Hi, I'm Chris, and I'm an iPod addict.

I was a little late to the iPod game, but from the time my wife bought me my first iPod (one of those oh-so-ancient ones with the monochrome displays!), I was hooked on having so much of my music at my fingertips. My new addiction shouldn't have been surprising, I was a Walkman addict before "MP3" was part of the common vocabulary—the Walkman was a gateway gadget of sorts, where I could keep listening to my favorite radio stations and music while walking, working in the yard, etc.

The thing is, I still enjoy listening to the radio a lot—in fact, it's one of the ways I get ideas for songs to add to my music library (never mind that my library reads like Billboard's top hits for 1982-1988). But gadget geek or no, carrying a radio AND an iPod is overkill. Enter Apple's iPod radio remote, a little gadget that makes the iPod experience even better.

My second iPod was what was originally the video iPod—now designated as the iPod classic. (Seriously, can a line of gadgets that hasn't been around as long as your average fourth grader really have a "classic" version already? That's a rant for another topic.) For my birthday a year ago, my ever-insightful better half gave me the radio remote, which adds Fm radio capability to the iPod video/classic (and from what I read online, the newer version of the Nano) into an FM radio. Note that the device does not work with the older monochrome iPods, the Shuffle, the older generation of Nanos or the iPod Touch.

The device connects to an iPod's docking connector, and at the other end of a white cable the remote control unit looks a bit like the current version of the iPod Shuffle, with a round control pad, and a metal clip on the back. At the top of the unite is a jack for your headphones/ear buds.

When you connect the device to your iPod, the main menu will add a "Radio" item. When you select it using your iPods click wheel, the screen becomes a digital radio tuner. A larger window at the top of the screen shows the current frequency, and you use the scrolling function of the click wheel to move the tuner up or down. When you find a frequency you want to use as a preset station, simply click the center button. A small triangular marker appears in the smaller window at the bottom of the video screen for each of the presets you select along the FM band.

Once you've set up your stations, using the remote control is beyond simple. Press to the right or left to move up or down the presets you've indicated, and press up or down to change the volume. To stop the radio, just hit the center "pause" button (and, like the center of the iPods own click wheel, press and hold the center button on the remote to put the iPod to "sleep." The radio remote also has a hold switch just like the iPods, so you can lock the controller and prevent accidental station or volume changes.

Reception quality of FM signals has been, in my experience, on par with any regular radio I've used in the same locations. For example, my office is in the middle of an area with many tall buildings blocking reception of some stations on lower floors. The radio remote picked up the same signals I could get with a 'traditional' radio, with the same amount of (or lack of) static. Also, for stations that use the RDS system to display song information (you may have this feature on your car radio; depending on the station, they may show the name of the station and/or identifying information about songs they play, though not all stations use it), you can see that information in the bottom window of the display.

Sounds pretty cool, huh? But like those annoying TV commercials selling you the latest must-have gadget say, "Wait! There's more."

When you don't want to listen to the radio, the remote acts as a basic controller for your iPod: pressing to the right or left switches among the songs in the playlist you select on the iPod, and the volume controlled by pressing up or down.

The first question you may ask is why someone would want to add a radio to an iPod. After all, with apologies to the Buggles for changing the name of their song, didn't the iPod kill the radio star? Not to me. As I mentioned, I enjoy listening to certain favorite stations to hear songs I may not own, and there are some morning radio shows I like listening to on the train ride in to the office. Just as importantly, on the way home I can pick up a traffic report on the train and know if the drive from the train station to my house will be a problem or if I need to find an alternate route. For sports fans, any games carried in FM in your area would be easy to enjoy with the radio remote (and in many areas, NFL games in particular have moved to FM stations). Finally, I live in an area where the TV station I watch most often is on channel 6, and as many people may know, the audio for those TV stations can be picked up at 87.7 FM, so I can listen to local news when I ride home. One thing to keep in mind—if your favorite radio shows are on AM radio, like many talk and all-news stations still are, this may not be for you.

Whether I choose to use the radio function or as the remote controller for a an iTunes playlist, the convenience it offers is remarkable. Just to cite two common examples from my experience, when riding the train to work in the winter, I enjoy being able to keep my iPod in a coat pocket and clip the remote controller to my coat, so I can easily reach down and change songs/stations or the volume without fumbling to take the iPod out of a pocket (especially when the train is packed like a sardine can). When I'm doing yard work, I can clip my iPod safely out of the way along the back of my belt and keep the remote clipped up near my neck, also to easily change songs/stations and volume (and let me tell you, when I stop running the lawn mower, being able to lower the volume quickly and easily is nice, as it has to be cranked up pretty high to be heard over the roar of the mower, but once that's shut off, that volume level is annoying).

For the added convenience and functionality the radio remote offers to iPod users, it's a great investment.