iPod Car Integration Reality Check at Apple Expo 176
An anonymous reader writes "At the last Apple special event, Steve Jobs was almost bragging about the fact that 70% of new cars sold in the U.S. this year had (optional!) iPod 'integration' available ...
Obviously, he didn't talk about the rest of the world. But most of all, what Steve didn't tell us is how crappy the existing "integration" solutions actually are!
Here is a review of actual iPod car integration solutions showcased Apple Expo 2006 Paris.
Some of the nicest cars (like the Audi TT for example) don't necessarily have the best iPod interfaces."
Not terrible. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not terrible. (Score:4, Informative)
Honda Music Link (Score:5, Informative)
After being burned by the purchase of the Honda Music Link earlier in the year I wrote up that review to try and keep others from throwing away their money on it.
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Honda would have been better off just providing an AUX input in the glove compartment. How hard would that have been? They even managed to put an AUX on the front panel of the new Civics, for frak's sake.
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Those sound terrible. They're inherently muddy because you can't get the head gap down to the point that you get any HF response no matter how you design it. The best you could to is design an EQ circuit to compensate, but nobody does that....
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I just fitted one yesterday. Bloody crap. Hissing, poor frequency response. Why we can't just have a low level 3.5mm jack socket... oh, cause then the garages wouldn't be able to charge £250 for fitting it. Silly me.
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New cars still come with tape players?
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It'll do until I decide to really rip the thing apart and put in a new receiver.
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Sadly, they still do.
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2006 Audi come w CD and Tape decks! (Score:2)
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You actually care what kind of stereo your car comes with?
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I'm not that big a fan of commercial music. I'm no audiophile. My CD collection is very small. I have no interest in filling a drive with MP3s or AACs or whatever. I'd use an iPod to record conversations or as a portable alternative boot drive.
My Honda Fit Sport came with a CD player that can also play MP3-CDs, and has an aux-in
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Who said anything about a system that will set off car alarms from block away?
But I've seen what the mfrs put in. They's the stereo equivelant of an E-machine. Personally the factory system wasn't even close. I don't need something that will make me deaf, but I want something that I can actually hear with the top down, at 70 MPH.
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Happy to say you don't. I have a Jeep Liberty and you can get the IPOD2CAR.
I have it and love it. I got fed up with using FM Modulators as mine didn't come with a cassette adapter. Took longer to figure out where to run the cable than to install the unit.
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With the price of blank CDs nowadays, it`s not too much hassle to burn a big stack of them and swap them around every now and again, i have a spindle of about 70 CD's full of music sitting near the changer in the trunk.
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I would love it if I could make it so that my car controls could command the ipod.
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VW +iPod = Lackluster Integration (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:VW +iPod = Lackluster Integration (Score:4, Funny)
You're talking about a country that worships Hasselhoff's music, so they are clearly tone deaf. I hope it was a rhetorical question...
Re:VW +iPod = Lackluster Integration (Score:5, Interesting)
I've also found that if you start playing something, pause it and then connect the iPod in the car, you can continue to listen to what was paused. It's not much, but it helps when you have a specific artist or album in mind while on the go.
I thought that the "on the go" playlist was going to save me. My plan was to just add stuff to the OTG list in an effort to gain more flexibility. Unfortunately the OTG playlist always becomes the last playlist on my 4th gen iPod. I even tried prefixing everything else with a 'z' but OTG is always at the bottom.
Nissan Integration works well. (Score:3, Interesting)
It plugs into an extra coupling on the Satellite connection. From there it goes to a "magic box" which has a standard docking cable attachment.
My iPod charges and plays while hooked up. While the stereo controls are not intuitive, forum help was great, I can select ANY playlist I want. I can skip forward and back with the steering wheel controls and control the volume as well. To change playlist I have to use the far
Re:VW +iPod = Lackluster Integration (Score:4, Funny)
Dear natural1,
In spite of your Folk Implosion-inspired name, bite us royally.
Sincerely,
Johann Sebastian Bach
Richard Wagner
Johannes Brahms
Ludwig van Beethoven
Joseph Haydn
The entire Strauss family
Klaus Meine and the rest of the guys from Scorpions
(Okay, some of those are Austrian, but still, ...)
Can we at least get links to quality blogs? (Score:5, Informative)
To save others from the same pain, here's a quick summary: the vast majority of iPod integrations work either by pretending the iPod is a CD changer, or by sending RDS (radio data stream, I think - it's the stuff that piggybacks song info onto the AM/FM signal) to the radio. Which means they all still suck. It's cumbersome to navigate stuff and you don't get the info you expect (songname, etc). We get promises that next year, everything will be better, but we heard all that stuff last year already.
