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iPod Your BMW Officially Launched
chasingporsches writes "Apple today announced the iPod Your BMW campaign on their front page. According to the iPod Your BMW page, 'Connect with music like never before behind the wheel of your BMW 3 Series, and X3 and X5 SAV, Z4 Roadster or MINI. With the installation of an integrated adapter developed by Apple and BMW, you can now control your iPod or iPod mini through the existing audio system and multi-function steering wheel. Which means no loss of power. No loss of sound quality. No loss of control.' There is also a QuickTime TV ad available for streaming. Apparently it only works with 2002 or later BMWs and Minis, and the iPod connects to a cable in the glove compartment."
most car stereos (OEM and aftermarket) have controls for CD changers. looking at a pin-out, it should eb pretty easy to make one that controls your own IPod or other device, as long as it has an input.
My boss, with this announcement, is suddenly *really* interested in purchasing a BMW. He'd never talked about BMW before this... it's exactly the type of thing that luxury car owners use to decide which car to buy. BMW knows their market.
Peace
Come on, you have to plug in a cable and throw it in the glove compartment? What a hack! I could modify my car to do that, and put an LCD screen on the dash to show me what I'm playing. Hell, you can probably buy that already. Before I watched the video, I though the BMW would have some sort of dock that either I sat my iPod in, or even cooler, a slot, like a tape deck, that I shoved my ipod in. Now THAT would be cool. This is not what I call "Seamless integration" I think in the future car stereo's are going to come with a media bay, just like printers do now. I slap in my SD/xD/MMC/Memory Stick or whatever and the stero reads the ID3's and playlists. Off I go. And laptops will come with built in FM transmitters to broadcast their audio to my home entertainment center or car stereo... I would love to sit in my living room, play a FPS and have it all come out the stereo. No Wires.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
They gotta make sure your car is up to handling all that super low bass from the techno mp3s you'll load on the iPod. On the upside, maybe instead of installing the super-loud-and-annoying muffler, you can just download an mp3 of one and play it back?
Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
A friggin' "slide in" dock connector in my car console. So I can just insert the iPod and go. I don't want cables, and I'm certainly tired of the FM iTrip transmitter that fades out whenever you get near a strong radio station.
It's ironic that a "retro-tech" tape-cassette car stereo would afford me better sound than my CD player which has no external line inputs. (It has internal ones at the back but they want about as much money as my iPod for an adapter!)
Okay, ultimately what I want is a universal and OPEN dock connector so we can all have car stereos that will handle all of our Minidisc, MP3 or XM or whatever portable sound system players we have in the future. The connectors should handle hardware connections as well as provide a standardized software interface (uPNP maybe?) to display and select the track/album information inside.
(And it should handle cellphones too!)
(I think I'm going to switch to decaf for the rest of the afternoon now...)
Ever used an iPod? Then you know why it's the better product. Even my non-Apple friends have come to see how paying for quality can actually count. This from the PC-world that gives you bargain basement beige boxes. Apple is showing the world consumer electronics (and computers and such) can be pleasant to use experiences, not commodities.
Ever driven a BMW? Then you know why it's a great product that's worth the money.
1995 M3 -- best car I've ever driven in my life. Sad I had to sell it after 3 years, 40,000 miles, zero problems; happy about the good resale value.
I can't say every person who buys an Apple product is 100% pleased with it, nor can I say every BMW purchase is a happy one. But both companies are shining examples of how, with a little bit of extra attention to detail and engineering, a superior product can usually be produced. And yes, it will cost you a little bit more.
About the only thing dumber than assuming that more expensive == better, is assuming that more expensive == worse. Sure, there are plenty who buy iPods and Bimmers as status symbols, but don't discount those of us who have actually have taste. Do you listen to crappy music nobody's ever heard of, and then the day they get airplay claim they've "sold out" and then refuse to listen to them? Same principle, pal.
Oh, and this would not have worked in my 95 M3, nor would it work with my 1st gen 5gb iPod (still chugging away on original battery after almost 3 years!)
But I'll be buying a new iPod this year to have bigger capacity, and will be buying another (if not new-new) BMW in a year or so.
