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Pods Unite
burgburgburg writes "Apple has released the QuickTime video of the new commercial they made in conjunction with Volkswagen. The connection between the two? Buy a New Beetle. Get a new iPod. Take a look at video.
It's the 15 GB iPod and all the accessories needed to hook it up to the new Volkswagen." It uses a casette adapter, which is really lame. Of course, I use a casette adapter with my iPod, but I am not a German engineer.
Oh wait. this is the part where i am supposed to whine that it does not have Ogg Vorbis support right...?!
Would it kill these guys to put a mini-jack on the dash (or somewhere) and an AUX setting on the stereo.
Bueller? Anyone?
Hedley
Why, oh why, can't they just start giving us a 1/8th input jack on car stereos?? I've been wanting this for years, before mp3 players even, becuase I had a car that didn't have a tape player in the stereo and at the time I wanted to plug one in.
You'd think that designing and implementing such a thing would cost a fraction of what it costs to make and run this advertisent.
I would like to see some kind of poll of which is more useful to people.. a tape player or a 1/8th inch stereo input jack. After all, you can plug an external tape player into a jack easier, with more elegance, and for about the same cost as you can plug an external mp3 player into the tape player.. and I don't have any tapes anymore...
IANAGE.
http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/59f90d714e2b19/1 a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02 589f25382e353c32f94c32c9c0b6f9e0e7de154b32896ff73d 8057bf2/pods_unite_m480.mov
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you cat fanatics? I've been sitting here on my sofa in front of a cat (a sealpoint siamese) for about 20 minutes now while attempting to get it's attention away from a bug on the floor. 20 minutes. At home, with my labrador cross, which by all standards should be a lot dumber than this cat, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that.
In addition, during this attention seeking attempt, my children's attention is also held by the cat. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even trying to get the remote from my partner fails.
I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while dealing with other cats, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a cat that fetches as much as it's canine counterpart, despite the cat's faster ambulatory system. My terrier with one ingrown toenail runs consistently faster than this siamese at times, as the cat is often completely asleep. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that the cat is a superior animal.
Cat addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use a cat over other faster, cheaper, more affectionate animals.
i just bought an ipod. do i get a new beetle?
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
So Is there a car with Firewire or USB connectivity from the manufacturer ?? If not how long before we see it ?
BTW I think this will be better than those in car removable hard drive solutions from 2-3 years ago
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
If someone can afford to lay down the money for a new VW, couldn't they afford to get a new ipod if they really wanted to? I wonder then whether this is more of a promotion for apple than VW.
It was inevitable, really. When two groups of people have so much in common, eventually they find each other. Volkswagen and Apple. Buy a New Beetle. Get a new iPod.
I wonder if all these 30somethings enjoy being such an easy demographic to market to.
I'm thinking of getting an iPod at some point, but I only run Linux (on x86). Does Apple support Linux connectivity?
Granted, Most of the people on Slashdot are so concerned with there geek/nerd image to buy this car(I am among them).
Now... I think Apple is winning here... They get to expose even more people to there products. Remember... The people who buy these cars are your teeny bopper 16 year old girls... It is afterall a fashion statement.
Way to go Apple... What would of been nicer would of been a "matching" iPOD for the car. While we are at it... lets get an iPOD with every car we buy!
I use a cassette adapter to use my Rio in my Jetta because of no usable AUX audio input. It can be less than fun putting in an aftermarket system because the stock stereo is part of the in-car network. Many dealers won't work on a car that has a different stereo even if the k-line (network link) has been severed because they have damaged expensive code scanners in the past. Seems that VW would make a standard DIN or RCA input to ease this problem.
My old 1990 Eclipse is the new home for my pioneer hu and homemade AUX input. It sounds much better than the cassette adapter interface for my mp3 player. Isn't the progress of technology marvelous?
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
This is a good thing. Many companies are indirectly promoting mp3 music, etc.
What's with all the gay comments? German engineering rocks. And the Turbo S Beetle is awesome. Have you driven one? At least it's not a rice-mobile or American junk.
Geez... Apple will never be able to compete with those prices. I think the free car helps a little though.
Buy a house, get the landscaping FREE.
Get a hotel room, and get the coffee FREE.
Buy a computer, and get a FREE floppy disk.
Buy Windows, and get wordpad FREE.
--
1-800-759-0700
Why don't they have "buy a new iPod, get a new Beetle"? Even I would jump at that opportunity. ;)
This would have been back around the '94 model year or so (on a friend's car, not mine). As I remember, the sound was not great, but certainly better than any of the tape adaptors available at the time. No idea why they ditched it...probably so they could sell you their $349 single-CD player, or $699 changer...