In short, if you want to use your iPod in your car now, use your headset. And if you live in California, just hope the cops don't catch you.
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doesn't matter... (Score:2)
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because they have that brand of mp3 player? w
Re:Can we at least get links to quality blogs? (Score:5, Insightful)
People take their hand off the steering wheel all that time, ever heard of something called "shifting geers"? Seriously, people make a big deal about taking your hands off the wheel, but that isn't what's dangerous, what's dangerous is focusing your attention elsewhere for any length of time. Those fancy iPod controls might be right on the steering wheel, yes, but if the system is combersomb and frusterating to operate, then it's going to be far more distracting and dangerous than "taking your hand off the wheel" to operate an interface you've used for years. None of the systems I've seen offer a "simpler" (meaning less pushing of buttons) interface than the iPod itself. And most car stereo buttons are no bigger than the buttons on a click wheel, not that button size really matters anyway.
It's myths like this that lead people to buy hands-free cellphone systems, even though they've been proven to be no safer than using a normal cellphone in the car. The only point to total car integration is that it feels snazy and looks pretty, although I'd say my homemade integration system (which uses the iPod for control) feels pretty snazy, maybe partly because I built it up myself.
Now, what's important is that the iPod is positioned in a static, secure place that doesn't require fumbling around for it (like trying to feel where you last put it on the passanger's seat). I've created a little mount for my iPod belt clip (a Vaja case) right on the top of the stereo head unit, that way it's always in the same place when I reach over for it, and it's no farther away than the stereo or temperature controls. I can quickly hit the forward and back buttons like I would on any car stereo, or if I'm at a stop light, I can quickly lift it off its mount (attatched with a modified rivet clip on the back of the case), and pull it right in front of me for more in depth control. In this case, I can choose my own level of involvement with the UI according to the particular driving situation.
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Besides, that crap on the steering wheel encourages poor hand positioning. I like to drive at 10&2 as per my driving lessons way back (or the one-handed 12 o'clock position). Never do I have my fingers or thumbs anywhere near the area o
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I love stick shifts, but the average commute in the US is not very conducive to having a clutch. It is mostly stop-and-go freeway driving on big, straight roads. You would burn out a clutch pretty quickly. Also, many Americans drive trucks, which sort of takes the fun element away from the stick shift. I know that they also save gas, but if the truck driver cared about that then they wouldn't buy a truck. Let's face it, even at $3/gallon, gas is cheap here compared to Europe.
It's also hard to eat when you
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Not if you know how to drive.
Also, many Americans drive trucks, which sort of takes the fun element away from the stick shift.
How is a 275+ horsepower pickup that eats most "sports cars" (yes, I mean Mustangs and the like) from a stop or rolling start not fun? Unless you're talking about those little 1/4 ton "trucks" with the 4 and 6 speeds in them.
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I'm pretty sure that you are just trying to bait me, but how exactly does one avoid burning out the clutch if the average speed on the road is less than idle in first gear? Or if it is stop-and-go? You've developed some way to get rolling without the clutch?
As for the trucks, I was referring to the 99.99% of trucks on the road that Americans are driving, not the sport truck that you describe. And while your sport truck might have nice straight-road times, I'd hate to see it on
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Ofcourse idling along slowly with the brakes applied to keep your speed down very quickly grinds your pads away.
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Jackass. I'm the only one who's going to read your stupid comment, and I live in New York City and don't even own a car. When I did commute, it was to a place where taking public transport would take 1.5 hours vs. 30 minutes by car and I drove a 99HP stick-shift 40MPG Saturn. Before that I lived next to work and, while I OWNED a car, I filled it perhaps once a month since I walked to work.
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Do you actually drive a car? Integration is the *whole point*.
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Because the ipod does its job of being a music player very well. With the smart playlist feature, it does a good job of managing a playlist of songs that I want to hear. Also, there are many ways to integrate an ipod into my car's stereo, I haven't seen any other MP3 players that have as many options available as the ipod does.
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I'm planning on getting one of these sets for CDs and iPoding in the car.
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Because I have 19 Gigs of music and normally just hit play and let it go. The only time I hook up my iPod is to charge it or if I deplete my bank account of $0.99. My main playlist is a Smart Playlist with only music over 3 stars rating. Which rig
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An iPod can also be used as a USB storage too, so you could plug it in to the same usb port and play the mp3 files stored on it.
