beware ipod

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.

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

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.

so, because of one isolated incident we should all be wary? i'm not going to stop driving cars because someone had one die. same with my iPod. my 40gb has been perfect out of the box and continues to be so. i'm terribly sorry yours is fubar'd and i certainly hope you get a new replacment unit and give it a 2nd chance.

btw, all of the things you say you couldn't do (burn CDs from it, take files off, etc) i've done, you just have to do a little research...

IMO, the ideal situation is to manage all of one's music files on an external hard drive. These days, you can get a lot of storage for relatively little $$. This way, you don't take up your computer's hard drive with music files. Then, you circulate your music through your ipod from your external hard drive. You burn CD's with your computer using your external hard drive. To me, asking your ipod to manage all of that, or being disappointed because you can't do all of that from your ipod is a little unrealistic. Before the 40 Gig ipod, I was carrying around a notebook computer so I could carry that much music. The ipod conveniently separates the portable music capability so I
don't have to carry around a full fledged computer. For me, a portable hard dive player like the ipod is the Holy Grail -- it is THE solution. To have THAT much music THAT portable, to be able to plug my ipod into my home stereo,
take it with me and plug it into my car stereo, then take it out of the car and listen to it at the beach or on an airplane makes the ipod THE answer. Carrying around a notebook computer, which was the alternative, was way more costly, way less convenient. As I said in an earlier post, there *are* hard drive solutions for the home -- like the Escient Fireball -- which cost far more than an ipod -- and are not portable. There are hard drive solutions for the car -- Sony makes one -- which cost a lot more than an ipod and have a lot less storage -- and are not portable. And, neither of those solutions are nearly as easy to load as the ipod. Then, you've got car stereo manufacturers like Alpine coming up with products that will let you plug your ipod directly into your car's audio system. And a 40 Gig ipod only costs around $500. To me, that's a hell of a deal. Of course, if you get a lemon, that's not a deal at any price, but my guess is that Apple will replace it and then, like others have said, for people to avoid the ipod with all of it's convenience, portability, and efficiency at such a reasonable price, because of one bad experience, would be a shame.