Comments on: The Next Generation of iPod Integration

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 21:53:13 +0000

I know for a fact this is true. I would in the snowboard industry and Burton is working with apple to create a ski helmet that connects to the ipod via wireless blue tooth. It’s expected to be out this fall, so I’m assuming that the ipod will be too.

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 16:47:18 +0000

Despite other folks comments to the contrary, my Monster iPlay works great as a radio transmitter. I really think the difference is that it is also a power adapter, so it has a very strong signal. My wife had an iTrip for a while - very weak signal. She replaced it with a DLO Transpod and has had great results.

So use a radio adapter that also plugs into the cig lighter. My experience suggests you'll have much better results.

TMan

By: RB

RB — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 15:50:29 +0000

My iTrip NEVER worked properly........NEVER.

Their service people were the worst. I became so frustrated with it and them I sent it back to them and told them to keep it.

Don't buy one.

By: ecirwin

ecirwin — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:23:39 +0000

Is there anyone else here wondering what Bluetooth brings to this picture? If the phone and iPod are in some kind of cradle (as described) then why have Bluetooth? I know that energy management is a big part of BT 2.0, but I think a broadcasting iPod with BT built in would be an energy hog. If I leave the BT turned on in my phone the battery dies in a day and a half. With BT turned off, the battery lasts 4 days. This is the older BT, but battery usage is a concern. As soon as you plug the unit into something, you might as well do everything through the plug (charge, transmit, receive). I just don’t see the logic in this. BT for BT sake does not make sense.

By: James Gleason

James Gleason — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 05:54:45 +0000

I’m so sorry. I’m a dork! My apologies for this confusion on my part. Thanks!

By: Gabe

Gabe — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 05:48:07 +0000

James - You're post wasn't deleted. You actually posted your comment on the most recent ICE-Link article and not this thread.

By: James Gleason

James Gleason — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 05:45:19 +0000

Gabe, why was my post removed? Just because I hadn’t had a response from Dension? Is that my fault. I didn’t say anything worthy of this. Is this censorship in the highest degree? I just want to have a working IceLink which I paid for. I noticed that others had complained here in this posting, so I was just sharing my struggle with Dension. Nothing flameworthy.

By: rollermonkey

rollermonkey — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 22:43:12 +0000

sigh... new iPods today and not any Bluetooth in sight.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 21:34:28 +0000

Siddhartha – my experience with FM transmitters over the years has been so poor I don’t even bother mentioning them anymore.

By: Siddhartha

Siddhartha — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 21:32:26 +0000

I guess no one has seen these options from Herrington?

iPod FM Wireless Broadcaster $39.95 Apple’s iPod gets my vote as Best Designed Audio Product of the Decade. But I found ways to improve it! Plug our tiny Broadcaster into your iPod, and transmit a clean, FM signal to your car or home stereo. Just … an open station from among the four pre-programmed frequencies, and enjoy iPod’s 10,000-tune repertoire on the road, or at home – without headphones, …

iPod-to-Go $99.95 I call this the ultimate iPod accessory. So well engineered it could have been designed by Steve Jobs himself (although it wasn’t!). Just slip your iPod or iPod Mini into the cradle, then plug the pivoting arm into your 12-volt lighter socket. iPod-to-Go transmits a clear signal to your car’s FM stereo – just set your radio and iPod-to-Go to any unused FM frequency from 88MHz – 108MHz. Then enjoy your entire iPod repertoire through …

iTrip for iPod $36.95 Here’s three ways to improve your iPod’s versatility while complementing its slick design: iTrip – Transmit a clean, wireless FM signal of iPod’s or Mini Ipod’s output to your car or home stereo. Just plug iTrip right into the … headphone jack and pick any open station from 87.7 to 107.9! Powered from iPod – no batteries needed.iTalk – Turn iPod into a voice recorder/playback machine with hundreds of hours of …

By: ChrisLW

ChrisLW — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 19:05:57 +0000

And how about this, a BT via cassette adapter…http://www.abe-hk.com/english/products/cassette/cassette.htm

The sound quality must be a bit on the weaker side…

By: JB

JB — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:45:05 +0000

I have not yet committed to an ipod option for my MY05 mcs works. so far i am suffering with itrip until a definate solution from denison or bmw/mini will give me heads up on the dash head unit. keep up the great work on the updates thanks gabe

By: johnsocal

johnsocal — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 07:03:51 +0000

They will most likely use Broadcom's BCM2045 instead BCM2035:

The new very low power BCM2045 Bluetooth solution: The industry's first 0.13u Bluetooth solution with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), the new Bluetooth 2.0 standard that triples the speed of Bluetooth for advanced multimedia, wireless printing and other applications.

By: vitaboy

vitaboy — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:20:34 +0000

Also from Apple's website:

"The new Apple PowerBook G4 portables are the first computers to offer Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. (Earlier aluminum and titanium PowerBook G4 models feature Bluetooth 1.x support.) Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, while still backwards-compatible with Bluetooth 1.x, is up to three times faster than its predecessors, offering a maximum data rate of 3Mbps. As the first company to certify a system supporting Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (enhanced data rate) specification with the Bluetooth Qualification Board, Apple continues to popularize Bluetooth technology."

The BCM2035 seems to be a Bluetooh 1.x chip, which doesn't seem to have enough bandwidth for streaming hi-fi audio. As Apple is already supporting Bluetooth 2.0+EDR in its new PowerBooks, it's doubtful they would use the BCM2035 in the iPod, in my opinion.

By: johnsocal

johnsocal — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 05:02:30 +0000

More info:

BCM2035

Bluetooth Single-Chip HCI Solution The Broadcom BCM2035 is a monolithic single-chip, standalone baseband processor with an integrated 2.4-GHz transceiver for Bluetooth 1.1 and 1.2 applications. It eliminates the need for external flash memories and active components by integrating critical components into the device, thus minimizing the footprint and system cost of implementing a Bluetooth system.

The BCM2035 is the optimal solution for any voice and/or data applications that requires the Bluetooth SIG standard Host Controller Interface (HCI) via either USB or UART and PCM audio interfaces. The BCM2035 is based on the production and UnPlugFest proven architecture of the BCM2033 Bluetooth baseband core (BBC), peripheral transport unit (PTU), and microprocessor unit (PU). The PU stores the lower level protocol stack in read-only memory (ROM) plus patch random access memory (RAM) to provide the maximum flexibility.

By: johnsocal

johnsocal — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 04:59:47 +0000

Broadcom already supplies Apple WIFI technology and Broadcom has a new version of bluetooth coming out as well that will most likely be used – check it out @ http://broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=675530&source=home

By: Evan

Evan — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 04:10:40 +0000

I was wondering about an update for the BMW/MINI ipod adapter. I was at the Detroit show and saw that Mercedes was beginning to offer an ipod adapter of its own. Only thing- their adapter displays the song title and artist as the ipod screen does, not just a playlist number.

Any news on this?

By: Iain

Iain — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 03:24:52 +0000

I stand corrected! I ghad not realized Apple had released BT2 to date. Maybe I should have said I know of no cell phones with BT2...

Now someone is going to post a list of all the new models with BT2.....

By: Gabe

Gabe — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 03:22:10 +0000

so kinda like an iPod then :)

By: Kurt Collins

Kurt Collins — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 03:20:13 +0000

Let me add that your handheld device would have a high-quality display that mimics a shrunken iPod display.