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the sony protocol means that the track name, artist and album names are all fed to the head unit properly, so the head unit can show you them as you like.
the only thing that particularly
It could be worse... (Score:2, Interesting)
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I was expecting static and/or a crappy signal (including shipping I think I paid $10CAD), but was pretty impressed with what I got for my money. My mp3 player doesn't play+charge by USB simultaneously, but if yours does you can also use the USB adaptor (or firewire on some models) to keep the thing powered up while you're on the road.
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You dont have to carry a radio from your house and plug it into your car, so why have do you have to physically carry your ripped tracks between house and car?
"iPod integration" is actually "audio disintegration", your iTunes tracks are not integratable with any other media devices.
This thing is getting there.
http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/product_i nfo.php?cPath=4&products_id=1260 [advancedmp3players.co.uk]
Click/steering wheel? (Score:5, Funny)
"Honey, why are we driving in circles?"
"I wanted to listen to some Frank Zappa, but we're still in the L's"
Or, worse yet...
"Dammit, I can't change songs because there's a semi along side me!"
What defines iPod integration? (Score:2)
aftermarket receivers and iPod integration (Score:2)
The default list gives me Genre, Artist, Song, and Album. Selecting Genre lets me choose the genre and then artists within the genre, so that's my preferred method of finding a given song.
The display shows two lines of song info; I leav
Revenge of the car-poor (Score:3, Insightful)
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My little Samsung plugs right in and plays oggs with no quality loss.
That is, until the signal gets to my tinny door-speakers.
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my next move? wire in a new connection directly to my amp to play my mp3 player. as long as the amp doesn't send 200+ watts to my mp3 player, we should be okay
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subaru (Score:2, Insightful)
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Take a look at the design of the Mazda 6 before you say it's easy to do.
First, unless you like Bose, you have to rip out everything.
Second, you need to keep the car working, which isn't easy since half the climate controls go through the stereo link.
Third: the console design leaves little room for a hack-job.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it is do-able. But in some cars, and it seems to be more and more common, it is being made more and more difficult.
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Theme Music (Score:3, Funny)
Remember, the point of this technology is to let you keep your hands on the wheel at all times - safer driving, you know.
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"I was doing fine, until it started playing some Crash Worship."
Go Bluetooth (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.tomtom.com/products/features.php?ID=212 &Category=0&Lid=4 [tomtom.com]
Alpine iPod (Score:2, Informative)
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The best way to integrate an iPod with your car is to buy a deck. Works with all makes and models. I don't know why you'd spend that much on an iPod and then keep your stock deck anyway.
I'm quite happy with my homemade interface... (Score:4, Insightful)
There is one option that he forgot to mention, when going over a final rundown of solutions to use: the generic, CD changer interface that doesn't try to read a specific playlist, and you simply control it with your iPod. Seriously, there is NO better interface to control an iPod than the iPod itself, and I'm sorry, but the difference between an interface display with a 10 point font and a 12 point font is really insignificant (especially when one you can hold right in front of you when operating it), so just use the fucking iPod itself.
What I've done, on my '99 Camry, was I bought a "Blitzsafe" iPod adaptor, which plugs into the generic CD Changer port behind the console. I then built a little custom mount, using a modified Vaja case "rivet clip", to be able to quickly pull the iPod in and out of the mount, and attatched it to the top of my dashboard. This way, the rivet clip itself, on my case, acts as the mounting bracket. I left enough cable so that I can pull the iPod up to my face (while at a traffic light, or during light traffic), and operate it normally. If I'm just switching tracks, I'll just use the clickwheel. I've never seen a simpler, more reliable, safer, and more user-friendly iPod integration system than this.
Basically, all I'm trying to say is that with a little research and some ingenuity, anyone can create something far better, and far cheaper than the ones shown here. Everyone has their own way of using their iPod: some people use playlists, others don't, some people put their iPod in a leather case, some put it in a clear rubber one, some (stupid people) don't put the iPod in any case and let it scratch to hell. From what I've noticed, is that most these iPod integration systems virtually require that you 1) use playlists (I don't) and 2) not have your iPod in a case. My suggestion, build your own out of generics if you have the time, then you can customize it to your own style of usage.
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yeah, that was probably a bit harsh. It's just annoying when I hear people complain about their iPod getting scratched up. Well, duh. I don't have any problem with people not using a case, just don't complain about it. You've taken measures to protect yours, which is all I was saying.