Worst thing about this new system, to me, is that you have to set up special BMW playlists, and then only access by track number. How hard would it have been to actually show track names, christ. Aftermarket companies have figured out how to integrate Valentine 1 alerts into the 5-series computer, which is a much bigger technical feat than hacking the cd changer into assigning track numbers to iPod playlists.. I think the Alpine system coming out soon will be better.
(By the way, if you wanted the status symbol thing to hold true, it should have been Mercedes of maybe Lexus. Sure Mercedes used to make decent cars, but not any longer -- Mercedes is the ultimate status symbol, not a driver's car. Tell me, how big is the Mercedes club's track or club racing program? Yeah, nowhere near as large as BMW, which is probably second biggest behind Porsche in the nation).
Functionally similar, but different. The bmw uses the I-BUS for communications, while Alpine uses its own Ai-Net. I know a bit about this since I'm building such an interface from scratch, except it won't emulate the cd changer (it'll use the AUX input instead). I'd love to know what new output the ipod uses to indicate the current track.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I bought a VWCDPIC auxiliary audio interface for ~$45, a female headphone to RCA y-adapter and a 20' M-M headphone extension. Plugged the WVCDPIC in to the cd changer harness, plugged the Y adapter into the WVCDPIC, plugged the extension into the adapter and ran it under the kick panels and through the trim panel under the dash.
I bought about $3 worth of square plastic tube (1/4" dia) and some thin plastic sheet. With a lot of patience and effort, I constructed an open box that the iPod slides into and attached that to a "C" shaped bracket that I wedged between the top and bottom of the center A/C vent. Works great! Some company makes the same thing but ready to go for $90+s/h.
Before anyone asks about condensation from the A/C hitting the back of the unit - It's been humid as all hell here with the A/C on solid and it doesn't seem to be affected in any way. I've also had it installed for about 5 months with no issues. The only problems are these:
I have to shut the backlight off during the day because the display washes out when it comes on. I of course also have to turn it back on at night.
Not as elegant as buying something off the shelf.
Still have to move my hands to change tracks - but I don't have the remote on the steering wheel anyway so that's moot. The VWCDPIC has some serial interface that can control a dedicated MP3 changer thingie via the CD head unit buttons that the designer links on his website - it takes a 2.5" HD and you stick it in your trunk. You could also add a LCD display if I'm not mistaken.
Oh yeah, the iPod (at least my 1G) has the WORST random track logic!
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What you should do is connect the iPod's output to some sort of valve on your fart pipe which can control the noise, thereby turning your muffler into a raspy, low quality subwoofer!
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
I would be much more impressed by a voice navigation interface to the ipod that does not require you to own any particular high end car. But that would make too much sense and wouldn't nickel and dime us to death.
Isn't "taking it with you every time you get out of the car" the whole reason for going with an iPod instead of something like a carbot?
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Something's missing... track listings on the head unit. They should have hacked something together that pipes CD TEXT info out to the receiver and shows what's currently playing. Then again, do iPods with dock connectors have the ability to send track information down through their connection?
Once again, so far as I can tell, we early iPod adapters without the fancy dock connectors are being shafted by an upgrade. It seems like the older models were deprecated and ceased to be supported very abruptly. I still want my playlists on the go...
an incar computer is nice if you spend a lot of time in the car.....
that's the hardcore solution to incar music and more.
but if you just want music for your commute and use the same iPod while at work or in the gym or mowing the lawn or whatever then it makes sense to take it with you. if you drive to the movies, you do not need to take the iPod with you, or a restaurant or food shopping or something like that.
i used to play the game with a tape adapter and power line going to a portable Cd player (or MD player). it sucked. i either didn't use it or spent a few minutes hiding and unhiding the stuff every time i got out of the car. it was enough of a bother that i bought an indash minidisc player.
to someone with a BMW the money is not that much when you compare it to the simplicity. if they want a dask mounted dock they can buy the icelink and get the same features. that does not cost too much either (about $200 i think?).
having the device stashed in the glovebox so there is no fiddling around seems nice to me. then again i am a person that gets in the car and goes. it drives me up the wall when people take 5 minutes to settle in before driving away, and another 5 to gather themselves before leaving the safety of their rolling cage. maybe it's a personal issue.....