If irritating yuppie culture were sugar, this apple-VW synergy would give me tons upon tons of diabetes.
If I could make this sig kill you, I would.
For all the people who do not want a cassette adaptor. Check out the ITrip. I need to order one of these. My brother stated that he has good luck with it. http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/itrip/
Soon, when Beetles are cheaper than iPODs, I'm gonna go get one.
--
god i love my ipod sometimes i just hold it in my hand and carress it mmmmm seriously though, i don't really care what any of my anti-fruit zealot friends say. apple has the best damned mp3 player in the world for sale on their website. i wouldn't trade it for the world.
AFAIK the beetle is designed in the US and since this is totally US-specific I guess no German engineers were involved whatsoever. I mean, if they were, then they propably wouldn't have use the casette-adaptor anyway. (Especially since noone uses cassettes in Europe anymore. Boo hiss, old, ancient!)
still waiitng for the Beetle with an Imac style flat panel popping out the top. 100 inches or so to keep the proportions...
This isn't VW's big pull to align with apple (obviously the thing interacts through a tape deck). This is a gimick. They going to throw in a chop-o-matic too?
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
The holster is a bit hokey... would it kill apple/vw to design the ipod so that it can go inside a slot fairly deep such that only the lcd screen is showing? I'm thinking on top of the dash, kinda like a toaster. If necessary, the ipod should be able to rotate the image on its screen accordingly (for upside-down or sideways installations).
I wonder if the car can control the ipod - i.e. fast forward, rewind, etc. The older-style remote protocol is documented here so that you can build an interface to anything you want. It includes nice pictures & working source code!
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Yes, but does the cassette adapter work in one of those 8-track adapters? You know the ones; they plug into the 8-track slot on your dashboard and you can put a cassette in them.
The website has been stating "shipping soon" for a very long time now. At any rate, this could be an easier connection than a tape cassette, except for the possible trade-off of sound quality.
-jc
It comes FAT-formatted (I don't know if there's HFS support on GNU/Linux) so you can mount it like any other drive and use f.e. gnupod to manage songs. I'm doing this on FreeBSD with 2nd gen 10-gig ipod through firewire.
Slashdot will advertise anything thats trollbait
When CDs started becoming more popular, the tape-players had aux inputs meant for discman-type players. Then they switched to in-dash CD players and dropped the inputs... now they're being caught behind the MP3-player curve again and are trying to re-add the input. With a car lifespan so long, you'd think that car manufacturers should give up trying to predict what personal electronic trends will be 15 years in the future, and just add the jack to all radios.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
If you don't have a CD Changer installed, you use this adapter. It will change the CD wiring to a standard RCA plug. It also provides a serial line, which with some hacking can be used to control your iPod from the head unit.
In 2003 beetles, the CD Changer is prewired to be installed between the seats (remove the insert). In the older models, it's wired to the trunk. There are also adapters that plug in behind the head unit, rather than using the cd cabling.
This way you don't need to use a FM transmitter or casette adapter, and you don't need to change the stock radio (and run into the K-wire problem)
I use Macs to up my productivity, so up yours Microsoft!
I remember very specifically, for when I saw it, I went off on a giant geek tirade at the dealer, asking why this hasn't been as standard as the AC plug on every single car in the world for many years. (Conspiracy for 3rd party decks?)
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
...and here I thought it was a call to arms for us pod-people :(
I'll venture a guess. Nobody really cares. This is a promotional ad for volkswagon and apple. This isn't news and it doesn't matter.
http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/videoc/http/benn00 1/benn001_http_300_ref.mov
hey, if you get a new Mac bunded with an iPod and an HP printer, yu get a 300 dollor rebate on your purchase...basicly, an free printer and iPod (you can just get an iPod or just a printer if you like for a 200/100 dollor rebate respectivy)
what allso kicks ass is the 5-15% reduction in prices.....finance an e-mac with the super drive and get it for 10 bucks a month!!!
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
I have a car stereo that accepts 1/8 input...they are out there.
Blaupaunkt made mine...
Damn, that sucks. Especially when the commercial kinda makes it look (to my unfamiliar-with-VW eye) like the iPod is a little better integrated with the stereo than that. Oh well.
:-(
Depending on what kind of stereo you've got, you may be able to get an auxiliary input cable adapter. I got one from XMFanstore for the OEM stereo in my car, which has an unused aux connector for a CD changer-- the adapter I bought just ends in female RCA jacks, so you can hook up pretty much any audio input to it. Maybe one of these days I'll be in the mood to take the center console apart and pull the stereo out to connect that cable. Until then, I'm using a crappy cassette adapter.
