Ferrari F430-Mounted iPod Nano Records Clear Video, Lots Of Noise

Starting at $149 and shooting 640x480px VGA quality video, the new iPod Nano with video could be the ideal tool for easily capturing vehicle action footage. There's only one problem: the noise. More »

Brilliant Girl Jumps In Front of a Pickup Truck to Save iPod

Here's an example of great priorities: a 16-year-old girl dove in front of a pickup truck to receive her dropped iPod. [Gizmodo]

Get A Woody Wagon For Your iPod

Element Case now offers an iPod holder designed to honor that most quintessential surfmobile, the Woody Wagon. Crafted using an actual piece of Sapeli veneer wood engraved with representations of various woodys, the case allows you to show your appreciation of both vintage machinery and irony by trapping the latest in digital musical technology within a tribute to 1940s automobiles. [Element Case]

Griffin Launches Two More Auto iPod Accessories

Using an iPod or iPhone in a car is going to be that much easier thanks to the latest round of goods from Griffin Technology. The WindowSeat is an oddly named, but simple gadget. It's a suction windshield mount for the iPhone or iPod Touch. If the next generation iPhone gets some legitimate GPS, this will be a nice $30 accessory to have. The other new goody is the iTrip AutoPilot. The AutoPilot is a glorified FM transmitter and charger for the iPod that connects via the standard dock connection of almost every iPod and will broadcast tunes over FM. It includes a 12V DC adapter with play, pause, forward and backward controls for the iPod or iPhone. It also includes a SmartScan feature to find the best FM station for transmission and has SmartSound Plus technology for clearer sound. The iTrip AutoPilot is available for $100. [iTrip AutoPilot; WindowSeat]

Pioneer AVIC-F Series Media, Navigation Systems Features Advanced Voice Recognition

Pioneer has announced a few new additions to its line of car navigation systems. The AVIC-F700BT, AVIC-F900BT and AVIC-F90BT come with features like iPod connectivity, Bluetooth, MSN Direct, HD Radio, XM, Sirius, CD, DVD, USB, SD and more. Although, the real specialness comes from their voice recognition abilities. More »

Incase Two-in-One iPod Charger Works in Car, Home

Wow. It's only taken a couple decades for someone to make a dual-purpose charger—yes, a charger capable of 12V DC and AC charging. This 2-in-1 from Incase is designed for the iPod or iPhone and can easily plug into a 12V DC outlet for charging your gadgets on the road, but it can also be taken in and used in a standard AC outlet. Holy convenience, Batman! More »

Detroit Auto Show: Hummer HX Records Off-Roading Adventures Directly to iPod

Despite its relationship to the Halo Warthog, the Hummer HX made a pretty big splash at the Detroit Auto Show. One of its coolest features is the front-facing camera that's integrated into the rear-view mirror. Throw in a docking slot to record your off-roading adventures directly to an iPod and you've got something quite cool, indeed. Sure, the HX is obviously very conceptual, but this is a feature that doesn't seem too farfetched. Of course, it's also a feature that may be destined to document tragedy, especially in this YouTube age. More »

What's Missing From Your Car?

Luddite Week comes crashing to a halt....now! I went car-shopping with a friend of mine a couple of weeks back. He's convinced that the car for him is an Audi A3. A fine, solid choice in my opinion. Yes of course I explained to him that for the money, a pistonhead would be better served in a 4-door GTI (or a WRX wagon) but he can afford the premium and likes the status of owning an Audi, even the little baby Volkswagen one. So be it. I particularly liked the "Open Sky" option, which is corporate nonsense for not one but two sun roofs (er, one sun roof and one moon roof, but still: cool) as they collaborated to make the wee car feel quite roomy. But the killer app was found in the glove box. There, sitting in its own little cubbyhole, was an iPod dock. Plug and play and forget it's even there, as you can change songs via steering wheel buttons. The new STI best have that option. You hearing me Subaru? Anyhow, your thoughts?