How about being able to use the ipod interface for driving?
A dock would restrict compatibility to one type or generation of iPod. With the cable, you can use either an original iPod or an iPod Mini and it leaves Apple able to redesign the iPod form factor in the future while still maintaining compatibility with this. You don't want to have to upgrade your car stereo every time you buy a new iPod model, do you? All Apple has to keep the same in future models is the connector.
Yes, indeed.
I know a friend who worked for Alpine Electronics of America in Torrance, CA who has been testing this BMW kit for months. He told me that Alpine does has plans to introduce the kit for their after market products, i.e., those Alpine car audio that you can buy from Best Buy, etc. But apparently the BMW kit comes first. And for a good reason.
What people usually do not know is Alpine's bread and butter is not in the after market products. It is in their OEM manufacturing, that's where the money is. All audio system in the Beemers that can be iPod'd are indeed OEMed by Alpine. That's why you can iPod only those models and not the new 5, 6 and 7 Series. Because they still do not get the business for those models, yet. As far as I know, this is more of a collaboration between Alpine and BMW. Apple is just helping advertising for them. Alpine is doing this to show BMW that they are serious about their OEM business and is hopeful that they can get to do the audio in the upscale models, too. Which can be more tricky because those iDrive thingy first introduced in the 7. The iDrive is not present in any of the Beemers that can be iPod'd.
Another big, big OEM customer of Alpine is Honda. (In fact, I think Honda is Aline's biggest customer.) I am surprised that I don't see the kit for Acura first.
They're saying that it will sound better than using a cassette adapter or an FM transmitter.
And that, I believe.
Fellowship 9/11
All this effort my ass - I was really ready to be impressed with this but so far as I can see the adaptor just makes the iPod pretend to be a five disc changer.
Thats right, you get your five 'BMW playlists' and thats it - you cannot play anything else; just those five lists. Why not just burn those lists to CD and be done with it...
Doesn't sound impressive to me at all. Maybe I just had my hopes too high with it being 'integrated' - like maybe there would have been a dupe of the iPod display in the dash on the satellite navigation or something, but no, it just pretends to be a CD changer. Sod that.
(not flaming Apple, I love my Powerbook, I love my iPod , I love iTMS, I want to want a BMW and integrate my iPod with it, but this is shite...)
Has anyone even bothered thinking this through?
New York banned handheld cellphones from use while driving to prevent accidents, now they want to make the steering wheel a fucking controller for the iPod?
What? Are they going to make it a "snow" steering wheel, and you turn it left/right to navigate through the LCD menu (displayed in big letters on the windshield)?
I sense high insurance rates.
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Yet last year, Consumer Reports proclaimed the 5-series to be the "highest scoring car they had ever tested."
Don't get too excited about Nissan, if you kept up with CR as religiously as we would think, you would know that the Sentra now has a 'poor' reliability mark.
When Nissan can't even make a reliable econo-box, it's a sad statement that Renault has influenced them instead of the other way around.
Start making car stereos have a damn 3.5mm stereo jack somewhere on the front of the unit. There are so many different mp3 devices nowadays, and the last thing I want is more custom shit that locks me into brands or punishes me for not using the same thing as everyone else. Give me a standard way to plug my mp3 player into my stereo without having to fight with every FM radio station in a 30 mile radius or take my dash halfway apart and buy a $70 adapter so I can attatch a pig-tail to the back of my stereo.
(And no, I'm not hating on cool iPod stuff. I have an iPod. But I still don't want a slot-loading iPod incase my next mp3 player is not an iPod or incase Apple changes the size/shape of the iPod yet again (they will - WWDC is coming soon). )
not EVERY car is going to have an iPod waiting in the glovebox.
same way people sometimes put things in the trunk of the car as opposed to laying out on the back seat.
also somebody else pointed out that if you use valet parking or park in a garage you give them the "valet key" that does not allow them access to the glovebox or the trunk.... so it would be secure while you go out, but there when you get back.