Another product I'll be getting when it's available is this RF iPod remote control. I plan to run the cable to a storage compartment in the console, so the iPod will be out of sight/the way but I'll still be able to control it.
I agree with the "Why aren't they putting God damned input jacks on car stereos yet?" sentiment. What we really need are car stereos and MP3 players with Bluetooth, so they can connect that way. Of course, then you'd have short battery life without plugging the MP3 player into an auto power adapter-- but at least pretty much every car has someplace to plug one of those in.
~Philly
However, pudge is an expert at being lame.
It's not to hard to rig up a custom set up yourself. For most stereos you can at least get an adapter to allow aux inputs. On mine it runs through the cd changer controls to the aux input adapter. Then that runs to my belkin auto charger which has a little amp in it. The auto charger is spliced into the cigarette lighter, but this is all under the dash so all you see coming out is the data cable from the belkin charger. And the vent clip on cell phone holder that they sell at radio shack is a perfect fit for the iPod. Here is a pic of the setup. My iPod Setup
-Alex
i'm just fine with my setup. my ipod plugs in to the AUX port on the faceplate of my aiwa deck in my toyota corolla.
cassette adapters are a joke.
hey, fuck you. VW's are good cars, and iPods are well...neat toys :)
I've driven pretty much every late model VW that there is, and every single one that had an OEM stereo had incredibly terrible sound, this for a car that is basically bought and marketed towards younger people who DO play music. In a new Jetta for example, the sound was so bad I couldn't even belive that was possible. My 1993 Cherokee puts out better sound, and the two rear speakers don't even work, and to top that I'm using a tape adapter as well. So, I wouldn't even want to put an iPod in there at all... who says it has to live in your car? It would just be a waste since the sound systems stink so much.
Oh, I know, maybe you thought they were giving away the ipods.
For a group that does a lot of whining about generic music a la britney spears every time the music debates come up, slashdot sure has a nice way of playing the marionette whenever some new pseudo-kitsch gadget or anime box set comes out..
You're at the VW dealership, and you climb inside the brand new Beetle. And you see this little white thing near the stereo. You ask the dealer what that's all about, he encourages you to play with it. You see that it's filed with literally thousands of songs that you can play in the car's stereo instantly. You ask. He says it's yours with the car. You go across the street to anotehr car dealer. Inside the car you find the usual CD player with some lame CD they stuck in there. Just one CD at a time. It's all about overwhelming the prospective buyer with the experience. And the idea of all the music you could ever need at your fingertips is definitely a compelling one.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
This is a promotion conceived in the marketing department, not the engineering department.
If you're paying MSRP for any vehicle then you should get more than a "free" $500 iPod to get your money's worth.
1. Consider $1000 profit to the dealer is ok. Get the invoice price from people like the Automobile Protection Association, add $1k and negotiate the MSRP down. Use the $1000's you save on an iPod, iMac, iPaq, blah blah blah.
2. Before (1) consult "Lemon-Aid" by Phil Edmunston. Realize that the headaches involved with a given series of cars (ie their quality history) aren't even worth the lower negotiated price.
3. Buy a Toyota Camry second-hand off a rental company.
thats what the small text says towards the end while the camera zooms out from the iPod. :)
Like someone else said, the whole advertising thing was obviously made by the marketing people and not the engineers. Well you can add the legal dept. people to those that didnt come up with the idea
PhatBox
I know, it's not cheap and doesn't support vorbis files and the manager is Windows only.
But to me the ability to control it through my factory head unit makes that a non-issue.
It does support mp3, wma, flac and audible.
If I wasn't leasing my car I would have gotten one as soon as Audi officially supported and started installing them.
I've also been asking for years why car companies dont create an interface (most likely in the stereo) that would allow you to connect your cellphone to a mic built into your sunvisor or rearview mirror, and your car speakers?
All it would take would be for manufacturers to decide on the jack type, and walla, no more need for fools getting in car wrecks because they are driving one handed and/or looking down at their phones, trying to dial a number.
add in a cellphone with voice dialing, and some features to control your stereo with voice commands and you have a sure winner, after a very trivial manufacturer cost...
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms,
Weird that they're pushing this, since the beetle is being discontinued
I bought a 92 Honda Accord from a friend, and she had installed a Blaupunkt CD stereo. The cool thing about this stereo is that it has an aux in cable that is connected to the stero and ends up in the glove box. I have a 2nd generation 10gig iPod and I connect it to the stero using this cable- and leave the iPod in the glove box playing away. There is a button on the stereo that lets you choose the source of the music, aux, cd, or stero. It's a nice set up. You might want to check out the Blaupunkts to see if they fit your needs.