Marchionne Wants to Be Jobs, 500 to be His iPod

Sergio Marchionne is undoubtedly stocking up on black turtlenecks as we write this. The revived Cinquecento, according to the Fiat boss, is the cornerstone of his attempt to turn the company into "the Apple of cars, and the Cinquecento will be our iPod." The diminutive hatchback has already seen orders in excess of half of the fifty thousand units of goodwill the automaker plans to crank out this year, and they're considering raising full-model-year targets from 120,000 cars to 140,000, at a base price of ten thousand euros. Meanwhile, does anyone know where we can get Abarth tape stripes for a 30 gig iPod? Thanks. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Best Buy Announces RDS/iPod-Based In-Car Stereo Patent

Though not as common in the Colonies, certain markets utilize a Radio Database System to send song info over the FM band. A new patent by Best Buy utilizes this technology and links it, cleverly, with a "memory storage device," and by that they mean an iPod. This technology comes in handy when you're listening to a song on the radio but miss the name/artist. Just hit a button on the stereo and it will record the song info on your iPod. No longer will you have to attempt to google half-remembered lyrics ("Under bloomin onion I saw you?"). – Matt Hardigree More »

Jalopnik Exclusive: We Test GM's Patience And Personal Audio Link System For The iPod

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Microsoft And Ford Get N'Sync At The Detroit Auto Show And CES, We Get First Exclusive Hands-On: Part 1

As you can see from the video above (apologies on the size — we never know how big these things can get) we had the opportunity last week to head down to the super-secret FoMoCo testing and development lab to get an exclusive hands-on with Ford's new infotainment hotness, Sync. The system, created through a joint effort between FoMoCo and the evil geniuses in Redmond will, if you listen to FoMoCo Prez of the Americas, Mark Fields, "revolutionize the automotive industry." While we're not sure we'd go that far, we will say the system is definitely the most robust system we've yet seen for connecting your personal audio and communication devices to your car for in-auto infotainment. The system's just that good. More »

We Know The Mini Cooper's Small...

...but we never thought it was this small. But for real, maybe it's just Steve Jobs' car and he's carrying the next version of the iPod, "the Giganto," to CES on top of his car. Or maybe it's just a guy in England who photoshopped an iPod onto the roof of a car. – Ray Wert More »

Audi's Got Some Hot Apple Head Unit Action

George Achorn over at Audi fan-site Fourtitude had the opportunity to sit in a parked Audi S8 with Audi's NorAm product planning manager Filip Brabec for some hands-on time with the new Audi Music Interface (AMI), which he claims has "simply the best iPod navigation via head unit control we've seen on the market today." So wait, George and Filip were in a parked Audi toying with a head unit? Sounds kinky. But all joking aside, the system looks promising, and as George points out, More »

Nevermind The Horsepower: Buy A Ferrari 599, Use Your IPod

The Ferrari 599 Fiorano has 620 raging italian stallions under the hood, providing the power to throw down a 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds. Additionally, although the 599's built off the Scaglietti's body — and it's got the looks to prove it — unlike the Scag, the 599's able to reach the top speed of 205 mph because of the car's all-aluminum construction, providing a power-weight ratio of only 5.7 pounds per horsepower. But what's the website Sybarites think really makes the 599 Ferrari's new hotness? More »

iBreathalyzer: The Best IPod Accessory You'll Ever Own

Now we've seen a lot of car accessories for iPods. There's power adapters, cassette adapters, FM adapters — hell, we're surprised there haven't been any windshield wiper fluid adapters or air freshener adapters yet. But there's one item we can now pull off of that list like a hobo pulling off the twist-cap on a 40. The iBreathalyzer has finally arrived — and it's even multi-function — acting as both a breath alcohol content testing device and an FM transmitter. At least you'll be able to listen to your favorite tunes from your iPod in your car if you've had too much to drink. More »

Steve Jobs Speaks: The IPod Is The Thing In 70% Of Cars

Our gadget-obsessed brother blog is all over Apple's announcement, live-blogging Steve Jobs every facial expression today, so head on over if you're looking for some of that action. We're just happy Jobs started off talking about the most important place you use your iPod — your car. Jobs made an interesting comment: More »

