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Alpine to Release iPod Interface in Autumn 2004
jeblucas writes "Not to be outdone by the recent iPod your BMW news, Alpine updated the details on their iPod interface for those of us who want to spend cash on the sound system, rather than the logo. Apparently announced in January (?), this should be available this fall. Sweet! You can ask for more info by emailing Alpine directly."
After being posted on slashdot, will that email address ever work again ? I highly doubt they'll be able to filter your request for more information out of all the spam and "does it run linux?" mail.
Will they come standard in the Countach anytime soon?
Alpine says that the "MediaXpander" technology featured on its system "restores lost detail" to compressed digital media, as well. Alpine's receivers also sport the company's "Bass Engine" technology, which it says will tune the system for the best sound quality in the vehicle.
Does anyone know how this would actually work? Is this kind of like postprocessing for video files but applied to audio? Or is this just more marketing hype for an equalizer/dynamics expander?
Supposedly, this will work with any Alpine Ai-Net compatible head unit (CDA-####) models. No word yet on if will be the only allowed Ai-Net piece in the chain, or if will have the standard bus-in/bus-out connections like other Ai-Net pieces.
It would be the ultimate geek tech marriage: the ultimate geek music player with the ultimate geek car.
Apparently, these guys have modded the Prius audio/touch screen system to control a XM receiver, complete with onscreen title display, so I imagine it can't be that hard to support an iPod as well, right, especially if Apple were to help?
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
What this means is that the car audio maker known as Alpine that installed the iPod connectors into the BMW's will soon be making this interface for other cars, and mere mortals such as ourselves will be able to afford it.
Best. Webhost. Ever. Dreamhost.
Seriously, I wouldn't mind a decent car stereo interface considering my iTrip tends to get interference forcing me to constantly move things around all the time. I have tried the tape cassette thingy too but things get pretty hairy when my feet get tangled up in the cable. Makes it hard to concentrate while digging about the passenger seat area for my sunglasses (or cell phone).
"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." - Isaac Asimov
For those that don't know, Alpine are also a major supplier of audio equipment to BMW. The pre-fitted CD players are Alpine units, at least in MINIs. I seem to recall that the MD and tape players are as well, but I could be wrong about that last one.
Dude, if you think all you get with a BMW is a logo, maybe you'd better turn that stereo up until your eardrums burst - because your brain is already hemorrhaging. If I'm in a car it's to drive, and drive I will. Music is nice, but there's no sound like a proper exhaust note at 140mph.
Heyyyy, that sounds a bit like an insult towards my favourite boutique car maker.
Mmmmmm, BMW E39 M5. Even better if kitted out by Dinan.
(completely off-topic, but a man must be allowed to dream...)
Serve Gonk.
Can't we have a moratorium on it? It's not that I hate them or anything, it's just you can't swing a dead geek in here without hitting half a dozen iPod stories.
To prevent the legions of iPod fans from hunting me down and playing techno music in my ear, I must remain an anonymous coward.
If I recall they announced this product at CES... in February... shame it took em so long to speak of it again.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I think the advantage of actually having track names displayed on the screen vs just the number of the track in the required specially generated "BMWLIST#1-5" is quite a distinction.
The Alpine unit also allows you to " browse the iPod's entire music library right from the Alpine head unit ".
In short, the Alpine unit is actually a good interface, whereas the BMW unit just acts like a lame CD changer.
I've never used iTunes (or an iPod), and even I know that:
1) If you're talking about music purchased from the iTunes store, no, you can burn them onto CD essentially as many times as you want.
2) That utterly defeats the purpose of the iPod. I don't want to carry around a stack of CD-Rs when I have an iPod that can store hundreds of CDs worth of music.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
iPod this, iPod that. They didn't invent the goddamn MP3 player. Why not just put a "line in" jack on any car stereo so we can use any MP3 player on any car stereo? Or any other audio device for that matter.
Had an MP3 player long before the iPod existed.
I guess I can take the one I bought for you back to the store.
The iPod is just an mp3 player, there are tons of them for sale, many with more features and more space than the iPod. Why do we not hear these retarded stories about them?
Because the iPod has the most marketshare and is therefore the best mp3 player. Marketshare pwns j00 suxx0rz! h3h3h3h3
I do. For 450$ I can buy roughly 1500 CD's. A little simple math and you've got over a TB of songs. With the rest of the cash you can buy a fashionable Prada book or something for them.