I think the iPod is cool, but it just doesn't work in a car. So I went with an in-trunk HDD player that has adapters for Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, and VW head units to make it appear to be either a Siruis radio or multi-disc CD changer. The only cable is hidden in your car just like an ordinary in-trunk disc changer.
When I want to sync music, I slide the unit out of the trunk and slide it into a USB bay connected to my Mac. The disk mounts on the desktop. It all works fairly well.
Since the unit is in the trunk, it's not sitting in a cup-holder in plain view as a tasty morsel to a passer-by theif.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
I put a Panasonic CD player into my first car ('81 Crown Victoria--a tank) and it had a 1/8 input jack in it. I had no use for it, though. I'd often plug a microphone in and do the whole, "Good evening ladies and gentleman. We'll be driving at..." bit.
I now have a new car and a new stereo, but no input jack. Why?!?!?!?
if they offered this with the new Toureg i'd be all over it...
if i had the money. personally i prefer an old beetle say 1967 possibly 1966 with 12v conversion
moo.
Which just goes to prove my theory: German engineers love cassette adapters.
And David Hasselhoff.
Wow!
I can't be the only slashdot poster to see past the technical aspects of hooking up an iPod in a car and see one very very beautifull add. Without looking it up my guess would be that the Volkswagen people put the add together, it's in their style.
With its style & music I put it on the same level as the recent technically cool Honda add.
Some manufacturers are getting the right idea. Honda's Element has a power source (cig lighter thing) and a mini-jack input in the glove box. It also has a third power plug in the cargo area for a cooler.
Of course, the Element is targeted to the surfer wilderness crowd, but hopefully they'll start to see that other people have iPods, too.
Kevin Fox
Dear Apple:
I bought an Apple computer because of its native support for teledildonics. I bought a USB FUFME and MacOS immediately recognized it and installed drivers instantly! As a gay Catholic priest who often can't be at the altar all the time, you can understand how the ability to have sex with children whilst on the airplane with my Powerbook and wireless internet service is a lifesaver.
I just have a single question, will Apple be releasing a firewire version of the FUFME anytime soon?
With much gayness,
Father Michael "Arminass" Sims
Why do marketing people still insist in talking like this?
"It was inevitable, really. When two groups of people have so much in common, eventually they find each other. Volkswagen and Apple. Buy a New Beetle. Get a new iPod. And the kit that brings them together (plus a lot of other cool stuff like free music and a $100 Apple Store coupon). Learn more about this special deal."
I noticed that if you want to generate a feeling in the reader's mind, lots of short sentence fragments really prevent that from happening.
Dear Father Sims
Thank you for your kind letter! Being a former Catholic priest myself, I know exactly what you are talking about! It has been our dream at Apple Computers ever since we began in the 80's to shape the homosexual experience with the ultimate computer.
I can answer your letter by saying that YES we will indeed be making a firewire version of the FUFME. With the additional bandwidth offered by the firewire bus, we will be able to more accurately record and deliver more minute and subtle movements that the USB FUFME simply couldnt support due to lack of bandwidth. You will be able to recognize our firewire FUFME in stores by the fancy holographic logo of a cock entering an Apple.
We are glad to help loyal customers such as yourself. If you ever have any more questions, feel free to drop a line (or connect to my teledildonic FUFME server on fufme://cockman.apple.com).
Hugh G. Cockman President Homosexual Liaison Services Apple Computer, Inc.
IANAGE
--Joey
They said it takes two weeks to ship it to you... I didnt even know they were running this promotion until AFTER I decided to buy the car - the salesman just called me up and said 'oh, you get an iPod too', which is cool, ive been wanting one to plug into my Powerbook...
:)
They refused to ship it to a P.O. Box, which was inconvienent for me, but no big deal, we are just happy to have a nice new Yellow Bug
Cybie! aka Ralph Bonnell
Way back when the new iMac was released I had the idea that Volkswagon and Apple should team up to produce a VW Beatle with the color scheme of the iMac. Although I can't claim credit for the free iPod idea because I don't even think the iPod existed at that time.
