Car - Play MP3s and Charge?

[groover]

I'm looking for a solution to use my PPC as an MP3 player in the car. I don't have a cassette deck, aux in or want to modify the head unit, so my only solution seems to be an FM transmitter.

I just tried the one from tangshop and it was rubbish. Too much distortion. Now I'm looking at the iRiver AFT 100, which seems to have good reviews. OK, so here is the problem: the FM transmitter requires the cigarette lighter and so does the Pocket PC to charge, resulting in a lot of bulk in a cramped space in my car.

Isn't there any better solution to this problem? Is there such a thing as a compact adapter that can allow another device to plug in to the cigarette lighter and provide power to my iPAQ 2215?

thanks, Andy

[Joelacrane]

I have been wanting to do this for a long time. My CD player is broken, but my HU has an auxillary in that ive been using my Creative Nomad Muvo 128mb with for a long time. Getting power to my iPaq would be easy, all i would need is a cig adapter, which can easily be purchased on eBay.

However, i dont want to just throw my precious iPaq into the center console next to my e-brake. I would like to find some sort of "car cradle" that doesnt look nerdy, and holds my iPaq on its side for landscape mode. I havent found anything.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Isn't there any better solution to this problem? Is there such a thing as a compact adapter that can allow another device to plug in to the cigarette lighter and provide power to my iPAQ 2215?

There are double cig lighter adapters available, which splits the cig lighter socket into two sockets. It's a bit cumbersome though, due to the size of the sockets.

There's also something like this (http://shop.brando.com.hk/2in1carfmtransmitter.php), which may be more your ticket - but I wouldn't know how good the sound from this would be.

However, i dont want to just throw my precious iPaq into the center console next to my e-brake. I would like to find some sort of "car cradle" that doesnt look nerdy, and holds my iPaq on its side for landscape mode. I havent found anything.

Depends what you mean by nerdy - I'm using this (http://shop.brando.com.hk/universalwindshieldholder2.php) at the moment.

[tufif]

I'm doing this with a 3 lighter adapter car power strip looking thing. I can plug in my fm transmitter, my mda, and my gps all at the same time. Not only can I play my mp3s, I can stream internet radio too.

[burtcom]

I've tried several of these FM transmitters -- they all sound bad to me. Perhaps if you could find one powerfull enough it might be usable.

In any case -- buy from someplace where you can easily take it back if you have to.