Hi! I just ran across your review of the TransPod on the ATPM site, which I found through a Google search on simply “TransPod” (the sixth link, if you like knowing such things!). I wanted to say thanks first for the review with pictures. Everything I was reading before mentioned the two arms, but no one else so far has had pictures that show how it really works. My lighter outlet is so close to my gear shift that it’s hard to put anything bulky down there, and having the extra arm to take the TransPod out of the way looks like it might just be the ticket (although I may have some of the same height problem you did with your Odyssey).

And double thanks for mentioning that you live in the DFW area and what frequency you’ve found has worked—so many people say in their reviews about how a metro area is bad, or even specifically that DFW is bad, but never give the full info on what does work! As you may have guessed, I’m in the DFW area also so this specific info is extremely helpful to me.

I just received my first iPod yesterday and I’m looking forward to getting it set up for use in my car for those 45-minute commutes to downtown…and from downtown. :-)

Thanks again!

—Stephanie

Just bought a TransPod from Target. I had my doubts, but decided to give it a try. I was told by the sales clerk that I had 90 days to return the item for a full credit (with my receipt). So I bought it. And guess what? It works great! I am very pleased with this product. As for mounting, that’s not a problem for my 2004 Explorer because I have a flat charger plug built into/near the cup holder. So, I just plugged the TransPod right in, inserted my iPod (it stands upright), tuned to channel 89.7, and wam—iPod heaven! I have loaded 900 songs so far and I have it on shuffle so I have commercial-free music without knowing what is coming next. Buy it, it works.

—Huston

I looked at the TransPod and thought it was a bit large, with too many screws and arms. I bought the Belkin TuneBase and think it’s perfect for almost any vehicle with a power plug in the front. It come with or without an FM transmitter. One feature I like is that when the car is turned off the plug is goes off and the iPod automatically pauses. I hit the Play button to get it going again. It has a plug, a stiff arm, and a small base for the iPod mini. That’s it. Bend it easily to where you want it, and it stays there.

—Bill Johnson

What a great idea! I am going to try this at the San Francisco Apple Store. The only problem is that I no longer have any Apple hardware, well, save for an Apple IIe stashed away in my garage. I wonder what would happen when I show up at the Apple Store with my laptop running FreeBSD/Linux/WinXP. This one laptop is all the computer I need whenever I work away from home.

—Steppenwolf105

I can totally identify with this. Owing to a recent dispute with PG&E (i.e. the power company here in northern California), I have no power at home, and I’ve fled from my cold, powerless home office to San Francisco’s many cozy cafes that provide free WiFi. Good coffee, a fantastic work environment, and great people-watching to boot (better than a tropical fish tank, in my opinion).

The following are key elements of my road-warrior’s arsenal:

• My trusty 12" PowerBook. I’ve been writing lots of code lately so I think I may upgrade to a 15" in the near future…

• Kensington’s 70-watt interchangeable AC adapter for PowerBooks and other gadgets. I didn’t think it was possible to love a power brick. But I do. They got everything right. There I was in CompUSA ready to splurge on a spare official Apple power brick for my PowerBook (one to leave at home, and one to keep packed in my bag) for a mere…uh…seventy bucks?!? And then I saw the Kensington brick, sleeker, with interchangeable tips (including one for the iPod included at no extra charge), for the same price. Sold.

  It’s smaller and lighter than the Apple brick. One end has a small (three inches long or so) rugged dongle that ends with a standard 2-blade AC plug. The other end is where the long cord that runs to the PowerBook attaches. I haven’t measured the cord, but it’s at least six feet. It’s long. Spectacularly, usefully long. And it comes with a nice velcro tiewrap to boot. Prior to this, I had never gotten compliments on my power brick.