-Dizzle
"I most likely AM so interested in myself."
Register for a Slashdot account, exclude "Apple" stories from the homepage. Satisfied?
"I'll say it again for the logic-impaired." -- Larry Wall.
"Because the iPod has the most marketshare and is therefore the best mp3 player."
Do you have any facts to back up that it has the most marketshare? I haven't seen any facts I have just seen a very public marketing campaign. Furthermore, just because it has the most market share doesn't mean that it is the best mp3 player. Honda Civics have a larger marketshare than Ferraris does that mean that the Civic is a superior car?
You still aren't understanding and you are being stupid. First no one has a TB of music. Seconds the point of the ipod or other MP3 players is that you have access to a whole library of music with a nice interface not "Oh look at me I'm stupid let me sort through 500 CDs to find the song I want and then listen to 1 song off it and get another one while I crash my car because I'm not paying attention"
"I guess I can take the one I bought for you back to the store."
Definitely.
Don't want a BMW, don't want to shell out for some fancy rig just because it says "Alpine" on the front-- I just want the iPod to play through my stock stereo. FM transmitters stink in Philadelphia because the radio dial is very crowded, and cassette adapters don't have great sound-- plus if I park anywhere I've got to stash everything out of sight before I get out, or risk returning to find my window broken and my iPod gone.
This Monday, I ordered a Dension ICELink 1.1. It plugs into the unused CD-changer port on the back of the stock stereo in my Toyota, keeps the iPod charged, and provides line-level input from the iPod as well as letting me use the next/prev track buttons (possibly others, but I'm not sure) on the stereo to minimally control it while it stays out of sight in the glove compartment.
This is not as fancy as being able to fully control the iPod like the BMW solution, but it's good enough for my purposes and cost less than $250. It just shipped yesterday, and I can't wait to get it.
Good for you. My theoretical example, like the original poster, was assuming you already had the iPod though.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Do you even know what marketshare means?
Sony just announced today a player that holds TWICE as much disk and costs less. It should be in the USA by September and will cost about $100 less than the 'pod. So long iPod, then new Walkman will suck the market away, plus Sony owns tons of music to bundle with it.
If you're getting an Alpine stereo to play your iPod, you're paying a lot for the logos, even if you're bitchin' stereo is lashed to a Yugo.
--
make install -not war
You can be so hurtful, AC :(
-Dizzle
"I most likely AM so interested in myself."
"Register for a Slashdot account, exclude "Apple" stories from the homepage. Satisfied?"
No. I want to see the Apple news I just don't want to see Apple/iPod advertisements. I also don't want to hear the iPod mentioned when the story is applicable to any hard drive based mp3 player. Especially when their are better ones with more features and space on the market.
And for that $450 in blanks, how do you sort through them while driving? Do you always have a passenger that is willing to do your bidding?
For $450, you can do a lot of things that would be cheaper to do it otherwise, but far more labour intensive. Whats more important -- your time (and in this case, your life if you wreck while looking for the appropriate disc) or getting a better deal on what ya have? Personally, as a professional with more commitments than I know how to handle them, I need all the time I can get...and I'm not even that much of a real professional...I just put on the suit and have pretend time for a few hours a day. Now, if your entire existance is flipping burgers (or the digital equivelent of it), maybe having something that distracts you from the rest of your life might be well worth the money paid -- and with that bootleg prada book that you'll never know was made by some third world person that found a stack of lables and thought they could trick an idiot into the same scam as the $200 rolexes you find in Times Square (I paid $20 for my fake Rolex and I was happy). Hinnt -- you ain't getting Prada anything for the money you are talking about..
Alpine announced last year that some of their 2004 headunits would have the ability to control/charge iPods....this isn't new, and they aren't new to the party.
It's impressive that Sony found the time to make up this imaginary player on the same day they announced a player that holds EXACTLY the same disk space and costs EXACTLY the same, only it won't ship until August whereas the iPod has been shipping at that price since January. Oh yeah, I'm sure the other 4 competing music labels are just lining up to encode their songs into Sony's popular ATRAC format.
It charges the iPod too :)
today is spelling optional day.