All Your Pods Are Belong To Us: Apple Inks Deal With GM, Ford, Mazda

Screw Sirius and screw XM cause iPod's gone and killed the satellite star. Instead, the new hotness in radio accoutrements will be iPod integration. Apple released word today it's teamed up with FoMoCo, the General and Ford's division of Zoom-Zoom, Mazda, to deliver "seamless iPod integration" across the majority of their respective car brands and models. Sounds like a plan to us. We were early adopters of the fruity handheld music player, so this is something we've been looking forward to something like this for a while now. Paging Dr. Z — when's the German-American hybrid of DaimlerChrysler... More »

Apple Wants to iPoditize Your Ride

We just spent approximately a year-and-a-half driving to, waiting at, and then driving home from the Apple Store in Manhattan Beach, sent on a wild goose chase by an AppleCare Support tech. Eventually the Geniuses took pity on the poor blogger and made an exception for us. Those new MacBook keyboards are weird. We considered, once again, buying an iPod, but didn't. What does this have to do with cars? Apple wants to see more iPod integration in car audio systems. Ostensibly, safety is one concern but if they get enough market penetration in the auto industry, who would buy any other mp3 player? Potential for monopoly, kids? High. More »

MyGig Has A Hard Drive, How About Yours?

One of our biggest beefs with most car stereos is the inability to hook up our beatiful black Video iPod. Unless it's got an aux input, the tangle of wires and fm transmitters we normally need to connect our tunes to our ride gets real old, real fast — especially when you're hooking up with a gal in the front seat and she starts to try to get in close — and gets caught in the wires or jams her elbow into your transmitter. Talk about a total mood-killer. Well, Chrysler has hit a new bar in trying to provide a way for us to get the Burt Bacharach tunes to drive the ladies wild pumping through our speakers. It's the MyGig — a 20GB hard drive embedded in the dashboard for ripping CDs, storing navigation data and all sorts of other fun stuff — including the necessary aux input. You'd expect this type of a system in a $40,000 luxury car — but you can have this in the new $25,000 Chrysler Sebring — as well as two other vehicles in the price range (the upcoming Dodge Nitro and the Jeep Wrangler) Check it all out after the jump. More »

I Am Apple's Car: The Aptera 330 MPG Concept Vehicle

Yes, we know it looks like what would happen if an iPod and a Plymouth Prowler had a child (and yes, we think it would be named 'Steve II' or 'Steve IIe'). But this little concept car from Accelerated Composites was built with a number of specifications in mind. They are: More »

But Somehow Dodge's iPod Connection Is Made

Back when one of us was but a wee lad, we remember getting our first rock-n-roll hard-on from Justine Frischmann of Elastica. Frischmann and the new Brit invasion to us seemed to pop up outta nowhere, and so did we. What can we say, we were all about that sneer, man. She was just so totally tomboy-bad-ass-hot when she bared her teeth for the cam. We wanted nothing more than to "Line Up" and make our own "Connection" with her. In New York this past week we had the opportunity to step inside the what we thought was the base model of Dodge's new entry-level Caliber CUV, and we were afraid a similar connection wasn't true for its iPod holder. We noticed something rather peculiar... More »

You'll Be Ridin' on the Gypsy: VW's Conceptual Dashboard Interface

The CNETs take a ride down to Paly to check out VW's secret underground laboratory. And what do they find? Gypsy, a wacky snickerdoodle of an interface system that'll run your iPod, answer your e-mail and even turn off your iron. Well, probably not our iron. Ours dates back to the early 1970s, and our ironing board back to the 1920s. We suppose we're the unlucky sumbitches that'll have to wait for advances in force-field technology to fully make use of Gypsy. [Switch to Dio-Tone vocal program] Of the Gypsy Queeaann! More »

More Dumb Brand Synergy from Ford

Apple freaks that we are, we've yet to buy an iPod, because, well, we're kinda grossed out by iPod culture. Of course, we know as soon as we buy one, we'll be hooked. But Ford's marketing folks think it's the way to the heart of Ford Fusion buyers. Slate's Seth Stevenson thinks Apple's permission to use the 'Pod in its latest Fusion spots is a quick slip on a greasy turd down the slope of brand erosion for the storied computer company. We have to say, we agree. More »

