Nothing kills a freeway Pandora jam session faster than the freaky-deaky alien speak that is GSM interference washing out your tunes. Once the pulsing of a GSM phone’s RF transmitter finds its way to a poorly shielded speaker, all hope of actually enjoying the music is lost.
If you’re only using the iPod functionality of your iPhone, switching the phone into airplane mode is one option. Without GSM radio, there’s no GSM interference. Of course, that also means there’s no way to transmit voice or data. Missing important calls sucks, as does not being able to stream your tunes.
Fortunately, there’s a better option: Ferrite beads. Know that big cylindrical lump near the end of USB cables? That’s a ferrite bead. From Wikipedia:
“A ferrite bead is a passive electric component used to suppress high frequency noise in electronic circuits. Ferrite beads employ the mechanism of high dissipation of high frequency currents in a ferrite to build high frequency noise suppression devices. “
In other words, a ferrite bead wrapped around the output end of a speaker cable will gobble up any nasty interference, letting the good stuff roll on through untouched.
If you’re dealing with the buzz, head on over to MacLife for a run through on how to knock it out.