How about a bit of fun with your iPod? Well, crack open some beers, get your iPod out and connect a Griffin iKaraoke, for what should be some guaranteed fun.
The iKaraoke landed on my desk this week, so I rushed home to get it tested by the ultimate gadget users in my house, a few invites went out to my gaming friends, and the house was full for a bit of a knees up. This new gadget from Griffin Technology plugs into the dock connector on the bottom of your iPod. I tested it with a 5th generation full size iPod, but it also works with the 1st & 2nd gen Nano, the iPod Mini, and the 4th gen iPod.
Once plugged in you can sing along to your favourite music track, which is great, but Griffin took things one step further... you can add reverb to your voice via an on-screen setting, plus you can also connect the unit to your home hi-fi unit via a line out socket. So you Karaoke skills (or lack of in my case) can be broadcast at some pumping volumes. Already great fun, well to push the possibilities even further, you can lose that wire connecting you to the hi-fi…
The iKaraoke also has an FM transmitter built in, so you can set a frequency for it to transmit on (again on the iPod screen) and then tune your hi-fi into the same station, and voila! it will have you prancing around the room (or hiding) whilst singing along to your tunes. You can also mute the music, which allows you to announce something, this could be useful if you were using this at a party on in a pub situation.
The microphone unit that you hold in your hand is really well made, and has a high quality feel. It has a switch for turning vocals on and off in your music, plus iPod controls around the other side for track selection, and play/pause. When you power it on, there is also a nice red glowing light around the tip. Back to your iPod screen and you can also adjust the volume of the music, so that your voice can be heard.
So did we have a good time? Well, it was fun, and everyone wanted to have a go. The minor problem was the quality of filtering out vocals from the music tracks, which is a tricky thing to do in all fairness, but could have been better. The FM transmission was pretty good, not fantastic quality, but more than acceptable.
On a more positive note, the iKaraoke really did deliver on what it promises, and that is to have some good fun. Out of the eight people (not including myself) that used it, I asked if they would buy one. Well two said yes, but did not have iPods. Of the remaining six that all own iPods, five said that for the low cost they would definitely invest in an iKaraoke. What more can I say...
Product: Griffin Technology iKaraoke
Price: $49.99
UK Street Price: £25.00
Supplied by: Griffin Technology
Contact: +1 (615) 399-7000