That's nice, I suppose, but when will a company like Alpine get it's ass in gear and offer a Bluetooth phone option so that we can get similar functionality to what Acura currently offers in the TL? The car didn't impress me, but the way the Bluetooth car kit did, especially when tied in to the Nav system. I really want that in my next car. (Along with MB Quart Q-series speakers and a couple of 12" JBL Subs, of course.)
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Unless you live in a part of the universe where they don't have radio stations. Maybe the far side of the moon. Of all the dishonest advertising for a useless product I have ever seen in my life the iTrip and its functionalikes are the most criminal.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
So long iPod, then new Walkman will suck the market away
Riiiiiiight. Isn't this, like, Sony's 2nd or 3rd attempt at making an iPod-killer? The Sony devices are like roach motels for your music, and they insist on using that ATRAC shit that nobody is interested in-- the Sony device doesn't even play MP3 files, for Christ's sake! The lack of MP3 support will go over like a loud fart in church with the buying public. The only reason anyone will buy one of these is to remove the disk drive from it for use in something else, if that's possible.
If I'm in a car it's to drive, and drive I will. Music is nice, but there's no sound like a proper exhaust note at 140mph.
You wasted your money on the Beamer. You can get the same note out of an old Nova at half that speed.
(we're talking about the "exhaust note" which periodically gets higher and lower, and includings flashing red and blue lights, right?)
Another relatively simple approach, if your car stereo has a cassette player, is those adapters that look like a cassette tape with a wire out the back. Not sure how good they sound, though.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Sony's popular ATRAC format.
I expect it to be at least as popular as the much loved 8-track format.
Apple and VW teamed up to offer iPods when you bought a New Beetle. I have a Golf so I was hoping they'd come up with a system that'd tap into the CD changer port. Yet they make a kit for BMWs instead? I can't use that. So I'm probably going to write to Apple and suggest it. Unfortunately, whatever they come up with probably would be for the Golf 5 and wouldn't fit my car anyway. I just can't win.
i am a soviet space shuttle
"If I'm in a car it's to drive, and drive I will. Music is nice, but there's no sound like a proper exhaust note at 140mph."
And, exactly how often do you get to drive at 140mph? Unless you live outside the US (which, from your use of miles, seems unlikely), you sure aren't going 140 on any public roads.
i don't care if it is off-topic, i love drooling over the E39 M5 any day of the week.
I would be just a few years off with my car damnit... Looks like I'll be upgrading to an Alpine system then. They're my fav anyway when it comes to kick ass sound systems.
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
Right, they're great cars... but why would I pay for a BMW logo ON A FUCKING STEREO?!?!?!?11!!!!!!!!1111!!!!
I take it you've never been on I-25 north of Denver? I regularly push 130 on that road (in my Audi... no prick on the inside, to paraphrase the old joke). It's really quite amazing that I'm still alive, but I do rather enjoy my life at 65 over. P.S. If I'd known this would be modded +4 Insightful instead of -23 flamebait offtopic etc., I wouldn't have posted A.C. I'm a karma whore without karma...
Power is given only to him who dares to stoop and take it -- Dostoevsky
right. how long would it take you to listen to a terrabyte of audio, Even Raw WAV files!
that $50 you have leff over will only buy 2 cd's with audio on them, if you're lucky!
I *did* spend my hard-earned cash on the sound system, rather than on the logo. *that's* why I got a NEUROS and not an IPOD! duh!
If you think driving experience is all about horsepower per dollar, then don't bother with a BMW. Most Slashdotters seem to have amazingly low class taste in cars, they want big muscle cars or toqued out rice rockets. Nothing wrong with not being able to afford a nice car (I was driving a respectable but not thrilling Acura for quite a few years), but at least recognize a fabulous car when you see one.
You're right. And you know what? Linux is just a bunch of cloned technologies, it doesn't do anything you can't do better and with less work in any one of a half dozen other PC operating systems.
And yet, lots and lots of people really like it. Some have based their whole worldview around it. I guess maybe some things are more than just the sum of their parts...and some other things are way less (that new Commodore player looks pretty shitty).
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Admittedly, I'll probably buy an iPod long before giving any money to the very proprietary-format-freakish SONY corporation.
