There are a couple of dilemmas for anyone who takes their MP3 player to play in the car. How do you get the sound to the car stereo and how do you stop the thing sliding about all over the place? The TrekStor MP3-RadioStation f.ox tackles these.
The TrekStor MP3-RadioStation plugs in to the cigarette lighter slot (or cigar if you’re posh), which means it’s easy to find and there’s no need for a separate power source.
Where do the tunes come from? There’s no storage on board, as the music is supplied via a USB memory stick that plugs in the bottom. This arrangement brings the advantage of low cost expansion and that the music storage is only limited by the size and number of memory sticks you’ve got.
Navigating tracks up, down and pausing is done by the button on the top.
To get over the challenge of getting the audio between the player and legacy car head-units, TrekStor have used low-powered FM transmission with a selectable frequency, available to some other players as an after-market add on.
To set it up, simply press the Channel button on the top of the MP3-RadioStation until an FM frequency that isn’t used by a radio station is displayed on the top, then tune your car stereo into that frequency. Bingo.
Sadly for UK users, devices like this can’t be used legally, as Ofcom don’t differentiate between low-power gadgets such as this that transmit over a short distance and a full blown radio station.
Expected release date is November 2006, priced at around €15.