Quote:
I don't think they were the first to use the PhatNoise system, Audi did it first, IIRC.



Ah yes.
The infamous PhatBox Interface of Utmost Heinosity.

They also came out with this identical (nasty) interface for Audi, Volkswagen, and BMW at around the same time.

However, when I checked a year or so back it didn't seem to be available for the BMW any more.

[Just checked their website. Looks like they're back in stock. A mere $898 for the 80GB, or $699 for the 40GB version. Uggghh.
They now claim to support Acura, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Lincoln, Mecury[sic], MINI, Porsche, Range Rover, Scion, Toyota.

And are "partnered" with Volvo, Mazda, VW, Audi, Kenwood.]

Note: Ebay is always chock full of used Audi and VW ones. But if you're a Volvo or Ferrari guy, you'll most likely have to buy a new one (or better yet, install a real unit like an Empeg).

On a related note, I talked to a BMW parts guy today. Apparently the much-hyped BMW-to-ipod interface of last year will already be discontinued starting with the '06 models.

According to the BMW guy, Apple and BMW (and perhaps Alpine) worked together on this project, then Apple yanked their blessing to BMW thus releasing the technology somewhat into the public domain allowing Alpine to do a much better interface than the BMW one (I.e., one that actually shows Artist and Track info in the dash display).

Apparently, BMW thinks that Alpine really stabbed them in the back on that one.

So BMW's cop-out is now to just offer an Aux-In jack and let you reach over and twiddle your iPod/iRiver/cheap-korean-flash-mp3-player while you are driving (real safe, folks).

Of course, you can still just replace the factory head unit -- but they are still doing their damn best to make sure that that process is expensive, impractical, nearly impossible, and totally invalidates your 4-year electrical system warranty for the entire car.

(Hey, at least they aren't (yet) burying the heater system electronics inside the factory head unit like the Infiniti G35 does!)

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[Soapbox->start()]

I've said it here repeatedly, but I'll shout it out one more time.

Why don't we just get a bunch of IEEE members together into a Standards Committee and bang out a standard protocol for music unit control, music metadata transfer, and music search request transfers.
This protocol could be spec'ed to run over USB2, PCI-Express, Ethernet, what have you.
They could also spec a recommended physical connector as well, but it would be easier (as I said above) just to piggyback on existing interfaces.

Then every car could have a standard port in its glovebox.
Every MP3 player could have a standard access port, too.
Every home stereo or home media system could have the port, too.

Then, BOOM, you just plug your iPod-alike into your car, your rental car, your friend's dormroom stereo, your stadium sound-system, your fancy new exercise machine, whatever.

Why is it so hard to just Do The Right Thing here?

All these proprietary OEM automobile MP3 players are sucktastic.

And even if they were excellent why not make it so that when I'm still driving my 2007 Camry in 2017, I can just plug in my 27th Generation iMediaGizmo in the glovebox -- instead of being stuck with some crappy 20GB hard drive module designed in 2002 for the 2007 model year which can only be loaded with Windows XP which became COMPLETELY UNSUPPORTED in 2008.

Why do we keep making these SAME technology mistakes every go round when the solutions to mitigate these issues are extremely OBVIOUS?

[Soapbox->end()]