iCruze For Your Car
Monday, March 06, 2006
I decided to do a bit of research on the iCruze, a 3rd party plug-in for your ipod. With the iCruze you can listen to your ipod thru your car stereo and control it with the existing buttons.
Pros: can listen to your ipod without a wireless FM transmitter.
Cons: cannot navigate thru the ipod, acts like a cd changer. You have to create playlists and depending on your car you may only be able to have as little as 5 and up to 10. You can load as many songs onto your playlist but if you are using the external display the tracks stop at 99. The display does not scroll, so it cuts off long song and artist names.
The bottom line, you are forced to create playlists ahead of time with your tracks. You can skip thru the tracks but you are unable to scroll around on your ipod looking for music to listen to. Your co-pilot cannot play dj since all the controls are on the factory stereo. Installation should be done professionally since you are tearing apart your dashboard. Price wise, you are looking at $140. On the website they are running a sale right now, not sure how long it will last. That price does not include installation and there may be an additional component needed depending on your car.
The idea is good but there are too many limitations to be practical. Some new cars are coming with a headphone jack in the front of the stereo where you can plug your ipod in. I am not sure if you can navigate on the stereo or if that needs to be done on the ipod itself. I think this way is better even if you are still scrolling thru on the ipod, you are using the speakers and not worrying about the wireless transmitter. My next step is to look for aftermarket stereos that allow you to plug right into the front, not sure if they exist or if they are cost effective but I will let you know.
Posted by mardenhill 3/06/2006 09:43:00 AM
1 Comment:
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9:35 PM
Enjoyed a lot! » » »