It's nice to see that the American iPod has united with the German pod. Makes me want to dance!
a car stereo that has a "docking bay" slot in it where you can just plug in your iPod? That would be ideal, just stuff it into the dash to play your tunes in the vehicle, while charging the iPod, then take the iPod with you when you go. No need to pull the stereo out of the dash to load new music onto it either. And having an important component removable should make it less prone to theft also, as the MP3 stereos seem to be very high risk right now.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I just bought a new Bimmer at a dealership that also sells VWs. Now granted I already own an iPod and I'm sure it's just a VW promo...but I want a free Pod.
grrrr
Instead, its a lame combination of just a generic casette adapter, a generic cigarette lighter slot charger, and a bumper sticker, which they're ALWAYS out of. Instead of buying a beetle with this lame system,
I think that I can build my own. All I need is a spare iPod dock, that kit that you can use to connect to the RCA ports behind the radio, and the charger that plugs into the dock. Then, I simply attach the dock to a drink holder or something, and there is a MUCH better solution than the one that Apple/VW is offering. All I would have to do is plug the iPod into the dock, instead of messing with wires.
This is simply a great example of how the liberal "individualists" are more concerned with form over function. VW + Apple, how much further left can you get? The IPOD and the VW Bug are great products but they both share the same problem / selling point -- they are WAY overpriced. It makes no logical sense to purchase either on of them for any reason other than the way they look (or in reality how it makes YOU look -- a different individualist type that is different, just like everyone else).
Anyway, I have karma to burn. I said what I think. Bring on your pink flames made from tissue paper you liberal pussies.
I have a Blaupunkt head unit that has an AUX option and utilizes the input terminals for the CD changer. So if you didn't have a CD changer you could buy a $20 adapter that would plug into the back of the unit and had an 1/8" jack available at the other end. I really liked this feature. I am not sure if they still do this though. . .
Some do have such damned jacked ;)
... just don't like the big clunky-button transports -- I'm great at wrecking tapes with them.
... google, the random) that claims to deliver iirc 45 watts X 4 channels.
I spent a long time shopping for a car stereo, because I wanted a few things lamentably rare:
1) simple, understandable, clean-cut controls
2) logic-control tape deck (luckily now the other kind is rare, but 5 years ago, it was the other way around). Even though I rarely listen to tapes
3) Like you, an input jack.
I ended up finding an old Blaupunkt (model is "Reno," aka CM147 -- I think it came out in 1987, when it was standard equipment on Porsche 928s, it seems
Has an aux input built in, I use with a cable running out the (unused) ashtray, sometimes use my laptop as my music player.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
'nuff said.
Not sure why this was moderated troll.
The VW Bug is mostly a styling exercise around mediocre mechanicals. While the iPod is mediocre electronics with a nice user interface around it.
I know apple-kooks like to think Apple can do no wrong, but the iPods are probably 50% too high. But as apple-kooks will buy anything at any price, I guess I can't blame them.
The radio comes ready for a $30 adaptor that lets you put a mini-jack anywhere in the car (dealer installs into glovebox), and the radio lets you select the AUX input.
If I hadn't dropped my old iPod on asphalt recently and killed it, I'd have one now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sucks / Badly
You know how you drive through tunnels or near an airport and get all that static on the radio? Well, imagine that same experience every second you have your portable playing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The way to use the iPod in a car system would be just to mount it as a firewire drive - then the player could just play whatever was on it. It would simply bypass all the iPod controls and treat it as a dumb device...
I think that would be the ultimate car stereo system, plus the system itself could be cheaper without a HD of it's own.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I was just thinking about this the other day. This would be the "killer app" that would make me buy an iPod. I want an iPod dock built into my dash. Maybe a head unit consisting of a flip down display with a big 8-track-like recepticle for my iPod. Play tunes while I drive, using controls on my dash, just like a car stereo, then pop it out and carry it around while I'm at work.
Belkin is building part of the 'connectivity kit'.
Knowing the general build quality of modern VWs and Audis, I can't imagine they'd suffer the cassette adapter on buyers. I'm sure an AUX input adapter thingy for the iPod is in the works.
I put a Kenwood unit in my g/f's car that had that feature too. But it plays MP3 CDs anyway, so it's not terribly necessary to be able to hook up an MP3 player.
If the world's safest compact, and the world's highest capacity sub 6 oz mp3 player, are underperforming technologies, I wonder what you consider the par to be.
You see, there are many different directions engineering goes in. Making faster engines or bigger SUVs is one direction. Making efficient engines and safer small cars is another. Making a high capacity hard drive is one. Making a regular capacity hard drive light enough to carry around is another.
But maybe you're right. Maybe there are some things we just shouldn't bother engineering. So, you know, all of these "feed the world" biotech kooks and "reduce the depletion of our natural resources" solar energy kooks should just give up.
