Griffin Navigate: iPod Remote with FM Radio

Griffin Navigate: iPod Remote with FM Radio

If you’re looking to put an inline remote on your iPod, Griffin has one new way to do it — and it adds that oldest of old-school wireless music sources, FM radio.

Griffin’s Navigate plugs into the dock connector, bypassing the pesky requirement for chips that may or may not be DRM for headphones. This has another advantage — aside from piping the music, hot and steaming, to your headphones, the Navigate can also display track info in the OLED screen and give access to EQ, playlists and shuffle modes. And did we mention it has an FM radio? Try to stay awake at the back.

You might scoff — after all, this thing is bigger than an iPod Shuffle and it’s just a remote. But Griffin makes some good points, especially about restoring the tactile feedback of the clickwheel iPods to the Touch and iPhone. Apple has gone some way to addressing this with the clicky inline remote on the latest earbuds, but then you are limited to those same crappy earbuds. With Griffin’s widget you can plug in any cans you like.

All this and an FM radio for listening to ads interspersed with the occasional hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Available now, works with any recent iPod that has a dock connector, $60.

(Via Gadget Lab.)