I’ve long thought Belkin was the home of crappy/cheap electronic accessories that fell apart easily or never worked quite right. This mainly comes from buying a few things in college, when the funds were low and you generally look for the cheapest version of whatever you’re buying. You get what you pay for right? Well, I thought they were improving with their current generation of products including their iPod accessories. I just bought a Nano as a present for my wife’s birthday and needed to get a car adapter for it. We stopped at Target on our way out of town this past week and I quickly grabbed the Auto Kit for $30, it said “Power and Play your iPod in your car,” that was all I needed right? Plus, it had a nice design and was a much better deal than the $70 Monster iCarPlay.

So, we’re heading down the road and my wife’s trying to get the thing setup and what do you know, the damn Auto Kit is just for power, there’s no way to actually play the iPod through this thing. WTF? I had assumed incorrectly it was an FM adapter, but it’s only a power charger and amplifier. What part of “play” are they talking about? You have to buy a separate FM adapter to actually play your iPod in your car, which when you combine the Auto Kit, adds up to about the same price as the iCarPlay. Guess which one I have now? Yes, the iCarPlay. Belkin may have been trying to provide flexibility with their separate power adapter and FM transmitter (and plethora of other combinations thereof), but they ended up providing confusion and distrust. I have finally learned my lesson with Belkin and I will never buy another one of their product’s again.