Alpine gear has a nice kick to it, and a much cleaner interface than the majority of audio gear. That alone is worth more cash to me. When I'm driving I like to listen to music. What I don't like is a dashboard that's lit up like a fucking circus with whales swimming at me in three dimensions.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
"Music is nice, but there's no sound like a proper exhaust note at 140mph."
Hmm... well okay. I put an MP3 of that up on Kazaa, enjoy!
"Derp de derp."
Or an iPod.
Did you even bother to read the summary?
--- I do not moderate.
Obviously you've never been to the Western USA. There are more than a few places to go 140mph. I've been going 90mph and been passed by a Semi.
Can anybody heeeeear me? You? Hello?
Oh sure, it holds twice as much, by storing files at 64kbps. Go go sound quality! Let's not forget that ATRAC came in last in a public 128kbps sound quality test.
iPod owners don't shop based on price. We shop based on quality. Don't try and argue this. As somebody once said, there's nothing that somebody can't build a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot worse.
If you mean I-25 north of Denver, i.e. Wyoming, ok. But I-25 north is the biggest disaster cone zone I've seen in some time.
Longmont north gets better, but too many idiots and the 34 interchange is just death waiting to happen.
My mom says I'm cool.
When you spend money on an Alpine head unit, you are getting the BEST quaility head unit there is, hands down.
With Alpine, you are definitly not buying the "logo", but the best quaility of internal componants you can get.
Alpine makes, again, what is no doubt the best head units there are. Look at all of the top players, they all have Alpine (with the ocasional ponieer super-high end head unit).
Alpine > you
Because Windows has the most marketshare and is therefore the best operating system.
I'm convinced.
You're paying too much for CD's
Actually, Sony's estimate assumed *48* kbps.
try carying around 1500 cd's and something to play them in one pocket.
Why not get a phatbox? www.phatnoise.com Should store all of your mp3's fine, hooks up to any headunit that supports cd changers and it runs linux too!
I know someone who has gone 140 in a 35 mph zone, not everyone obeys speed limits you know...Some car fanatics will even triple it.
And you need another fashionable Prada bag for the card catalog you're schlepping around to keep track of what songs are on what disc.
And looking like a homeless person every time you try to find a certain track.
*mutters to self while flipping through card catalog* need to listen to oingo boingo or i'm going to burn down the building...
Thanks. I prefer the iPod.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
except that you have to install an aftermarket head unit with the Alpine while the BMW is OEM. These days, most cars discourage you from replacing the head unit. If you're going that far, there are already aftermarket solutions that provide jukebox capability and they don't require an iPod to do it.
True, you get more than a logo. You get a car underneath it, as well. What the poster was pointing out is that you can usually get a superior car without the BMW logo for several thousand dollars less.
.1 seconds slower going to 100kph) at more than $10k less. And the service costs much less... Having a BMW automatically means replacing something simple like a windshield wiper will set you back $50 ($100?). Volvo still has humane prices on most of their spare parts.
Take the BMW M3 for instance, practically an icon among BMW fanboys. The Volvo S60R beats it by miles in pretty much every department (ok, it might me
(If Volvo is not your thing, much the same as above can be said for a few other brands. I just picked Volvo as an example because they're my favorite brand atm.)
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
A Lamborgini is not much more drivable than a Modena. That's crazy. Lamborgini's are Ferrari wannabe's, nothing more, and their owners frequently like to park them rather than drive them. A 911 Turbo may be more "drivable" than a Modena but it's a crass production car whereas the 360 is a pure track car. The Modena is incredibly refined and perfectly able as a daily driver.
The reason you don't drive a Modena every day is that it spoils you and ceases to be special. As an everyday "fun" driver, the Modena totally outclasses any BMW (and everything else). I know because I own one along with an M5. I love my M5 but I wouldn't be so stupid as to suggest that it's more fun to drive than the 360.
Now, if you *need* four seats and fun to drive why choose an M3? I guess it is a lot cheaper than an M5 and most Slashdotters seem to have amazingly low class taste in cars...
You sound so knowledgable. Don't you mean playa's?
Use the remote that came with your iPod, and run the line out from that into your car stereo. Then you can tape the remote to your steering wheel, and put your iPod in the dashboard, where it covers up something you don't really use. Then you can look at what song you are listening to whenever you want, and also control your iPod from the steering wheel.
...
... unless the interface is documented so that you can plug in a Rio or a HardDiskMan
Can you say 8-track? I knew you could...
As seen on Wired: Get a free desktop PC
I have a CDA-9813 MP3/CD player and finally got my ipod interfaced with my headunit, get the kca-121b adaptor: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-NIPn8BQh6If/cgi-bin/P rodView.asp?s=0&c=2&g=57900&I=500KCA121B&o=p&a=0&c c=01&avf=N&search=alpine+adaptor, a rca-to-audio adaptor and there you go, an aux in for any audio input, don't forget to set aux to on in the setup. Note this only works for systems with the Ai-net interface.
It's not as good as controlling the ipod from the headunit, but with the ipod's ease-of-use and i can raise it to eye-level while driving, i can play anything i want. i love the cd-less life.
"might me"? sounds like you mean might be. Please, learn to use a spellchecker.
I completely agree regarding the overpricedness of BMW's, though.
The Volvo S60R beats it by miles in pretty much every department
Every department? Have you LOOKED at the two cars? Good God! The M3 looks like a pure bred sports car compared to the Volvo that looks like a pure bred grocery getter.
I'm sure the Volvo costs less, but don't say "beats it by miles in every department" when style of the BMW is light years ahead of the Volvo, and the number one factor that decides purchases (right after price) for many people, is style.
Which car you think looks better is purely a matter of taste. You can't convince me that one car's "style" is objectively superior to another's - if someone thinks that a Renault Clio looks better than a Mercedes SLR (or $some_other_nice_looking_car), that's their unarguable right. Which is the better car is a completely different matter (my mother would probably say the Clio is, because it needs less fuel, and her primary concern is economy).
:)
As far as I'm concerned, the M3 looks as much like a "pure bred sports car" as the S60R, if not less. It looks nothing like a real sports car (put it next to a Porsche 911 or Ferrari 360 Spyder). Above all, the kind of people who usually own M3's are the ones who drive like utter fucktards. Not the kind of people I'd like to be associated with by getting a BMW myself. At least Volvos are mostly transparent to the police.
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
This is pure poo poo. I had a 2001 330ci that I just sold and the car, including wipers, has free maintenance. That means that you have basically zero costs (oil changes included) for at least 4 - 5 years. The M3 has the same deal, so the cost of owning the car is essentially ZERO for the first several years. After that, if you don't sell it, get it maintained at a specialist. Any enthusiast will tell you the same thing.
Also, saying the S60R beats the M3 in every department is also not true. On a track, the M3 will eat the S60R - there's more to a car than just stats and how fast you can get to 60mph.
Now I'm not saying the S60R sucks, but just like you can't use stats, you can't just use price either. Passion can't be measured so easily, unfortunately.
Exactly, now i can use my ipod in my Corvette.
Big suprise... since alpine makes the radios for BMW's... And the whole Apple BMW launch. Granted this will be full functionality to Alpine ans BMW steroes not the limited funct that we see now, where the ipod is a glorified cd-changer. But does mean a static ipod interface?
---In a time of Chimpanzees I was a Monkey.
Yes, it's matter of taste and volvos are mostly transparent to police.
I happened to see a S60R yesterday and other than being clean as a whistle, it didn't look hardly any different than any other Volvo, which isn't a positive thing. Volvo isn't exactly known for "exciting styling." More like ultra conservative safety concious. It did not look ugly, mind you, just not very sporty.
The M3 is not comparable to a 911 or 360, but when compared to a Volvo, I would still say it looks like a sports car.
In my opinion the M3 looks better than any current BMW at any price.
"I take it you've never been on I-25 north of Denver? "
Living in Fort Collins, CO, I drive on I-25 north of Denver quite often.
It's the pricks like you who drive 130 that make that road SO DANGEROUS. The speed limit is 75 for a reason - the traffic and road conditions (both the quality of the road - I'm sure you know this - and the snow we get in the winter) combine to make this stretch of road UNFIT for driving 130.
And most people don't go 130 on I-25. Most people go 80-85. The speed limit is 75.
Ahh screw you all, I just want a Nissan Skyline R34 GTR...... The only thing your Volvo and any BMW will be seeing is each other drooling at back of it fading into the distance :)