Yeah, I have like 300-some songs on my computer and I've gotten sick of them, so I mainly listen to Pandora or YouTube music videos.

It's fun to put iPods on "shuffle"...but it always seems all the crappy songs come up first!

I know. iTunes radio is terrible about repeTing songs.

It plugs into the stereo, plays, charges, can be controlled and even shows the song title on the stereo display.

iPods were originally FireWire devices, and FireWire provides 12v for device power.  Starting with the 3rd generation iPod, they went to the 30-pin dock connector and added USB support, and USB provides 5v for device power.  In fact, the 3rd generation iPod could only sync from USB, and had to be charged from 12v FireWire.  Starting with the iPod mini and 4th generation iPod, they could sync and charge from either USB or FireWire.  Starting with the original iPod nano and 5th generation iPod, they started moving away from FireWire, disabling FireWire syncing, but still allowing iPods to be charged from either a 5v or 12v source.  The 4th generation iPod nano and second generation iPod Touch finally eliminated the last remains of FireWire support, only allowing the iPods to be charged from a 5v source.

This car stereo was made in 2004, and iPod support was added I think in 2005, with a device that plugs into the CD changer port in the back and has a 30 pin cord running to the iPod.  The charger port supplied 12v to run the charger, and the iPod kit ran off that 12v.  Was an easy solution, and all iPods at the time could be powered off the same 12v supply.  However, 4th generation and later iPod nanos, and 2nd generation and later iPod Touches only support 5v power.  They still work with the stereo, but the iPod is left running off it's own internal battery instead of being able to take power from the stereo.

I didn't know iPods were originally 12v devices.

Interesting.  Just curious, have you guys ever heard of RDS? (Radio Data Service).

Yes, they have those on most every station here and it displays the song and artists and as well as a slogan for the station.

Yeah it's a really nice feature!

I like it too, it will finally let you figger out that mystery song they repeatedly play from time to time. Do iPhones have radio FM receivers?

I don't think iPhones do.

Dang. It'd be cool if you could see RDS on them if they can.

Apparently the wireless chip that gives an iPhone wifi and Bluetooth capability also has the capability to be an FM tuner.  That function is not enabled in software.  However iPhones don't have an FM antenna or amplifier circuit for an antenna.  If I remember correctly, to use the FM function in iPod nanos that have it requires having earphones to be plugged in.  It uses the earphone cord as an antenna.

I had an app for one of my local radio stations a while back and it played it's music. That was on my i potato 3GS three years ago though.

Yeah I've heard the headphone cord thing too.  You could in theory have best reception with earphones with a long cord then!
I wonder how good the reception would actually be, period? Here reception matters.  A place like Fairbanks has a pretty FM dial full of locals so it doesn't really matter.

Icefoglights, just curious, what's your opinion of the Fairbanks radio market? I think for a city that size it's surprisingly good! (At least for the commercial FMs).

I also heard that an iPhone 4 cell reception and wifi antenna was its case (not the case of the unit, a case you buy at the store.) Is That true.

The iPhone 4's antenna was the metal frame around the outside.  Holding it could effect reception, so they made an insulating case to prevent that.