iPhone: The Missing Manual

iPod Accessories

Picking products with the "Works with iPhone" logo ensures happy shopping, but your existing iPod gear might play nice with iPhone. If you're game, keep the following advice in mind.

External Speakers

Most speaker sets that connect through the 30-pin port on the bottom of modern iPods also fit iPhone. You may need one of Apple's Universal Dock adapters—a white plastic booster seat that makes most iPod models sit securely in speaker docks—for a good fit. (And frankly, external woofers and tweeters sound infinitely better than the iPhone's tiny, tinny speaker when you really want to rock out.)

One major thing to remember, though: electronic interference. If you forget, the iPhone will remind you. If it senses you're seating it in a non-"Works with iPhone" speaker system, you'll see a message suggesting that you put it in Airplane mode. Doing so takes care of the interference, but it also prevents you for making or getting phone calls. You can blow by the warning and keep Airplane mode off, but you may get some unwanted static blasts with your music.

FM Transmitters

Those little gadgets that broadcast your iPod's music to an empty frequency on your dashboard radio are a godsend for iPodders who don't want to listen to the same 40 songs over and over on commercial radio. Unfortunately, these transmitters are not so hot for the iPhone. Again, electronic interference is an issue, unless you put the phone into Airplane mode. Transmitters that connect through the headphone jack, ...