Comment Re:What's the draw? (Score 1) 422
The entire car stereo interface thing has been a sore point with me for many years now. Cars are sold w/"ipod interfaces" that somehow translate your car stereo's Fast Forward to an "Apple Fast Forward"? "Random" has to be translated to "Shuffle"? What the hell is that? And doesn't the ipod already have an interface? If you're stuffing it in a glove box, well why the hell can't it just act like a regular old hard drive or exactly like an mp3 cd, etc? Track info should be displayed the same regardless. Skip on your stereo, whether you're doing it through your steering wheel or straight from the stereo itself should still be SKIP when reading from an ipod! Why do you need an interface for an interface for an interface? Ridiculous.
Then there are the stereos with aux inputs (though there aren't enough) which are described as ipod interfaces. Why did it take so long to put in an aux input in a car stereo? And what do they have that is specific to an ipod? They could have been used long before the first mp3 player came about. People could have been plugging in their walkmans in the 80s if they wanted. It's not as though the input is a new technology. Regardless, this is the preferred input as far as I am concerned. There is nothing going on between the devices other than audio I/O, which is exactly as it should be. Myself, I don't sit there interfacing with my ipod as I drive...at the most, I skip a song I don't feel like hearing at the time.
I'm sure there are a few car stereo models out there that allow plugging in a USB key by now, simply reading the files off the drive...But why isn't it more ubiquitous? And why has it taken so long? I should be able to go buy an external HD of just about any type, put crap on it, and plug it in to the stereo with USB. Any usb. Not just some company's weird proprietary connection. If the crap on the drive is tagged, then the info will show up in the stereo interface, just as it would with a data cd. All these third party devices are stupid. FM transmitters suck. All of them. Give me a direct audio connection that doesn't spend more time checking the law than it does playing audio. That's all I want. Who the heck cares what someone is listening to in their car? This should be one of the loosest environments for media that exists! My 15 min drive to work should belong to ME, not a record company, not a computer company, not a tv network. If you need to listen to Apple's format in your car, then get apple to make a car stereo! Or allow car stereo manufacturers to put the codec in their stereos. It's the way it always has been (Well, since the cassette anyway). But now there are companies actually convincing people that they are somehow making things more convenient for them with these plastic add ons that get traded for other addons whenever there's an ipod upgrade, filling landfills everywhere. It's insane. The entire INTEGRATION concept has been hijacked. There is no good reason to even NEED to connect to a RS232 controller interface, whatever the fsck that is...
ME: Here's my data. Can you see my data?
DEVICE: Yes.
ME: Do you have what you need to play the data?
DEVICE: Umm. Some of it, Yes.
ME: Well then play what you can, and show me the tags as you do it.
DEVICE: Sure thing. You're the boss.
It's insane that it doesn't work that way.
Or maybe it's just me.
Then there are the stereos with aux inputs (though there aren't enough) which are described as ipod interfaces. Why did it take so long to put in an aux input in a car stereo? And what do they have that is specific to an ipod? They could have been used long before the first mp3 player came about. People could have been plugging in their walkmans in the 80s if they wanted. It's not as though the input is a new technology. Regardless, this is the preferred input as far as I am concerned. There is nothing going on between the devices other than audio I/O, which is exactly as it should be. Myself, I don't sit there interfacing with my ipod as I drive...at the most, I skip a song I don't feel like hearing at the time.
I'm sure there are a few car stereo models out there that allow plugging in a USB key by now, simply reading the files off the drive...But why isn't it more ubiquitous? And why has it taken so long? I should be able to go buy an external HD of just about any type, put crap on it, and plug it in to the stereo with USB. Any usb. Not just some company's weird proprietary connection. If the crap on the drive is tagged, then the info will show up in the stereo interface, just as it would with a data cd. All these third party devices are stupid. FM transmitters suck. All of them. Give me a direct audio connection that doesn't spend more time checking the law than it does playing audio. That's all I want. Who the heck cares what someone is listening to in their car? This should be one of the loosest environments for media that exists! My 15 min drive to work should belong to ME, not a record company, not a computer company, not a tv network. If you need to listen to Apple's format in your car, then get apple to make a car stereo! Or allow car stereo manufacturers to put the codec in their stereos. It's the way it always has been (Well, since the cassette anyway). But now there are companies actually convincing people that they are somehow making things more convenient for them with these plastic add ons that get traded for other addons whenever there's an ipod upgrade, filling landfills everywhere. It's insane. The entire INTEGRATION concept has been hijacked. There is no good reason to even NEED to connect to a RS232 controller interface, whatever the fsck that is...
ME: Here's my data. Can you see my data?
DEVICE: Yes.
ME: Do you have what you need to play the data?
DEVICE: Umm. Some of it, Yes.
ME: Well then play what you can, and show me the tags as you do it.
DEVICE: Sure thing. You're the boss.
It's insane that it doesn't work that way.
Or maybe it's just me.
