Apple and BMW Group today announced the BMW iPod Adapter, the first seamless integration between iPod and a car audio system. The new system developed by Apple and BMW enables drivers to seamlessly use their iPod in BMW’s 3 Series, Z4 Roadster, X3 and X5 Sports Activity Vehicles and MINI Cooper by simply plugging their iPod into a cable located in the car’s glove compartment. With the iPod safely located in the glove compartment and powered by the car’s battery, drivers can now enjoy high fidelity sound through their car’s stereo system and control their iPod using the standard buttons on their BMW or MINI steering wheel.
“One of the next frontiers for a seamless digital music experience is the car,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in the press release. “We all spend a lot of time driving, and now this elegant solution lets iPod users enjoy their entire music collection in their BMW or MINI.”
“With Apple, we’re bringing the ultimate digital music experience to our customers,” said Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO, BMW of North America in the press release. “The BMW iPod Adapter provides our drivers with virtually endless miles of music without their hands ever leaving the steering wheel.”
The seamless integration of iPod makes it effortless for drivers to control their music through their existing audio system and the multifunction steering wheel. The BMW iPod Adapter enables drivers to easily access their entire music library, shuffle songs, skip between tracks and adjust volume — all of this with no loss of sound quality or driving control. Drivers can also create up to five unique “BMW playlists” to listen to while on the road enabling them to enjoy their favorite songs at the touch of a button. The BMW iPod Adapter integrates Apple’s iPod and iPod mini through a direct connection in the glovebox, providing outstanding sound quality and constant power to the iPod.
The rollout is being supported with a dedicated website, [url=http://www.ipodyourbmw.com]http://www.ipodyourbmw.com[/url] (not online as of this article posting), for customers to learn more about this groundbreaking marriage of music and car, as well as a marketing campaign that includes print, outdoor, online and television advertising.
The BMW iPod Adapter is available for the MSRP of $149 (US) plus installation cost, and will be officially available for customers to purchase at BMW centers as of July 12, 2004 for 2002, 2003 and 2004 BMW models: X3, X5, Z4 and 3 Series. The MINI Cooper iPod Adapters will be available later this summer. Consumers should check with their BMW or MINI centers for specific application restrictions or log onto [url=http://www.ipodyourbmw.com]http://www.ipodyourbmw.com[/url] Installation is performed by authorized BMW and MINI centers only. iPod and iPod mini are available in the U.S. through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod mini is available for a suggested retail price of $249 (US); $299 (US) for the 15GB iPod, $399 (US) for the 20GB iPod and $499 (US) for the 40GB iPod.
iPodMyNissa…..aaahhhhh, forget it. I’ll get a BMW. What a great accessory for my iPod!
I currently run my iPod through the cassette adaptor. This is going to become a problem tho as newer cars only have CD a lot of the time. The FM adaptor has static but is better than nothing I guess. I have had to use it when getting a rentacar. Plus all these solutions don’t charge (tho I could do that separately). I am sure there will be more solutions available for other cars (Japanese Cars?) soon.
What about iRiverYourCadillac? What has a nice ring to it….or NomadYourNissan?
Apple has announced the G5, Airtunes, the new Remote desktop, the iPod for BMW, etc.
Whatter they gonna have left to announce at WWDC besides Tiger and the iMac??? It must be something either big or time consuming…remember how time consuming Garageband was? Now it is my most favorite app. Will Tiger have that many features? Something is up besides their stock.
Where’s the Apple stock hits a new 52-week high story?
Alpine is supposed to be releasing an integrated stereo-ipod system that operates in a similar fashion.. but where is it?
Newman, you forgot ITMS for Europe..
This is bad news for consumers everywhere and puts the industry back at least two years.
If only BMW would have thought of their customers first and given them the choice of integrating the value-for-money Dell DJ and the superior WMA technology.
I agree with (faux) Paul. Next, we’ll hear Apple is going out of business
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-B
Which car is BMW giving Steve?
>>If only BMW would have thought of their customers first and given them the choice of integrating the value-for-money Dell DJ and the superior WMA technology<<
But you got it all wrong, Paul. BMW is not value for money kind of car and WMA does not work with the most popular music player. So go figure…
Plus, I don’t see Bimmer owners complain about not having their favorite you-name-it music player compatible with this new device.
ive had one of these in my cadillac for 6months. but it was $219 its called the icelink http://densionusa.com/
but it is great to see a cheaper more effective solution even if its only for BMWs at the moment
Anyone noticed that the BMW owner will have to set up a specific playlist (or playlists) in iTMS for the iPod to be recognized by the steering wheel contols & stereo display? Just can’t automatically (or should I say “ohtomatically”) plug it in and play your tunes until you’ve done that. Just fyi…
Ipod your horses ass dot-com
Yep, When I’m getting saddle-sore, I like nothing more than to listen to Hank Williams while I ride fence. But my iPod kept slipping out my boot-straps, so now I shove it up my horse’s ass.
It gets pretty smelly up there, but he likes it when the HD starts to vibrate and get hot. I must have a gay horse. How sad.
BMW= the newest iPod accessory.. lmfao…
Nissan’s are fucking classy man.. they’ll come out w Nissan’s.. come on? Lexus?
BuriedCaesar…
It was my interpretation that you can plug in the ipod and it will automatically start playing from the whole song list.
There are, however, numbered buttons on the radio that you use for pre-saved FM radio stations. By marking certain playlists as BMW-specific, you can press the numbered buttons and cycle through up to 5 lists.
So it will *just work* out of the box. The additional effort of marking playlists just makes it work *better.*
Another way: Drop the play whole library and let the next/previous buttons just skip to the next/previous playlist. It doesn’t matter how many playlists you have, you can figure it out from the first track. Just hit the next button to move to the next playlist, you don’t have to look (safer). I’d rather have that even if it means skipping the next/previous track functions.
The numbered buttons could select the first playlists up to the number of available buttons.
What’s good about the BMW Adapter is that it’ll force other car manufacturers to do the same (if they were smart) and it could lead to a snowball effect. VW/Audi should be next.
On another subject — WWDC: Could Apple have something planned for TVs? The VCR is dead and my Cinema plays DVDs better’n any non-flat-screen TV. Is the 30-incher just for “work”?
From our favourite tech commentator�
[B]iPod your BMW, the good, bad and ugly�[/B]
[I]Apple today announced a deal with BMW in which the automaker will sell certain cars with an “iPod adapter.” But Engadget says the device isn’t that cool: “You can�t use it with a BMW with a CD Changer, Satellite radio, GPS navigation system or cassette. So, that means most/all the people who got a BMW are out. Who doesn�t get at least one of those in their BMW? You need to make separate playlists on your iPod called BMW1, BMW2, etc�AND the track titles do not show up in the BMW, it just says track1, track2, etc. … Blah. In case you didn�t notice, the thing the iPod does, is just pretend it’s a CD player that the BMW didn�t get. BMW and Apple will tell you the sound quality is great, and it most likely is- but when we use our iTrip mini or tape audio in, with a BMW 300ci and compare with the CD player with the top up or down, our ears couldn�t tell a difference: if you can, then maybe this is for you. But if you�re ears are that good, you likely don’t do your hardcore listening on a noisy highway. You need to open up the glove box and plug it in.”[/I]
need a doc for your I pod …. sugest you see this site http://news.designtechnica.com/article4376.html its cool.
where’s Sputnick when you need him? I was expecting to read that people in the “real IT world” don’t drive BMWs.
Make sure they come in “Black” for Harley
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something i would definately buy is an icelink system that had steering wheel control option.. that would be frekaing awesome! i bel alot more people would buy the kit!!!!