Oh, and as for the "50% too high" comment: fuck you. You don't know what the margin is, know less about business than you do about engineering and Apple shouldn't drop the prices that are keeping them alive just to appease people who don't want an iPod anyway. My 30 gb iPod was the easiest $538.92 I ever spent (after selling four shitty mp3 players that were too big, bulky, poorly designer or low capacity, I found myself with over $600...enough to buy a couple CDs, too).
Hey freaks: now you're ju
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/themichaelsmith/VWHi Res.mpg
I prefer a void in conversation to a vacuous one.
http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/59f90d714e2b19/1 a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02 589f25382e353c32f94c32c9c0b6f9e0e7de154b32896ff73d 8057bf2/pods_unite_m480.mov
How come I can't get an iPod? Ah, screw it. I'm having enough trouble just figuring out how to use the stereo. Do you think I can ask Apple to send me a victrola if I pull up to the dealership in a 1961 Beetle?
I like the Jetta, but, I have to admit that the older the Beetle, the cooler it is. Those new Beetles are cute, but the old ones just run forever.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
This is might be an interesting poll: How many Beetle drivers out there own an iPod already? Are we lured by design but stay for the quality? Granted, both the Beetle and the iPod have their problems but overall I'm happy with both.
Given that you'd have a custom device that would be mounting the iPod, adding a bit of code to see the MP3 files would be simple - there are a number of utilities that let you get at these files on a Mac as it is. They aren't inaccessible, just normally not visible. They are still in the filesystem though.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Is this really a good idea? Now instead they promote people driving along perpetually scrolling through their thousands of mp3s (or in the case of the waspy teenyboppers, their two-hundred item list of whatever Carson Daly tells them is cool), squinting at an LCD display while on the road. Do we really need another electronic distraction to be insisted upon these consumers?
I have alfa 156 and ipod.. both are work of art(design). Alfa 156 won car of the Year award and numerous other awards.
..
Regarding ipod in the car connectivity
i bought JVC cd head unit which has AUX in on front panel and monsters jack cable with gold plated contacts (which is overpriced i think. you can get same qaulity with nickle plated cont.)
sound is great..especialy after I removed Sound Cap from Second generation EU model.
That is completely retarded. In my pimped out 1994 Ford Station Wagon I have a bloody Mp3 CD player that has aux in for my iPod.
You should be able to find one with a line in on the front, or at least in back. Most stereos also have 'hidden' inputs for CD-changers and the like, you can get an adaptor for them for like $50 or so.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I got a 12-foot optical cable from sears for $10.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
What a great way to connect your iPod... to NAZI GERMANY. Fucking, *volks* *wagen* people. It's bad enough we "got over" IBM's participation the Holocaust. Now, the computer company that's supposed to represent "individualism" and "freedom" and all that shit (1984, remember?) has teamed up with a company founded on slave labour and genocide.
What the fuck is wrong you people?
Oh, that's right, morality goes out the window when it's cool and trendy. I forgot.
"If the world's safest compact, and the world's highest capacity sub 6 oz mp3 player, are underperforming technologies, I wonder what you consider the par to be."
You're such a market follower. The beetle is the car favored by teenage girls, but no one else. Its overpriced, it underperforms. There's nothing to recommend it.
As to the iPod, I guess if you add enough qualifiers to something "The best 6 oz, high capacity mp3 player that can be used by iTunes on Macs when the moon is full" By that reasoning, everything is best at *something*.
As to your trying to fuck me, you're a sad little boy. $540 for this year's trendy gadget? Sucker. I'll bet you think 128kb AAC's sound "just like the CD". You're a trendy, marketing driven fool.
I'll bet you even own a beetle.
Sucker.
Phatnoise 20GB removable MP3 player, that works with your factory changer controls. Seems to be based on the Iomega's peerless drive technology. Same thing as the Kenwood Music Keg, but works with factory changer controls.
Info here.
-ted
Maybe I'm completely off base here, but I'm quite sure I heard that from someone knowledgeable (and considering the quality of most FM radio stations, it sure sounds like that to be the case). If so, this would degrade the quality of the signal quite considerably, and you might as well just fill up your iPod with 96kbps mp3's.
Can someone who knows clarify this? Thanks.
Bluetooth:. php?group_id=53&document_content_id=8978)
- enhanced audio distribution profile (https://www.bluetooth.org/docman2/ViewProperties
- add a microphone to your car stereo, presto: generic handsfree for your bluetooth cell phone (or voice recorder for the business types)
- have your 10K Watts boom-car on the curve and change the tunes without having to actually sit inside!
