Product Requirements:
Device:
Almost any portable music device with a headphone jack and an FM radio

It is an inevitable thing that you may have the "world's greatest" stereo system in your car or house; but the music that you want to hear at some point and time will happen to be in a format that you can't listen to over that particular system.

In the past, listening to music from an alternative source might have involved buying a cassette adapter that plugged into your device - with a cable hanging from your device to the cassette player of your stereo. But what if you didn't have a cassette player?

Enter the irock!, a clever little device that can assist you in listening to music from virtually any portable player that has a headphone jack, by porting it to any player that has a built in FM radio.

Photo courtesy of myirock.com

The irock! consists of a small (2.0" x 3.0" x 1.0") plastic transmitter that includes a flexible 7" antenna. The end of the antenna is actually a 1/8" stereo audio input connector. Two AAA batteries will power the device for up to 20 hours, according to the website.

Although it isn't necessarily made to be held in your hand while being used, I found the irock! to be pleasant to hold, and the rubber trim made it feel rather cool.

The large black button on the front allows you turn the transmitter on and off, and a bright red light will glow while the transmitter is turned on.

Once the irock! is plugged into your electronic device, you simply tune your FM radio to any of the following stations: 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, or 88.7 MHz. You will also need to select the frequency from the slider on the right side of the irock!, and then you can enjoy your music - that's all you have to do!

The first obvious application for the irock! would be for listening to MP3s from your PDA in the car. Here you can see my E-200 being used, but if you are an iPAQ owner that happens to have a PCMCIA sleeve and a 5GB Datapak...well, you can see the possibilities. How many hours of music does 5 GB translate to? ;0) I tested the irock! by placing it all over my fianc�'s car - including the backseat - and true to the manufacturers claim of 10-30 feet, I had no problem getting a clear signal over the car's stereo. Obviously you aren't limited to just PDAs, though. You can also use the irock! with CD, cassette and mini disc players, as well as any other player with a headphone jack. A less obvious application might be playing music directly from your laptop through a stereo system. It might be cool to use the irock! with a voice GPS system, too...

Here you can see the irock! being used with our home theater system. If you are the adventurous type that would like to DJ a party from your PDA, this would be the easy way to do it. The irock! sent a strong signal from 10 feet away, but I did find that the quality seemed better the closer the irock! was to the tuner.

The irock! is a clever way to effortlessly listen to alternative music sources over your stereo system - either in your home or car. When you aren't using it, it is small enough to stow in the glove box or door pocket, and it seems rugged enough to withstand reasonable daily abuse.

With it's recently lowered price, the irock! is affordable and convenient.

Price: $29.99

Pros:
Ability to listen to music over your stereo system without using wires or adapters
Inexpensive
Portable

Cons:
None