Belkin iPod TuneStage Bluetooth Stereo Adapter to Ship in July

By | June 2nd, 2005 comments icon (1)Comments


belkin tunestageBeing the case that FM iPod adapters like the iTrip and AirPlay are illegal devices in the UK, Tech Digest is happy to report on Belkin’s upcoming Bluetooth wireless iPod stereo adapter that’s due out in July called the TuneStage – PDF file (MSRP $179.99). “[E]ssentially fulfilling the same objective as an FM transmitter but using Bluetooth instead. Now anything you would normally listen to on your iPod in solitude can be shared with people around you by transmitting the output wirelessly into any Hi-Fi using either analogue RCA or 3.5mm jack,” writes Tech Digest. But what’s even cooler, is that TuneStage receiver requires no batteries because it uses the juice from the iPod’s Bluetooth wireless transmission (range: 33-feet).

I hope that Belkin was smart enough to support audio transmission from a Bluetooth enabled Mac. This would definitely make a nice addition to a home stereo if mulitple devices could tap into the receiver for audio output. Just a thought.





Filed in: Streaming Media Devices

  • melvin

    At first glance I was rather un-impressed, but this is actually very cool.

    I’ve always thought of FM transmitters as useful only in a car where you cannot typically make a physical cable connection. This bluetooth accessory wouldn’t help at all because you would still need a physcal connection. You simply lose the wires, but gain a base station, assuming you had inputs to the receiver.

    However, in the context of a home, it’s brilliant. You no longer need a remote or a 10 ft interface for your iPod because your iPod now doubles as the remote. In my mind, these were the two biggest hurdles to really using the iPod or any mp3 player in the home.

    And… although this is labeled as an iPod accessory, it should work with any audio producing device as it look like it connects to the iPod’s 3.5mm jack.

    And…along the same line as your concern about connectivity to a bluetooth enabled Mac, how about a bluetooth enabled car? If a car can work with a mobile phone, can it work with a incoming audio channel (essentially like bluetooth enabled headphones) and thus you wouldn’t need the bluetooth base station?

    As an aside, I just got the wife a 30 GB photo ipod, so I’m kinda of infactuated with the product at the moment.