Scribbled by Sven L.L. Rafferty

After months of waiting and months of excitement, Alpine released their much anticipated iPod connector kit. Their web site for the kit looked sweet and was filled with information. Web blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo said it was hot and the thing for your car. Hey, this had to be it, folks!

Well I finally found an in depth review and what I discovered saddened me. Seems Playlist found something very un-iPod: an impossibly tough user experience. In fact, Dan Frakes was so expecting an iPod experience that he opted to ignore the manual, “…assuming that since the iPod is so easy to use, the Alpine system would be similarly simple.” To Dan’s dismay, he continues, “unfortunately, that’s not the case.”

He explains the problem with the rushed marriage and it makes sense. Yes, every first release experiences that “one-itis” problem and through some tough growing pains matures by 2.0. But, having to wait nearly a year for the new head units to be released, why weren’t they improved for the iPod? As a leading car audio manufacture, you would think Alpine would have done more then just hack their existing CD changer set-up. I guess this makes it a bit clearer why Apple kept its distance on this, too.

I’m not expecting iPod interface and ease in a DIN sized radio in my dash. Not yet. But I do expect plug-and-play ease, guys. I expect their be an easy way to bring up a playlist; an easy way to jump around songs; an easy way to browse. I expect that because I have an iPod. If I wanted tough, I would have bought an iRiver or a Dell DJ Jukebox.

So what does this mean for all of us who want after market radios to plug into their iPod’s? It means we need to wait a little longer. Clarion announced they would have one to show off at CES and I know Clarion’s stuff, it’s always nice. Too bad they do Sirrus, though (I’m and XM man.) There’s also ICELink and their new release that does all this playlist stuff on a hand full of various manufactures head units now. Look at the demo and I think you’ll be impressed more with their unit then Alpine’s. And you may not even need to replace your current radio!

As the iPod becomes more and more popular and people realize what I did a year ago (I don’t need this lame CD changer anymore now that I have an iPod), you’ll see more of these car stereo’s with iPod connectivity. Since I didn’t want to wait, I had a custom install and mount done to my car and while I don’t have on-screen display and full button access, the iPod is positioned close enough that I can do and see all of these things with ease. But not everyone can spend a few hundred dollars to get a custom job and I don’t want to do this for my next car, either. But you know, deep down, I know I won’t have to. By the time I get my next car (actually the F250 truck) next year, Toshiba should be delivering their 80GB drive to Cupertino and a half a dozen manufactures will be prime time with their iPod kits. Yup, me and my 80GB iPod Photo with Bluetooth will be sitting happy as I dig deep in the mud with my new 4×4 as I blast Luba Dvorak’s “Big Toy’s & 4×4’s” out the JL’s! :)