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beware ipod

My inital experience with the new 40gb ipod was excellent but the honeymoon is over! The unit has completely died after only several weeks of use. Numerous glitches forced me to constantly "reboot" the unit until it stopped working completely. Battery life never came close to the claimed eight hours, plus you are unable to back-up audio files from the ipod thanks to apple becoming a lackey for the music industry. I really feel like I have been taken to the cleaners on this purchase. I spent the better part of a week loading .wav files onto the unit and to have it completely crash so quickly means that apple obviously has some quality issues. The ipod is based on an off the shelf Toshiba hardrive that retails for a couple of hundred dollars so you are paying apple for the interface and the cute plastic box. I love electronics and have spent a fortune on them over the years but no purchase has been such a huge disappointment. Avoid the temptation to buy what seems like a great unit. Steven Jobs has no clothes.
ntscdan
rsbeck
887 posts
 
There are ways to get your ipod to play through your car's system. Consult a car stereo installer in your area. Many car stereos have an auxilary input that isn't being used. Your installer can connect a jack to that into which you can
plug your ipod using your headphone out. There is another solution which
involves a small transmitter that connects to your ipod and allows you to play it through your car's radio. You can also get an attachment which will allow
you to plug the ipod into either a car lighter or or a similar DC input in an
airplane so you can keep your ipod (or laptop computer) charged. Most of the larger jets have these inputs in their first class seats.
rsbeck
887 posts
 
Also, Alpine Car Stereo company is coming out with car stereos that will connect to your ipod, take over its functions and keep it charged so you can
use your ipod as a portable hard drive and play it through your car stereo. If you have bought an Alpine car stereo recently, it may have this capability, but you will need to purchase an interface that will allow you to take advantage of it. Check with your local Alpine dealer.
rsbeck
887 posts
 
Right now, I have a jack installed which connects to my Alpine car stereo through an auxilary input so I can play my ipod directly through my car's audio system -- and it sounds great. The interface which will allow my head unit to take over the ipods functions and keep it charged was introduced at CES and I am eagerly awaiting its release so I can get that puppy installed. The solution I am using now works beautifully, but it could be a little more elegant if I didn't have to have the wire to the cigarrette lighter to keep the ipod charged and it would be cool to have a Head Unit that would display the songs and artists from the ipod.
rsbeck
887 posts
 
From Alpine's press release ---

With a simple one-cable connection, iPod users will be able to operate key playback features from the Alpine receiver's buttons and have display of playlists, album, artist and songs on the head unit. The iPod can then be safely stored in the glove box or console because it acts like a portable hard drive connected to the head unit through Alpine's powerful Ai-Net system bus. The Alpine connectivity solution also provides charging of the iPod's internal battery.

For the rest --

http://www.alpine-usa.com/company_info/press_release/010804_ipad.html
rsbeck
887 posts
 
Currently, there are several companies that make hard drive units for Car Audio systems. The largest of these hold 15 Gigs and costs more than a 40 Gig ipod -- and it is dedicated to the car. The 40 Gig ipod has more than twice the storage, is less expensive, and is portable.

No -- I don't work for either Apple or Alpine.
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