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Griffin SmartDeck

Griffin Technology is going to be releasing some new products at MWSF this week. People seem to be most interested in the AirClick, the new wireless remote for the iPod. There’s also a USB dongle which will allow you to use the AirClick remote to control your Mac. While I think it’s a pretty cool idea, those general concepts have been done before. Admittedly, the new twist is that it’s RF control, rather than IR, so you don’t need line-of-sight to aim the remote. But the general concept of remote control for your iPod and/or Mac is nothing new.

No, the new product that most interests me is the SmartDeck. This spiffy device looks just like a regular car casette adapter, but instead of simply routing the sound from the iPod to the car stereo, it also allows the iPod to interface with the casette deck’s mechanical controls. In other words, when you hit the pause button on your car’s casette deck, it stops the casette from rotating, and sends a signal down the wire to your iPod telling it to pause. When you hit fast forward, your iPod will fast forward. So on and so forth. This is extremely cool for people like me and Becky who have older cars with casette decks and no interface with which to hook up more advanced control solutions. Pricing hasn’t been announced, but my hope is that it will be priced affordably. As nice as the iPod’s controls are, they just aren’t made to be easily handled while driving. It would be much easier to stop, skip, and play on the iPod by using the casette deck controls.

Griffin, if you’re reading this, I would be more than willing to write a review of this new product… just send me one to test out (and keep). Thanks.