“The Alfa Romeo 147 allows you to enjoy the music of your iPod while driving, through seamless integration with the controls on the steering wheel and the audio system head unit,” Alfa Romeo’s site reads. “iPod is stored in a special drawer in the central console, protected from crashes and in total safety for driver and passengers, linked to the audio system in order to allow playback of your playlists and favourite music.”
Alfa Romeo now has a Flash presentation online that shows an iPod mini and how it works with the new Alfa Romeo’s audio system. To view it, visit http://ginevra.ogilvy.it/en/ and click “147 & iPod.”
[Attribution: MacBidouille]
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Apple and leading car companies team up on iPod integration in 2005 – January 11, 2005
Apple and Volvo announce iPod connectivity for entire 2005 US model line – January 11, 2005
Apple & Mercedes-Benz unveil iPod Integration Kit – January 11, 2005
Apple, BMW develop iPod music device for cars, likely to be first of several deals with automakers – June 17, 2004
I wish Alfa’s were still available here in the USA.
Beautiful integration. Lucky Europeans.
thats a pretty hot car. why don’t we get those in the states. =(
iSteve:
I think with the new GTV, they’re supposed to be coming back to you.
Trust me, if you don’t fall in love with the way this thing looks there is a possibility that you’re actually dead inside.
I think Alfa showed it off at Geneva: do a search for Brera or GTV and you’ll see it – sadly the Brera concept’s scissor doors will disappear for the GTV production run, but let’s face it scissor doors are just an accident waiting to happen.
Also go and search out photos of the Competizione 8C: apparently scheduled for production.
hmm, I didn’t see where you could go through playlists or anything. Does the song playing and playlists display on the head unit? Couldn’t tell that either. A special drawer is nice but without the above it is not really that special.
American cars usually lack of personnality, they are very standard. Well, except for the Corvette and a few other.
I must say I’m in love with the BMW M3. Isn’t it an amazing car ? A great combination of quality, design, technology and performance.
Anyway, it is an honor to see the iPod put upfront in Alfa Romeo’s upcoming cars. This is a great push for Apple. If you don’t have the iPod these days you’re just left alone. Alfa will be followed by more and more manufacturers.
I doubt we’ll ever see a Creative Zen micro automobile integration though…
Strange. The 147 is butt ugly and they hide the beautiful iPod with some hokie door in the dash. It’s better than the BMW “integration” – but not by much.
Alfa’s are NOT missed in the US. I remember the Milano – what a disaster.
I would have preferred this car instead:
the Alfa Brera’s concept was done by ItalDesign, the same design firm behind Toyota’s Alessandro Volta, The Volkswagen Touareg, and the Maserati Spyder.
Lotus’ Esprit, BMW’s M1, Ferrari’s Dino and the DeLorean also were designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, ItalDesign’s co-founder.
And to keep it on topic, their industrial design division (Giugiaro Design) has done industrial design prototypes in the past for Apple…
BSOD: With some small exceptions, Alfa’s are now put together extremely well in the hope of creating a market for cars that have the performance of an Audi or BMW, but with more soul.
If you last experience of Alfa is pre-Fiat ownership, you should check them out – here in the UK, the only truly unpleasant thing about owning an Alfa is having to interact with the dealer network.
With the return to predominantly rear-wheel drive (albeit through a 4WD system) and a new generation of spaceframe chassis technologies, Alfa are well placed to follow the renaissance of Maserati which has positively blossomed since being taken under the care of Ferrari, although recent events indicate that Ferrari is being prepared for a spin-off to help fund Fiat Auto’s recovery, given GM’s recent escape from being forced to take the entire Fiat Auto group uder its wing.
Of course, all of this can be laid at the feet of the The Greatest Living Italian, otherwise known as Luca Cordero di
Montezemolo.
Jack A: The browsing is likely to happen through the 147’s driver information centre which is in the centre console.
Giofoto/Rogo: Like I said, the buzz here is that Brera will be used to relaunch Alfa in the United States, alongside the new Alfa Spyder.
Interestingly, Fiat have just separated Maserati from Ferrari – I guess because the former is no longer such a terminal case – and will manage it alongside the Alfa brand in what would appear to be an operation like Ford’s PAG (Jaguar/Aston/Volvo/Lincoln) unit using a former BMW Group executive to head the group.
I would expect to see new Alfas like the 159, Brera and Spyder appearing in a part of a Maserati showroom in your neck of the woods, followed by the next 16x, although I would have thought the chances of a 14x model ever appearing in the USA is relatively slim – too small, too European.
It’s cool that it’s becoming ‘iPod or nothing’ in so many environments.
This must really burn the competition in the player market. I can just imagine the Rio and Zen executives crawling to get their players into the same places, offering big discounts over the iPod.
As if it’s about that.
An Alfa? Meh!!!! BMW’s are such better machines, both in build quality and driving experience, and they have had the iPod connection for what? 18 months? But it’s nice to see more and more cars offer iPod connectors. I’ve also noticed that OEM audio companies, such as Alpine, only offer iPod.
When people write that other MP3 players will catch up or surpass the iPod, what they don’t realize is that it has come fairly close to the point where market momentum for iPods is so huge that other companies are destined for small market share. You can’t buy a BMW or Alfa to connect to a Rio. The number of 3rd party products for the iPod means you can customize it beyond anything available elsewhere.
I think iPod is destined for 70% market share for a long time to come. Let’s just hope Apple knows how to handle that.
OnlyMacs:
That’s fightin’ talk.
Actually, I think you’re probably right on build quality as a rule – still too many exposed screwheads on an Alfa – but a) both marques have their Friday afternoon cars and b) BMWs are just a tad more expensive than an Alfa.
So really, you get what youi pay for – it’s just I prefer the sound of an Alfa. I actually drive a Fiat Coupe 20V – which is the kissing cousin of the current Alfa (although powered by one of Fiat’s 5-cylinder counter-balanced units) – and have had surprisingly few problems with it since 1997.
She is, when properly maintained, an absolute dream to drive for a front-wheel drive 195 bhp machine and can be made to do exactly what you want under any circumstances – including a near-death 70mph deer strike last year which was saved by putting her into sideways slide so that both I and the deer survived by hitting it whilst scrubbing speed at an angle.
That said, I still have to replace the bonnet which is single £2000 clamshell – but a small price to pay for still breathing. She’s also still one of the best looking cars on the road, some ten years after the original hit the street and a couple of years after production finished.
What is so special about ‘ipod integration’. Dont you just plug it into your cd players headphone socket or something or rather?
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Im thinking that the new alfa Giulietta will do really well and bring a lot of new followers to the alfa range, its an impressive looking new car
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