• Treo 600. iSync to iApps, natch. I’m tempted to upgrade to a 650 for Bluetooth goodness and camera non-suckage, but thus far haven’t given in to temptation. I charge it off via my PowerBook’s USB ports using a retractable charge and sync cable from treocentral.com. One thing I love about the PowerBook is that it still powers the USB ports even when sleeping. I couldn’t charge my Treo off my old iBook when it was in sleep mode.

• And the most excellent Incase Sling Pack to carry it all…more compartments than you can shake a stick at. The original Incase Moya Pack kicked butt. I still have mine, but it’s not as big as the Sling Pack. I don’t like the new Moya Deluxe. It’s big, but woefully undercompartmentalized.

—Daniel C. Silverstein

I have to agree. I love the Apple Store in SOHO. It’s my favorite. I went there on Easter Sunday to buy my G4 PowerBook, when low and behold the store was closed. Outside, there were all these people standing around with their laptops. It looked like a big sit-in, or a bunch of groupies waiting for the concert to begin.

I use Skype and love it. And you are right, all it’s missing is a coffee bar.

I’ll be there in the next couple of weeks to pick up my iPod.

—LeneGirlNYC

Yes, the Apple Store is an oasis: a quick place to catch up on where to go, and a convenient place to peruse technology and get a little work done.

—Stewart Ferrell

As an on-site consultant the Apple Store is a great resource to get equipment and software in a pinch. The other great thing is that in the summer it is a cool place to check your mail and collect your thoughts.

—Georg Dauterman

If the effort that has gone into the looks of this program went into the functionality of it, things would be wonderful. It is unstable and loses track of transfers. Not reliable enough to be worth using, even free.

—Michael McKee

I for one, am glad to hear you went for the upgrade as opposed to trashing your old Cube and buying new. In this disposable society it’s good to read about people taking the time to make the old new again.

—Paul Barker

Kudos to you for upgrading your Cube. I have a 733 MHz Quicksilver G4 (2001) that has gone under at least six upgrades and is still going strong. It now sports a DVR-108 SuperDrive, two USB 2.0 cards, a new video card, a 22" Studio Display, a new 1 GHz processor courtesy of OWC, four hard drives totalling 420 GB of hard drive space, and several other improvements I can’t recall right now. I’m waiting for OWC to deliver my Tiger software so I’m running Panther for now.

As long as I can build in more processor speed and storage to this platform, I’m not buying a G5 anytime soon. My next upgrade will be a dual-1.4 GHz processor card.

Stand your ground. Upgrade!

—Grover Watson

Well, webloggers and similar folks may have their critical observations about certain limits of MacJournal. But I don’t care a damn about weblogging and all the rest. I use MacJournal simply as an electronic Moleskine, and for that purpose it’s ideal. I like its nice clean interface, its full screen mode, the possibility to give the background whatever color you like. I love MacJournal, and I know many people do.

—Paul van Heck

The product went from freeware to $25 mainly on the basis of nested folders and full-screen editing mode (which it shares with the much more expensive Ulysses). The auto-backup feature is also nice. I think the blogging support is ultimately the selling point for this application—if you don’t need it, I would recommend something more powerful (Hog Bay NoteBook, OmniOutliner, Circus Ponies NoteTaker, etc.). A major limitation with MacJournal is the lack of documents—you have one file and must make-do with nested folders to separate the compartments of your life, though who wants their tech notes in the same file as their personal journal, DVD recommendations, and their to-do lists?

—Jim S.

I liked MacJournal (I have version 2.4, I think), however I think that StickyBrain 3.x (They just released 3.5 a few days ago.) is a much better option. Now if MacJournal’s blogging support was fully supported, then I think it would be a win/win solution. As it is, MacJournal is a distant second.

—Ross Winn

Thanks for the great link about Peter’s little electric van; it made me proud to be a human being for a hour or so!

I don’t “know” why, but I can suspect some reasons that this couldn’t be easily scaled from a one-of to a small production facility. I don’t know where one gets one of those little vans, but we do have some smaller vans in production in various places in the world.

—John A. Davies