- hook it up to your car management system -> remote starters for the very, very nervous (just wait for the full drive by wire to hit the market -> Nikko, it my dust!)
- get noted on slashdot: permanently use your gprs/g3 phone/mp3-player in the car with a small j2me/palm/symbian/ce http-server and have the community at large control your tunes (and maybe even upload some new songs)!
--- it's a brave new world indeed
A disk-like CD adapter does not seem impossible. The needed design features would include:
1. A rotating and indexing optical armature that finds and tracks the CD player's laser.
2. An optical system that emits a beam of IR back into the CD player's optics
3. An DAC that converts analog sound into CD pulse-codes
4. a spindle-mounted electrical generator to power the thing
5. a spring-loaded grapple that prevents the disk adapter from spinning inside the drive (while the generator taps power from the rotating spindle) 6. a trailing lead that goes to the audio source.
It would take a clever bit of engineering to make it thin enough. And it would only work in simple single-disk players. But is it so impossible?
For extra credit, it could even be all-digital. A streaming converter would take various digital audio formats as input and output standard Red Book CD codes for injection into the player's optics.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Modding up anything that defends Apple. I find it amusing.
Hey.. You go girl!
With the wave of silly law suits going on presently, I can picture the headlines in just a few weeks - "Radio Stations Nationwide Sue VW and Apple For Stealing Listeners". You know that ClearChannel won't be happy about this.
I'm glad we have finally reached a point where companies can come together for the benefit of the homosexual community. This really is great news for progressives everywhere.
Think about how strange that sales pitch must sound. Anti-lock brakes, moonroof, airbags, of yeah, and a 25 cent piece of hardware on the stereo that lets you use your MP3 player.
--petard
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I know apple-kooks like to think Apple can do no wrong, but the iPods are probably 50% too high. But as apple-kooks will buy anything at any price, I guess I can't blame them.
Exactly. It's not 50% too high unless the supply/demand curves demonstrate that they can make more total profit selling it for less.
Usually when people whine about something being too expensive, particularly a luxury item like an iPod, they do so with no honest thought to that simple free-market concept.
I wonder if the new beetle is as dissapointing as the new iPod. I have a new 30 gig iPod and an old outdated classic 20 gig (It's 3 months old but w/no more development from Apple available).
Sure, the ancient old classic lacks the dripping commercialism and activity tracking which aims at the hearts of the modern naive globalist consumer, with the new PayTunes4.
But the old classic model blows away the new models, and has 50% less wires and ports and docking stations.
I'll take an antique (1969) Bug (which I have) and a 2003 outdated classic iPod any day. Besides, didn't conumer reports just put VW in the top 10 of new vehicles that FALL APART the quickest?? Hell, Ford gives $1000 rebates, I can buy 2(TWO) iPods with that and have enough for 1 $20 CD!
"Do your research -- or at least take a test drive "
The golf has passable dynamics that are mostly spoiled by the beetle. At the very least, it is no better dynamically, and is far worse in space utilization. And believe me, the golf is not considered cutting edge these days.
This is considered clever?
No, its a designer car; its favored by people who admire style more than function.
But I guess people who buy Macs who feel more comfortable with style than function and thus this is a match made in heaven. Form versus form.
That's why I added the last comment.
If people thought logically, they'd say "Hmm, looks nice, price too much, because a better model will come out next year". But people don't buy ipods for logical reasons. They're buying into a trend, or what they perceive as a lifestyle.
I'm not criticizing apple for charging too much. I'm mocking idiots who buy it.
I haven't seen FW or USB mentioned in any in-car electronics yet, but the upcoming new BMW 5-series has the second generation iDrive system which supposedly includes a Bluetooth radio.
You know the first generation iDrive from the (odd looking) current BMW 745i. It has literally hundreds of functions integrated under the control of a big aluminum knob that's actually a haptic controller. It acts as a joystick, "clicks" like a mouse, and servos in the knob allow it to "feel" like it has stops, detents, and variable drag. Sounds like a great idea, but if you actually sit and play with the demonstrator at a BMW dealership, you quickly realize that they did a horrible job of integrating all that stuff together. It literally feels like about 20 teams worked on the different functions and implemented everything their own way. Most memorable bad experience - you navigate between the various functions (climate control, radio, navigation) by using the knob like a big joystick. Once you're on the ventilation page, you need to manipulate things in 2-D on the in-car display, but now, you're not supposed to rock the joystick - you access the functions by turning the knob to scroll the highlight through the buttons. Maybe it makes more sense when you're in the car, but I doubt it.
