Nosce te ipsum

Necessity truly is the mother of invention. I've been a fan of the various fine products create by the folks over at Griffin Technology since early 2002 when I got my very first Griffin product, the PowerMate. My initial impression, which still holds true to this day, is that Griffin is one of those all too rare companies that fundamentally just 'gets it'. When you look across their product line, they've got products for needs that you probably never even knew you had but what soon become apparent is that these guys go about creating their products much the same way that all the world's greatest software has even been written - by creating something that solved their own needs. The fact that it also happens to be useful to a whole lot of other people is just a the sugar on top. When I got that first PowerMate, I really had no idea what specifically I was going to use it for but much like many Apple products, the quality of the design was just something to behold and if so much thought and care went into the outside of the product, it just has to be equally as good on the inside.

Way back in early 2002 when it became obvious that the iPod was now officially a permanent fixture in my life, I set about trying to find the best way to use it in the various environments I find myself in each day (at the gym, in the car, at work, etc). I was using one of those old fashion (but still perfectly functional) audio out to cassette interfaces (basic headphone jack size plug in with a special cassette tape on the other end - the same things we use as teenagers when the very first portable CD players hit the market and we needed a way to make them work with your cars stereo system.

That method of getting the iPod to work with my car stereo has worked great for years now but I always disliked the cable mess associated with it so I bought several iPod specific FM transmitters and said goodbye the wired way of doing things. As a general statement, at the time most of those devices really were not ready for prime time so I kept with the old way on and off for some time. Well, the old way officially bit the dust last night so if I wanted to be able to listen my iPod in the car, I had to finally sit down and figure out what station was going to offer the best reception for the iTrip. Fortunately, Griffin now offers the iTrip Station Finder software which is localized to your particular state and makes finding the right station quite easy. I've also now set this up on my home & work stereo as well so it will be getting put through the paces here over the next few weeks but so far so good. Thanks again Griffin - keep up the good work.

Shawn and Co at Your Mac Life hinted that Griffin had a slew of new product announcements expected to come out at MacWorldExpo in just a few short weeks. I wonder what the boys from Nashville have in store for us this time? Hopefully not more VaporWare like the Griffin Radio Shark which took over a whopping year to ship after it was announced.