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iPod Mini Custom Installation In A Ford Explorer
Johnny Mozzarella writes "MacWorld has a nice write-up on Jesse Melchior, an amateur special effects artist and filmmaker, who used his skills to create a custom installation that is worthy of an iPod mini. The article outlines the materials he used such as latex, plaster and dental acrylic to create an integrated dock complete with blue LEDs and Apple logo in his Ford Explorer."
What next - an iPod Mini?
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"I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing and it was everything that I thought it could be."
It has been expressed here previously that the iPod mini has much less bang-for-buck than the regular iPod, which is only a few bucks more but comes with an extra 16GB.
However, if you simply want to buy a Hitachi 4GB mini hard drive, you'll save as much as $150 if you buy the mini and take the drive out over buying the boxed hard drive product.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
latex, plaster and dental acrylic
This guy uses all that stuff intimately with his car and gets on the front page of slashdot.
I mention using the same stuff intimately with my girlfriend and she runs away.
pfft.
Cool. Now you can grove to some cool tunes while you're waiting for the tow truck.
he's a mac user. shouldn't he use BBEdit?
sulli
RTFJ.
If you're going to do something this fancy, why hamstring yourself with the 4GB mini?
Even more, if you're going to do something this fancy, why hamstring yourself with a Ford Explorer?
All of that just to listen to Bone Thugs? What a waste.
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
Ever since I got my iPod, I've dreamt and drooled over the possibility of using it in my car. But I just have never thought up a good way to really integrate it, and I mean fully, like having an easy way to choose songs to play, hit play/pause, change the volume, etc, that is just as easy to use an in dash player that supports mp3's.
:)
Having it sit somewhere mounted is a good start, but you still would have to reach down there and twiddle the buttons. And in an big vehicle like an Explorer? That would get old, quick.
By the looks of the pictures, he is using the line out connector on the bottom. You can't change the volume that's coming out of that right? I mean not from the iPod, therefore you'd have to use the main stereo for that. So you would have two places to reach now, for different activities. You would have reach down to the iPod to change songs and pause, and reach to the stereo to change the volume. That little extra step of deciding where need to reach would be a huge burden when you're going down the interstate at 70mph.
If anybody has thought of a good way to integrate the iPod into a car, I want to know. Right now my setup is using the headphone jack to connect to the aux input of my stereo, and using the inline remote that came with it. I can at least do all functions from one place (the headphone jack can have it's volume adjusted), but I can't really charge it well, because then I'd have a connector sticking out of the bottom *and* top. What I would like is for the iPod to have a docking place like in the article, but still be able to do everything easily, from one place, without needing to look too much. Maybe I need a wireless remote? Maybe I'm asking too much.
I think he'll regret this whole project when his iPod stops working, his Firestone tires fail and his Explorer rolls.
Who am I to blow against the wind? -- Paul Simon
There's obviously lots of room for Automobile-Area Networks, but few folks are doing anything about it.
Design for Use, not Construction!
I've got the Belkin charger/line out in my car. It works well and plugs right into the stereo... but it's not that slick. I have to control the ipod to change songs, etc. and then use my cd deck to change volume. I want a deck that I can buy that acts as an ipod dock. You just slide that ipod in like an 8 track and then the deck has normal controls for volume, track selection, etc. and a display that shows song titles, etc. If it had a radio too I could care less about not having a CD player in the car. So you get to listen to the ipod, control it easily.. it gets charged... When you leave the car just eject the ipod, grab it and go! Something like this would be popular, wouldn't you think?
sig
Why not indeed. I had a 6GB Creative Nomad Jukebox, and filled that up QUICK. I now have a 40GB iPod and love it.
It's easy to gather up 10,000 songs when you have a CD collection from two generations of people; not to mention the downloads (purchased *and* free). Ripping CDs and stuff, I currently have 1760 songs, and that's without all the comedy routines and prank calls that i've downloaded, and I'm not even doen ripping CDs. 1000 songs? bah.
The question "How often do you have a car trip where you can play 1000 songs?" is simply missing the point - the point is not playing that much music, the point is, when I want to listen to Disturbed, I can. If I want to hear Tribal Tech, I can. If I want to hear Black Eyed Peas, I can. And I don't have to fumble through 100 CDs while driving to do it. The point is choice, not volume.
Think about it.
If we're going to follow this analogy, we might as well get it right.
In the rare occurance that the battery go, then Apple will replace the whole truck in less than 3 days for the price ($59.00) of an iPod extended warrenty.
Is that a subtle way of saying "I live at home with my parents, so it's easy to afford music"?