Digital Slob
Digital Slob
New gadget lets you
rock on any radio
Beginning this week, "Digital Slob" takes a look at a few gadgets that are relatively cheap, yet useful enough to still be respected in the morning. This week, it's the iRock Music Adapter.Unlike a lot of so-called wannabe technology columns, this so-called wannabe technology column doesn't peruse the high-tech store shelves wearing rose-colored glasses. Rather, this Digital Slob knows the Digital Age can be a seedy, dirty den of not-so-cheap thrills and broken high-tech dreams, sort of like a Bangkok nightclub with a Wi-Fi network.
It's a wonder why more of us don't flip out, rip off our shirts and run through our neighborhood CompUSA screaming, "I can't get clean!"
No one wants to be this cynical, but thanks to the high-tech consumer industry, many have been burned more than Avril Lavigne's debut CD, whether their buyer's remorse sunk in last week or, like mine, years ago. Not that I'm one to hold a grudge, but specifically, in 1979, I was one of many who was forever sullied by Mr. Microphone.
The Ronco Co.'s commercial promised me, and a nation of other boys on the cusp of junior high, that getting a date would be a snap via the mind-control magic of short-range radio frequency modulation.
As the now-famous TV spot demonstrated, all you had to do was grip Mr. Microphone while cruising in a slow-moving convertible and repeat, "Hey, good-looking! We'll be back to pick you up later!" and your pheromone-infused coolness would amplify through the car's speakers to the glee of countless "foxes" lining the sidewalks.
Years later, therapist-patient privilege still conceals the emotional scars that formed 0.29 nanoseconds after I switched on Mr. Microphone, but suffice it to say Ronco took my money and my innocence. It socially stunted thousands of others as well and, I think, explains why so many of my brethren become ugly drunks in karaoke bars.
But sometimes it takes 20 or so years and the disintegration of a generation's self-esteem to reap the fruits of an idea. One such piece of produce that I think is now ripe for the picking is the iRock Music Adapter.
The adapter (about $30) is a simple, egg-shape plastic device that plugs into the headphone jack of your MP3 player (or portable CD or cassette player or computer) and wirelessly transmits tunes through any FM tuner, be it an $8,000 sound system or an old clock radio. This is a deceptively amazing thing, because it will even work on tuners that are so old they don a turntable on top with "A Perry Como Christmas" still locked and loaded (yes, Mom, this means you). Thus, with this device your personal soundtrack can fill any venue where it is welcome, or at least tolerated.
The adapter taps into one of four dial positions, so if you live next to a campus radio station that shoves Bjork's latest whale calls down your ears on 88.3, you can still hear your stuff on 88.5, 88.7 or 88.9 MHz.
While based on technology no more sophisticated than Mr. Microphone's, the iRock adapter, mercifully, takes the mic from charisma-challenged wooers and gives it to responsible, trained music professionals who know how to make use of stereo speakers to everyone's satisfaction. So, if properly applied, the iRock adapter -- in a way, the son of Mr. Microphone -- can go a long way toward redeeming the sins of its father.
Next week: Digital voice recorders.
Curt Brandao is the Star-Bulletin's
production editor. Reach him at
at: cbrandao@starbulletin.com