning options
• Handy controls
• Good FM transmission

Cons

• Can droop down if left in a horizontal position
• iPhone can become disconnected when going over bumps

TiPb Rating