Filed under: Accessories, Audio, iPod Family
Hands on with the new iPod Radio Remote
So,
yesterday was my birthday, and just like any other good Mac user, I had to drag my wife to the Apple Store before going
to dinner. A pre-celebration celebration, if you will. In any case, they didn't have the new iMacs in yet, but they did have the new Radio Remote for the iPod, so I quickly bought one. I've posted a bunch of pics of the device and its packaging over on my Flickr account, so make sure you check out all the pics.
So far, I've only done minimal tinkering with the device, but here's my mini-review of cool bits I've noticed:
- If you haven't run the latest iPod update, the Radio Remote will work as a remote, but not as a radio.
- Clicking on radio and tuning is a snap. Hitting play temporarily "turns off" the radio.
- The top headphone jack on my 5G iPod continued to work even when I had headphones plugged into the Radio Remote. So, it's not just a radio, it's not just a remote, it's also a way to share your tunes with your friend or loved one by plugging in two headsets (one to the iPod and one to the Radio Remote). Very cool.
- Station information shows up underneath the station number when listening. As I had it tuned to 92.3 K-Rock in NYC, the text FREE RADIO and BOOKER kept scrolling underneath the radio frequency.
- The remote is identical to the controls on an iPod shuffle, so I imagine it will have the same easy to control while wearing gloves quality.
- The included headphones have the smaller stereo plug that comes with the nanos.
- The headphones plugged into the Radio Remote act as the antenna, so you cannot listen through the top port on your iPod with no headphones attached to the Radio Remote. There's audio, but it is all static.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rolphus said 6:14AM on 1-12-2006
A few questions:
Just so I'm clear on this - the Radio Remote gives you an extra, standard 3.5mm headphone jack?
Also, can you adjust the volume of the two jacks independently?
If you've got the radio plugged in, does non-radio content play through both jacks?
With the radio plugged into the Nano's dock connector, is there still room for a standard headphone plug? (it looks like there should be room on my Nano, but I couldn't be sure)
Thanks in advance for answers or speculation on these :)
I'm actually more interested in the radio remote for use as a remote and elegant way to have two headphone jacks than I am for anything else.
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Wicho said 6:56AM on 1-12-2006
If the headphones act as the antenna, have you checked what happens if you use other headphones with a different lenght cord?
Does reception quality degrade?
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C.K. Sample, III said 7:00AM on 1-12-2006
Rolphus,
Yes.
No.
Yes. Whatever you are playing comes through both jacks.
I'll have to test this with my wife's nano later and get back to you.
Cheers!
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totalester said 7:01AM on 1-12-2006
It looks good, think I'll be getting one.
It's a shame Apple didn't include a shortened headphone cable like Sony do with their remotes. I don't like walking round with all that cable hanging around.
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EchoSierraTwo said 7:29AM on 1-12-2006
I hope it obvious to apple that I and maybe many others like the remote and am wondering and waiting when it will come in black to match those that have a black 5G and or Nano. I know that thy did not do it for the U2 ver.but this is where I think Apple drops the ball. Just my two cents. Heres to matching accessories from Apple.
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Tom said 7:41AM on 1-12-2006
My main question would be, since it uses he headphones as antennas, how does it work with other headphones? I use Sony headphones (which, quite nicely, can be broken into smaller cords) and would prefer to continue using them, but don't really want to get this if the radio isn't going to work very well...
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Rolando said 7:45AM on 1-12-2006
was this the apple store in SOHO,NYC? What time did u go, cause when i went they had no remote and i went around 2
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Jarrod Turner said 8:32AM on 1-12-2006
I see you have E3Cs there. Did you notice any sound quality difference at all with the new cord?
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Eric said 8:54AM on 1-12-2006
Just wondering if the remote has a clip on the back like the very first remote (and possibly the other released remotes did?) I can't seem to find a good photo anywhere of the back of it... Would be kinda useless to me if it didn't...
Thanks!!!
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C.K. Sample, III said 8:56AM on 1-12-2006
EchoSierraTwo, I agree completely. It would be much slicker if this had come in black.
Tom, it works fine with other headphones. I was using my Shure's with it this morning.
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MikeV said 9:34AM on 1-12-2006
So when does the iPod Remote with XM Radio come out?!
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DCE said 10:33AM on 1-12-2006
I picked one up yesterday as well (I needed a new monitor adapter, so I figured I may as well splurge). It works just as advertised. I don't care for Apple headphones, so I'm using the same black, Sony earbuds I've had for years with no loss in reception, etc.
The only shortcoming of the remote is that it provides no way to switch between radio mode and iPod mode. To listen to recorded audio, you have to dig out the iPod itself and manually switch over. Not a huge inconvenience, but it's noticeable. If there were some combination of buttons that would switch to music shuffle, the radio remote would be absolutely perfect.
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Rolphus said 11:52AM on 1-12-2006
Cheers, C.K. - useful info, I might well pick one of these up. Pity about them not being available in black though.
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BJ said 2:04PM on 1-12-2006
I'm disappointed that the iPod Mini doesn't support this new feature.
Aside from the differences in display, it would seem that a software update for the Mini would allow this added functionality.
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Derek said 1:16AM on 1-13-2006
Griffin has an ipod remote also, in black, but theirs will let you record audio from the radio.....does this one?
Thanks
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