Some of this stuff is supposed to be fixed in the new 5-series iDrive which has more hard buttons and uses the knob more intelligently. One of the cool functions is supposed to be a Bluetooth connection to the system. This means that you can use the car's voice-recognition system to dial your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. It would be interesting if you could do things like review your contacts or calendar from your PDA or phone on the onboard display.
In practice, it'll be interesting to see if this will work at all, or whether BMW will only support some particular handset (likely, I fear). And what happens when 3 guys get in the car?
I've got the OnStar handsfree phone in my new SUV and it actually works really well. But I don't want another cell # to deal with, so I haven't used it since my free trial minutes were used up.
In a side note, in a modern car there are many computers and sensors, and they talk via a ethernet-like protocol on a single wire. Different manufacturers use different protocols, but I believe that the 802 group actually defines the core protocol standard.
While the PhatBox doesn't support Ogg Vorbis and Linux (and Mac OS X) officially, there are tools available for all three! Take a look at http://phatbox.sixpak.org/phatbox/.
John S. Jacob * jsjacob@iamnota.com * www.iamnota.com * pgp: ac6ace17
I thought all the Apple freaks were supposed to buy Saturns. I guess I'm out of date.
144l. ph34r my 133t l3g4l 5k1lz!
They should also throw in:
-An IKEA Billy bookshelf
-A Fischerspooner CD
-A turtle-neck sweater that's 2 sizes too small
-An interesting girlfriend with cat-eye glasses and a goth-a-billy Betty Paige haircut.
Instant coolness!
Don't overrate German engineers. They're not nearly as smart as popular belief would have you think. German products are crap, especially their cars and their beer. Jagermeister comes from Germany, and that's crap, too. What do you expect from people who use the Metric system?
I knew a German once. He was ok. But he wasn't an engineer.
Mini cooper radios have support for Aux, though you have to get a kit to actually connect it.
Rumor has it Apple and BMW (who own Mini) are working on a more sophisticated interface.
this ipod thing seems a little silly, given that they are selling phatboxes as dealer installed options on vw's and audis. (and yes, it runs linux and plays ogg vorbis)
unofficial ogg for the ipod is found here
Everyone is telling us that there are third-party models that have line-ins, but that nobody's seen a stock-model with one. This has been an issue for a good fifteen years or more, right? If in fifteen years they haven't put this in, I'm betting they have a motivation. Say, trying to intimidate buyers into purchasing a the CD player package for the car, instead of saying "you can plug in the Discman you already own anytime." A whole lot of people have never considered replacing their car stereos with anything, ever, so that up-front question is a big one.
The mp3 files are just in an invisible folder. Open a terminal and type "ls -a" in your iPod's root directory (/Volumes/Youripod) to see them.
An embedded linux system could in theory mount the iPod automatically when it is connected and play the files.
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
I'd either get a carstereo with CD (and a CD-burner at home, I won't put CDs in a very warm car that I have to rebuy for $20!) or one with MD.
If they had wanted to be actually inovative, I'd say put in a stereo with firewire or USB 2...
Downloading songs and albums onto an ipod helps the environment alot. Makes for alot less plastic waste and less need for packageing...environmentalists should be in favor of this...
Anonymous cowards saying shit that isn't insightful, interesting, informative or funny.
If your words were worth posting, you'd get a fucking login.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
You have spoiled my plans once again slashdot... damn you...
All right troops... Disassemble!!!
(re:nick for the clueless)
Giving IE users a taste of their own medicine since 2005 - http://pods.-is-a-geek.net/
You should have gone for the Shelby Dodge instead of the Shelby Mustang. That would have brought the chicks in.
I use an FM transmitter for mine instead of a cassette adapter.
Got it at www.auctionpals.com
heyday
************* www.phonecow.com www.handerazone.com
The PhatBox from PhatNoise (www.phatnoise.com) is better than the empeg, in my opinion. Invisible install, up to 60 gig, I think. Easy syncing on the PC side.
And it's all voice output. Input is with the cd changer controls. It's less than half as expensive as that empeg. (Still not cheap)
Audi dealers now sell it. (for Audis only... cd changer interfaces are unfortunately proprietary)
Apple and VW have had the same target audience for years. I've always thought they should combine their advertising genius and do something like this.
Also, the band in the background is The Polyphonic Spree. They're pretty a damn good band from SoCal.
unofficial ogg for the ipod is found here
oops, what a typo. that should be:
unofficial ogg for the phatbox is found here
seems like a smart idea for both...alot of teens get the beetle and alot of teens use ipods so this will link the 2 together and i think its smart....
dudes, the Istun is better than the ipod.