http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/15/over-half-of-2009-vehicles-in-america-will-offer-ipod-support/
Over half have a proprietary plug for a proprietary MP3 player. In 5 years they'll be useless, and in 10 years they'll be nothing but a curiosity, like ash trays are right now, except you won't be able to store coins in them.
Pretty sure the plug's not proprietary. I'm not even sure you CAN make an interface device proprietary. If I ran a company offering a competing device, I'd sure look at moving my products over to the same plug.
And note that the plug has already been in use for more than 5 years, and the devices using it comprise more than 87% of the market.
I'm sure Belkin or someone would be happy to make an adaptor, if there were more than a half dozen people using any competing device.
yet another reason to not buy i-anythings.
I'm totally baffled... you don't like that they put in a plug that supports 90% of the devices out there, so you'd rather buy one that's NOT supported and never will be?
Two options here.
The g/f's Scion came with a generic plug in the car and a handful of adapters in the glove box. Pick the adapter that works with your device and plug it in. Works great. Total integration of whatever mp3 player you have. Control it from the factory deck.
My Mazdaspeed3 has an aux input port. It uses the same jack as a pair of headphones. I can't remember the size. I take my iPod and use a patch cable. Headphone plug -> cable -> car aux input. Works just as well as the g/f's setup but doesn't charge my iPod while listening. The one benefit is that I get to use the iPod interface.
Is there a problem here?! 
I'm pretty sure its a bad idea to specialize a cars hardware for any one portable music player. The best bet is to make the cars PMP integration as universal as possible to lessen the likelihood of alienating customers and rapid obsolescence. Anything too specialized today will look incredibly stupid next year when a new incompatible version comes out or the new fad gizmo takes over.
Generally speaking, Wil, I agree with you, but in this case, the iPod plug pretty much IS as universal as possible. It's on 90% or more of all the PMP devices out there.
So your two options are put in one plug that supports 90% or more and just works, or ship with a ton of adaptors hoping you happen to include the one oddball plug that particular user happens to use. Like I said, if I ran a competing company I'd adopt the iPod 30-pin connector just so my device COULD work with the wide variety of ipod accessories. It's not like some gigantic trade secret--the pinouts are available on wikipedia!
This wouldn't be an issue if Apple could have just used a berkeleying USB port to begin with. I don't hate the automakers for going with the flow of the market, I hate Apple for creating this proprietary setup, and sheeple for supporting them.
Go look at the pinout. No way USB would've supported it. Besides, for years iPods supported both USB and Firewire (and I still lament that they don't anymore)
Look, the iPod is a solid well-designed product, that's why it dominates the marketplace - it's not that people aren't thinking when they buy it, it's that it just works better, and was first to market with a decent product.
I put in an aftermarket iPod interface in my '08 Fit, and it works quite well. Because of that "proprietary" plug, the thing charges my iPod, allows me to play tunes, and even control the iPod from my radio. I've had just an aux in before, and this solution beats it, hands-down. I've also owned my iPod for quite a while now, so I don't see how it will be made obsolete - it stores and plays my music, doesn't it? What else do I need?
Besides, were you complaining back when they started putting CD players in cars? That technology is fading now, and it doesn't mean the cars they were in are useless. Nobody uses tapes at all for that matter, but it doesn't mean cars with cassette decks can no longer be driven.
Doesn't sound like they are adding functionality with one device at the expense of preventing functionality with another. This doesn't hurt me if I don't have an iPod. At best I can plug another device in for the same functionality. At worst, this has no effect on me whatsoever.
I do think they aught to keep an Aux In jack, for any other uses.
Yes, they should. All cars should have an aux in jack.
I love my Ipod. But I miss CD's, I liked them better. And the sound quality was better (no, I can't tell a difference... but I'd like to think I could)
Ford Sync offers USB inputs. Problem solved. If your device can plug into a cable that allows it to be plugged into a USB port (and I wouldn't buy an MP3 player that doesn't have a USB cord), you can plug it into your Ford.
I don't see a point in doing it any other way.
Man, if you think USB will be around in 10 years, you got another thing coming.
And yet, I'm still using one of those cassette adapters in my car for playing CDs or my iPod because my car has a tape deck. The sound quality is horrible! If I wasn't saving for another car, I would have already replaced the radio.
bastomatic wrote: Man, if you think USB will be around in 10 years, you got another thing coming.
IDE is still around.
I can't stand APPLE, Mac, whatever the freak it's called. Even in elementary school when playing Oregon Trail on the Mac computers, I couldn't stand them. I can't put my finger on it, but I just can't stand anythign that company produces.
VGA is still around, coax is still around, people still use rabbit ears, I'm pretty sure USB will still be around.
Salanis wrote:bastomatic wrote: Man, if you think USB will be around in 10 years, you got another thing coming.IDE is still around.
IDE? dying quickly....I'm surprised its still here. its only been around for 25 years.
USB? About 15 years now..... it'll be here for a while
confuZion3 wrote: Ford Sync
That's another discussion 
If only I could hook up my Wii to play Mario Kart on the way to work.
ArtOfRuin wrote: And yet, I'm still using one of those cassette adapters in my car for playing CDs or my iPod because my car has a tape deck.
You have a tape deck?
I guess my Valiant Transaudio AM radio is getting a little long in the tooth ...
DirtyBird222 wrote: I can't stand APPLE, Mac, whatever the freak it's called. Even in elementary school when playing Oregon Trail on the Mac computers, I couldn't stand them. I can't put my finger on it, but I just can't stand anythign that company produces.
I'll never understand this mentality.
grtechguy wrote: IDE? dying quickly....I'm surprised its still here. its only been around for 25 years. USB? About 15 years now..... it'll be here for a while
I'm pretty sure USB will outlast IDE. IDE continues to survive even though SATA is vastly superior. And very few end users really make active use of either. Everyone makes active use of USB, and that will resist replacement very strongly.
Plus, hasn't USB been updated but kept its same form-factor? No reason why that couldn't continue.
Actually, maybe a better comparison would be PS/2, or whatever the term is for the connector that Keyboards and Mice use. That has been around for a really long time, and isn't even really dying yet, despite the universality of USB.
So because you don't have an iPod you think that no cars should come with the connector? I don't remember the numbers, but the iPod has a HUGE portion of the market, if you were a car company would you rather spend some money supporting something that nearly everyone has, or some money that almost no one has?
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