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.

I'll post more on this later after I really get a chance to put this sucker to the test. I wonder how the battery life is if you are just doing radio 24-7...

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Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cksample3/sets/1825001/

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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...

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Derek

Griffin has an ipod remote also, in black, but theirs will let you record audio from the radio.....does this one?

Thanks

January 13 2006 at 1:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

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.

January 12 2006 at 2:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rolphus

Cheers, C.K. - useful info, I might well pick one of these up. Pity about them not being available in black though.

January 12 2006 at 11:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

DCE

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.

January 12 2006 at 10:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

So when does the iPod Remote with XM Radio come out?!

January 12 2006 at 9:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

C.K. Sample, III

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.

January 12 2006 at 8:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Eric

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!!!

January 12 2006 at 8:54 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jarrod Turner

I see you have E3Cs there. Did you notice any sound quality difference at all with the new cord?

January 12 2006 at 8:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rolando

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

January 12 2006 at 7:45 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Hadley

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...

January 12 2006 at 7:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply