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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."
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?
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.
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
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.
Uh, shouldn't you just be putting your MP3 player on "shuffle" before you drive and then concentrate on driving?
(1)If a song comes on you don't like...why the hell is it on your MP3 player?!
(2)Shouldn't you know what the hell is on your own MP3 player? If you don't and finding out the song/artist is so freaking important, you should pull over to find out. Otherwise, keep your damn eyes on the road.
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."
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
They ARE clueless fanboys. Look at the attack on his post by the mods? You say ANYTHING negative against Apple or Jobs and people get very upset and abuse the mod system to do it.
"Business Week Online columnist Alex Salkever notes that while Apple's iPod is a "bona fide hit," its 25% global marketshare number may be overblown: "Too bad their assumption is off base: The iPod's global market share may actually fall well below the 25% mark....Very little good data exists on international sales of consumer electronics -- digital-music players included. With the exception of Japan, information out of Asia is sketchy. According to one of [the MP3] chipmakers and to industry analysts, worldwide shipments of digital-music-player chips hit about 15 million last year. An April, 2004, report from investment bank CIBC on this market estimated global sales of flash and hard-drive music players at 17 million. If that's true, then the 1.5 million iPods sold in 2003 gives Apple 8% to 10% of the global market.""
Alpine stereos -- NICE ones -- start at under $160 and I guarantee you they have more power than your Toyota stock unit.
Sounds like you paid more for less. I wouldn't complain, though...I spent about two days hacking my own changer controls to work with the iPod last year, didn't have the luxury of buying either of these devices.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
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
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
I personally don't like iTunes. I don't buy music off the internet because I can usually find the CDs I want for under $10 each, which is less than I would pay iTunes for a copy tied to one computer, which I cannot use on an alternate OS (Linux) without hacks, which will not play in my current player (CD-MP3 player), and I don't feel like "wasting" (quotes because I feel it's wasted, to me) $500 or so on a product that will barely hold all my MP3 files. And before you ask, no, they are not even largely "illegal" files.
That said, I have to agree wholeheartedly with your comment about the head unit. I think it would be safer to have the info on the head unit, as a portable player can shift around and you don't know exactly where to look at it for 2 seconds as you make sure of what the current song is titled, etc. Plus, I like the UI, but only to a point. The same with anything Apple. The only thing Apple makes that I like without a single caveat is their large widescreen LCD displays. They are the most beautiful things I have ever imagined.
I'm not poor, though I'm not rich. I just think it's a waste of money to buy an iPod. I only paid $600 for my current laptop because it's fast enough for what I do with it (music and coding mainly, sometimes a game). Plus I found that, except for the modem, it is compatible with Linux. Oh, and it has 2 buttons for the trackpad which is vital to how I use a computer. You can have your Apple products, but they're not for me. If the iPod was more reasonably priced (to me at least), I would buy one or two. But currently I can't justify it to myself.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
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.