My thoughts were that most iPod cases come with a belt clip and many people are searching for a way to mount their iPod in the car... so why not just combine the two, and mount a loop or clip system on the dash of the car? It
only a few have high-quality iPod integration (Score:2, Informative)
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The setup has a couple different modes where you can browse through artists, playlists, and albums (i think). The downside is that the system is slow. scrolling through artists took a couple seconds to do, so obviously looking through a long list is not practical. I have s
Bad reporting (Score:4, Informative)
The sound is fine, since it goes directly from the connector on the iPod into the car stereo. It looks somewhat like a CD changer to the car, but that's only of consequence if you use playlists (I listen to full albums). You have full control over the iPod by scrolling through the album/artist lists and choosing an album or artist that suits you. Installation is relatively painless and allows you to manipulate the ipod fairly safely. I think it's the best interface out there. Another great use of this interface is that it charges your iPod as you play.
There are many other units; some are better than others. But this writer is blissfully unaware of the actual good interfaces that are out there.
And I agree with another poster here about the Honda interface. I paid almost $200 for it, and the interface is so awful on it that my wife refuses to use it. It's beyond bad. It stretches into that territory that is so comically bad that you have to wonder what product line manager looked at it and said "Oh, that's not so bad, we can ship".
Use the satellite radio interface not the CD one (Score:5, Informative)
For us people that want our SatRad *and* iPod there are interfaces that will allow easy switching between the iPod and the SatRad.
Just like everything else... (Score:3, Insightful)
iPod Hookup (Score:4, Informative)
Anyways, that worked well for me!
Cheers.
And how! (Score:2)
The iPod is, effectively, treated as a 6 disk analog CD changer, with the first five playlists (alphabetically) and the whole library comprising the virtual "disks." No track info is displayed, just numbers. And if a playlist (or the library) has more than 100 tracks, then you only get the track%100, which makes skipping around (which you do a track at a time with th
I like the Nissan iPod integration (Score:2)
Here are my wishes:
#1 - I wish I had more control from the steering wheel. I can't scan through playlists or artists or whatever with the steering wheel, I have to lean over and use one of the knobs or arrow buttons.
#2 - I wish I could navigate into Artist then Album. You only have one level of navigation. However, in my case I long ago had set up a playlist for every album I have on my iPod. I did it because there were way too many
The physical interfaces suck (Score:3, Interesting)
I want a head unit that I stick the ipod unit into like a cassette tape.
*That* would be "iPod integration".
When did we get rechargable CD's? (Score:2)
I dunno, but this guy writing this article seems like a pissy whiner. "Pioneer didn't contact me... I'll never buy from them ever." It seems that Pioneer is making a pretty good iPod interface. I'm impressed they've maintained the same bus throughout the years... I could still plug my 12 disc CHANGER into a new head unit... along with this iPod adapter.
---from Pioneer Electronics ---
Rock on AUX Miniplug! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why aren't these standard? (Score:2)
It's still a matter of amazement to me that a stereo mini plug hasn't been a standard part of all car audio systems since, oh, about 1980 at the latest.
I mean, we're talking about a feature that would cost them pennies per unit in a device.
The only vaguely rational explanation is that they're
There's your answer... (Score:2)
Right there - re-read it again, then go google up on the story behind the "exploding Pinto"...
The gist of that story was that Ford made the Pinto with a "saddle fuel tank" - that is, the fuel tank straddled the rear drive shaft of the vehicle. When the Pinto was in a rear-end accident, there was a high probability that the axle would be pushed up and into the fuel tank. There was also a small bolt involved, but the main
Easy (Score:2)
Just strap one of these babies [apple.com] to the dash and you're good...
Head units suck. (Score:2)
The best solution (Score:2)
Once Apple takes over the car-space and has a micro computer and Wi-Fi in every new car...imagine the possibilities!
and this is apples fault, how? (Score:2)
How is this Apples fault? Not to sound like a fan boy (which I'm not) the point here is that 70% of motor manufacturers selling cars in the US are offering some level of
tried iPod, went Phatnoise (Score:2)
Re:Sick of forced imcompatibility for better brand (Score:2)
This should not be hard. (Score:2)
There isn't a standard, USB or otherwise, for selecting playlists and all the other things that people want to do in their cars.
That's really too bad, but there are standards if you use the right software. Tags are standardized and mounting USB or Firewire file systems is not tricky. Would it be too much to ask for a customized Amarok that could query a mass storage device for music and playlists? A ten inch touch screen LCD and a volume knob would work that interface. Yes, people have made Amarok wo
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Its a box he can tick - whether its a big tick or a little
one (or a wobbly upside down one) is irrelevant.
This is not, as some have claimed, the Jobs distortion
field. Any marketer I know would be crowing the same
way.
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