Many would say that the iPod is the invention of the 21st century, and I wouldn’t disagree. This one single device has changed the way we think about purchasing and playing music. The whole music genre is now in the process of changing, and in my opinion changing for the better. Music is now truly mobile; it can be downloaded & listened while on the move.
With all genre inspiring inventions the iPod has opened new avenues to explore and expand, one of these avenues is mobile music, or getting music to be played while driving. You might think that’s a stupid comment, maybe it is as radios have been in cars since well forever. However think how we listen to music when we drive at the minute,
The radio, we have to listen to choices that other people make, the music they choose and their comments about it. This can obviously be entertaining but we have very little or no influence over it.
CD’s the only realistic alternative, but the majority of CD’s can only fit 20 tracks on (maybe a few more depending on the size of files etc...) so short of having a full music collection in your car your still limited.
The third choice is the iPod Car Kit (which there are many of), but the best and most popular are Dension and Dice units, both kits are fully hardwired into the factory fitted radio (so no aesthetic changes required). This allows the iPod to be fully integrated and in most cases this means track and artist text compatibility, controlling track selection through the steering wheel controls and Charging of the iPod. Instantly you can see the advantage of the iPod, having access to 1000’s or more of your favorite artists, albums, singles & Podcasts, basically whatever you want.
You Might ask, this is here now! So where is this going in the future, well that answer is simple, The choices are endless. The new iPods are have up to 200gb hard-drive, so even now you have plenty of space for music & videos that can be played onto in car screens, But looking to the future incorporating Sat Nav’s & fully integrated Bluetooth has to be an option.
Dension have the Gateway 100, gateway 300 and gateway 500 that are all fully integrated and can be connected just about all car manufacturers (Radio specific). There is a also a universal kit for the cars that cant be fully integrated. The Dension firmware is regulary updated to get the best from the kit.
Dice has the Dice Silverline unit that is the equivalent of the gateway 100. Essentially the same piece of kit as the Dension however some aspects of the Dice kit work with more consistency with certain vehicles.
So what the big differences between all the kits?
Gateway 100 – Is the first step on the fully integrated iPod Car kit ladder, The kit allows the user to have control over the ipod, change tracks via the steering wheel and with specific vehicles shows track information text .
Gateway 300 – Basically the same as the Gateway 100 but with the additional USB input. This allows a flash drive for extra media to be played
Gateway 500 – If a fully fibre optic system. The unit is a multimedia centre that allows iPod, USB and retention of the CD Changer, A new addition (soon to be available) to the unit will allow multi file source operation, meaning that music can be played in the front while a video can be played in the back (if you have screens) to keep the kids happy.
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