Belkin finally ships $80 TuneCast Auto Live iPhone FM transmitter
By Darren Murph 
posted January 25th 2010 9:43AM
posted January 25th 2010 9:43AM
posted January 25th 2010 9:43AM
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@Swagger because no one cares about android, iPhone > android
big deal!
if it is so great at picking up the best station why does it need option to manually change the station, also with the iphones inability to multitask
well, how fun will it be switching between radio and this app....
Probably because it sucks and will never come through clear. All those Belkin accessories suck. They're cheaply made and break rather quickly with light use.
@raaaaaa You don't understand how this works. It's an FM transmitter. This means that it transmits the music from your iPhone to the FM radio in your car. Since the radio is built into the dashboard of your car, you don't need to switch between radio and the app.
@raaaaaa - the iPod app being an Apple app does run in the background.. so you can play music and switch to the belkin app without stopping the music.. you can also double-click the menu button while in the belkin app and get to the play/pause, next/ffwd, prev/rev, volume slider without even switching back the the iPod app.. there is also a button on the pop-up that appears after double click that takes you directly to the iPod app..
$80, i better not be as lazy as belkin expects me to be!
@Cheese Rations Some people are so thick lol
@Cheese Rations
actually YOU don't understand..read my post more carefully and then read the endgaget post as well. this item changes or picks the best station for the belkin to transmit through, but it also allows you to change that station as well, for example... it picks 88.1 but you decide to use 88.7 you can do that manually on the iphone but you will need to launch that app to do that. which lead to my post that launching this app the changing the station is bullsh$% with the iphone....
@raaaaaa This device is horrible I had it less that a month before this piece of crap broke. Would not recommend.
@raaaaaa Uhh you don't need the app open, you can also change the station on the little dongle on the wire.
yeah, or you could buy one that works just as well at woot.com right now for 9.99
@purfikt Thanks for the heads up!!.
@purfikt Yah one problem, that Woot deal is NOT for an FM transmitter for the "iPhone"
It's for the iPod and Zune
So that doesn't solve my issue...
@metalhaze did you read the discussions at woot.com? It's pretty clear that either one of those for sale today will work just fine with an iPhone.
Am I the only one that thinks an iPod (or any other music player) should have this function (transmit to a car stereo) built into the unit??
And how hard is it really to pick a station either all the way at the beginning or all the way near the end of the radio dial?
@Hazdaz
Definitely. These should be on every music player that people carry with them. One of the reasons I really like in my new N900 is that I finally got rid of the separate FM dongle. You need to charge this separately, leaving it in car during winter and it totally kills it. Plug and unplug everytime you drive somewhere.
Now I just a click on the phone desktop widget and off I go...
@Hazdaz
FM transmitters often suck. Can you imagine Apple's (or any other company's) support forums full of complaints about poor reception? It would be a nightmare.
@Hazdaz
As long as it doesn't add significantly to the cost of the device. Not everyone has or drives a car regularly, and teenagers don't even have a license. If you are going to listen to music in your car, get a dongle or dock that's powered by the car and you can plug your music player into. You can probably even get it charged this way.
@ebgolfin
I am not going to completely disagree with you that they suck - it's obviously not an "optimal" solution, but for something that can probably be implemented into a device for a few pennies worth of components by the OEM, I rather have the feature than have to have a separate dongle device (and all the wires that go with it) that you have to attach every time you are in the car.
And something like Bluetooth is not the answer because let's face it, the vast majority of older cars (and even some new ones) don't have BT. And of course BT has it's own idiocyncrasies.
@onlymyrailgun A Built-in FM Transmitters is nice for teens since they like to share their music with their friends. If the iPod Touch didn't have a built-in speaker, then a FM transmitter would help share music by using their radio. I sometimes use a FM transmitter when play music for family when I had the iPods without speakers.
80$ in Asia markets?no chance at all,I am using very good FM modulator
from Shenzen,it takes SD memory card,USB stick and analog input,
it works like dream and the cost is....3(three)US$ in my country,1(one)US$ in Shenzen.On Amazon you can find it for....30 up to 50 US$,poor suckers...
Lets hope they sell the software to tomtom / navigon etc
How much work would it have been to have the iPhone and accessory show the same station?
@JonS As soon as I saw the picture, I thought the same thing. Reminds me of that CF card where the reflection of the card had a different capacity on it (4GB vs. 8GB or something like that). :)
Is it Wednesday yet? :)
yea..but where is the iphone fm tuner app from apple we have been waiting on for a year?
@loopster82
Chances are this will never happen, atleast not soon. The more you wait with that bug in your brain the more likely you are to pay $99 for the accessory to make this happen. And Apple will never apologise for this. They don't care.
I dont understand why there are a dozend FM transmitter but not even one FM receiver. I am desperately waiting for it ever since i bought my iPod touch.
I guess this would be to make up for the crappy bluetooth capabilities of the iphoney.
p.s. There are lots of low cost alternatives on ebay. I know this from when I had an iphone. Thank god those frustrating days are over!
Sweet, I can spend 80 bucks to listen to my music library at 64kbps!
Does this at least commuicate by BT so you can hide it away not needing a dongle?
bulky afterthought... although better nothing... but fm should be built in... hopefully on the next iphone... i mean, the nano has it...
FM Transmitters suck, and FM Transmitters that cost EIGHTY FRIGGIN DOLLARS are downright stupid.
N900 ftw! fm receiver and transmitter buitl right into the device
Any idea a $80 radio could possibly look like?
For $80, can't you just pay someone to hardwire your car stereo to have an accessory jack? FM transmitters are the last resort, in my opinion. They sound horrible.
@LloydChiro Not for $80, you can't.
Yeah, perfect timing, Belkin. And what if Apple finally releases the iPhone 4.0 firmware tomorrow which enables the FM transceiver chip for radio listening as well as outputting to a nearby radio?
Does anyone know if this is available in any local stores? bestbuy doesn't appear to have the latest "live" model.
I've been through 3 different FM transmitters, all sucked. 2 were Belkins, the other was a Phillips. I'm going to stick with using my tape-deck with the tape that can take inputs from 3.5mm jacks.