Auto Adapters for iPod Help You Beat Radio-Burnout
iPod car adapters are the solution to an ages-old problem for drivers – staying alert and awake while driving. If you spend a lot of time on the road, chances are that you count on music to keep you company and help you stay alert while driving. For decades, drivers have had to fiddle with radio knobs to tune in radio stations that fade in and fade out as you travel or switch around up and down the dial to find a station playing music that you like. The digital revolution only helped a little – you still had to click those little buttons up and down, surfing through stations until you got to one that you could tolerate.
Of course, there are other solutions to radio-burnout. Older vehicles may have a built-in cassette deck – but who still buys cassette tapes? Newer cars feature CD players so that you can pop in your favorite CD and sing along as you drive – but both tape decks and CD players have the same problem – you have to change the music, or listen to it repeat over and over and over. And since far too few people actually pull over to change the radio station or pop in a new CD, the time spent fiddling with your music is time that you’re splitting your attention between your music and the road. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, those moments of distraction and inattention are the leading cause of automobile accidents on the road.
The solution? An Apple iPod, of course. An iPod lets you pack hours of music onto one little device and play it on shuffle, or by selective playlists. You can load up your iPod to play songs by one artist, or by folder, or just let it surf through your music collection in order. The one little problem with using your iPod in your car is that you really can’t safely drive wearing headphones or ear buds. You need an iPod car adapter to play the music on your iPod through your car’s speaker system.
Many newer model cars come with factory-installed iPod or MP3 player docks so that you can just pop your iPod into the dock and have access to all the controls you’re used to having. If you’re not driving one of those cars with built-in iPod decks, though, there’s no need to despair. There are a number of aftermarket iPod adapters on the market that will give you access to your MP3 player’s full music library.
The choices of aftermarket iPod adapters and iPod adapter kits runs the gamut from relatively inexpensive systems that you can pop into the existing dash and connections to pricey permanent installations that are custom tailored to specific automobile makers and models. Whether you opt for a pop in digital head that simply plays through your car radio speakers or choose a top-of-the-line iPod adapter kit for your car, you’ll be driving more safely – and far more enjoyably.
Joel Mclaughlin