Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / January 2006

Does anybody know how the Griffin TuneBuds manage to get audio out of
the Shuffle without plugging into the headphone port?

I want to make a really neat installation for my Shuffle in my car.
Specifically, I don't want to have to put the iPod in a cradle and then
plug a little flylead into the top of it. I want to get into the car
and, in one motion, plop the iPod into a fixed dock like I used to with
my mobile phone and car-kit[1]. I didn't think this would be possible,
but I've just come across the TuneBuds.

These seem to get their audio out of the USB connector, presumably
through some hack in the shuffle's design that goes on when it's not
plugged into a real USB port. I've tried the obvious of putting a
cut-off pair of headphones across various pairs from the USB socket and
got nothing, though this isn't conclusive as I'm not sure I was making
good contact with the varnished wire in the headphones. I've also been
unable to find any mention of this anywhere on the Net.

Does anyone know anything about this stuff?

Pete

[1] I now have a Bluetooth car-kit so I don't even need to take the
phone out of my pocket. I'm obsessive about this stuff :-)