[mishap]

"Alpine’s iPod Ready in-dash receivers will allow iPod users seamless control of up to 10,000 songs easily in their car," said Stan Ng, Apple’s Director of iPod Product Marketing. "Being able to display song information and browse the iPod’s entire music library right from the Alpine head unit makes this a superior way to enjoy non-stop music in the car."


http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publi...icle_650.shtml

[Timo]

Hmm...cool, but an ugly head unit.

Strangely, while I'm cool on it, the wife might go for it.

[tooki]

*yawn*

Old news. This was announced at CES, which was the same time as Macworld Expo this year.

tooki

[SomeToast]

Originally posted by tooki:
*yawn*

Yes, but that was just a press release. This is the first I've seen a picture of the unit itself.

[JHromadka]

Originally posted by mishap:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publi...icle_650.shtml

Nifty! Any pricing info yet?

[tooki]

Originally posted by SomeToast:
Yes, but that was just a press release. This is the first I've seen a picture of the unit itself.

It's a blank gray box! And you needed a picture of it?!?

tooki

[Saddam H.]

bleh. something as nice as the ipod will connect to something as hideous as that box? bleh.

[Frumpy]

Day i bought my iPod i had a buddy of mine that works at an unamed major electronics road shop...install a mini-jack right in the dash of my van which hooks into the AUX inputs on my higher end Sony deck. Very sweet set up, especially only for $15 in parts from radio shack.

[art_director]

Originally posted by Frumpy:
Day i bought my iPod i had a buddy of mine that works at an unamed major electronics road shop...install a mini-jack right in the dash of my van which hooks into the AUX inputs on my higher end Sony deck. Very sweet set up, especially only for $15 in parts from radio shack.

hmmm...now that sounds right nice.

[KeyLimePi]

yea, that is good. Of course, this gives you the ability to control your iPod though your indash deck. Not just listen to it.

Ugly? Yes. Pricey? Almost certainly. Will I buy one? Hell yes.

Thanks for the link, mishap (and quit being a such tool, Tooki).

[tooki]

It's old news, clearly covered on all the mac news sites the day of its announcement.

And it may be an ugly box, but the point is that that box lives somewhere inside the dash -- it's not supposed to be seen.

Note also that while this is the first car audio manufacturer to announce such a unit themselves, third-party equivalents have been around for at least several months that attach to the CD changer controls of many brands of automobile factory head units, allowing control of the iPod from the factory stereo.

What I'd love to see is a head unit with a flip-down face, with a VCR-style loading mechanism that just sucks in the whole iPod and takes care of the connection.

tooki

[Frumpy]

Hahahaha. First thing i think of with that kind of device is...Oops...looks like the deck ATE my iPod...what now?! Yeeaaahh, that's what i want. A deck that eats my iPod like a VCR does to video tapes. You know that VCR's are becoming obsolete...right?

[CIA]

Do you know how hot it gets inside most head units? They make the G5 look like a refridgerator. Baked iPod anyone?

[shrink]

Tooki is dead on with this one.

First, this is old news. However, based on the initial press release last month, I'm not sure if Alpine is releasing a new line of "iPod Ready" (ala XM/Sirius Ready) headunits, of if they're just releasing that ugly white box that will connect to any existing Alpine headunit with an Ai-NET interface.

Second, despite heat issues inside a head unit, inserting the iPod "VCR-style" would be incredibly convenient. You would ideally have full control of the iPod through the headunit controls with simultaneous charging and convenient storage. You wouldn't have to mess with any extra cables or boxes. There are already harddrive based headunits available. I don't imagine this option for an iPod being too far-fetched.

[Cadaver]

Originally posted by shrink:
However, based on the initial press release last month, I'm not sure if Alpine is releasing a new line of "iPod Ready" (ala XM/Sirius Ready) headunits, of if they're just releasing that ugly white box that will connect to any existing Alpine headunit with an Ai-NET interface.

According to the product description, "the integration of iPod control into selected 2004 (emphasis mine) Alpine in-dash receivers...," sounds to me like its for new head units only.

I have an Alpine unit in my summer car, and it sounds great. I'd really love this, but I'm not sure I'm ready to replace a two-year old car stereo just yet.

[jfischetti]

I have the Ice-Link for a great iPod Solution.

The are even coming out with a one cable solution using the dock in April.

The best part about this is that it has an Amp built in so the sound output sounds great --

http://icelink.densionusa.com/

[zubro]

http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publi...icle_650.shtml