Nissan's Wingroad Rider Offers iPod Connectivity

A vehicle so new that a cursory googling turns up nothing, Nissan's Wingload Rider offers up iPod-connected goodness through its nav system. The system itself offers, in addition to its seductive standing invitation to slip in the ol' Apple jack, a 30 gig hard drive as well as a 7" LCD screen and a DVD/MD/CD receiver. What? No 5 1/4 floppy drive? Cheap bastards. As for the Wingloadroad Rider itself, we know about as much as you do: basically it looks like the bastard son of the Infiniti G35 and Magnum with a dollop of Mazda5 DNA injected for good measure. [Thanks to Dhiram for the tip.] [Update: More Wingroad deets at MPH] More »

New Beetle iPod-Enabled Clock Radio

As soon as we saw this gizmo, we immediately got The Polyphonic Spree's "Light & Day" lodged in our skull, and we're wishing that it only made us think of that New Beetle/iPod ad from a couple of years back. But we'll swallow the angst and bring you the cold, hard facts: the Buglet features stereo speakers hidden in the wheels, working headlights and an 18-inch cord for plugging in any audio source. Plus, you can haul your iPod in the backseat. We have to say, we're really wondering who the target market for such a clock is, because at $129.95, it's a tad pricey for the kids and a more than a tad dorky for everyone else. But if you're really worried about what to buy Spree frontman Tim DeLaughter for Christmas, this could just be the ticket. More »

Few Carmakers Offer iPod Interfaces

Sometimes it takes lots of research to figure out what we knew already. Wired's Autopia reports on a survey of vehicles at the recent Frankfurt motor show by the Telematics Research Group, indicating that only 21 of 225 vehicles offered an interface for the iPod (standard or optional). That carmakers are leaving to the aftermarket a business they could keep for themselves is only the glass-half-empty view. That those long-production-cycle guys have included it at all within five years is astonishing. More »

Apple of My Car: iPods for New Vehicles

Apple Computer created an info page on the carmakers with which it's made deals to offer iPod compatibility in the US market. Brands currently offering his Podness a Jack in the (glove)Box are BMW, Mini, Mercedes, Volvo and Scion. Next on the list will be Acura, Audi, Ferrari (!), Honda, Infiniti, Nissan and Volkswagen. Overseas, the list includes Mazda, Daihatsu and Alfa Romeo. More »

Radio Off? Will iPod Integration Threaten Satellite?

"Gonna drive past the Stop 'n' Shop/With my iPod on" just doesn't have quite the same punch as Jonathan Richman's original version, but there's nevertheless an ongoing discussion amongst non-Modern Lovers members that continued iPod integration (hot on the heels of yesterday's iPod nano and Motorola ROKR intros) in both new vehicles and aftermarket systems could cut into the pie of satellite radio providers Sirius and XM. While Sirius remains officially mum on the issue, XM execs are confident that the overlap in modern in-car entertainment won't impact them. We think there's a place for both. Of course, we're still back in the dark ages of playing CDs through a cassette adapter on our crappy stock Mopar sound system, so can we really be trusted on this? More »

Apple's iPod Phone's Automotive Integration

The latest rumor about the long bandied-about Apple/Motorola iPod phone is that they've been talking to automakers about incorporating it into cars. While neither confirmed nor denied by Apple, the phone/music player would somehow interface with the car's stereo, we're assuming via Bluetooth, but that's just pure conjecture on our part. More »

Scosche Bluetooth iPod Connection for the Car

Car-audio supply firm, Scosche industries has developed an iPod add-on that just may lead us to invest in a car audio system that uses that 'ol wireless Tooth of Blue. The company's Bluetooth Wireless Interface, which will be available this month for around $250, connects directly to the headphone output connector of an iPod (or other portable digital audio unit) and transmits to an Bluetooth receiver, whether a vehicle's head unit or home audio system — in CD-quality sound. Sure, it's pricey, and sure it needs a pricey Bluetooth-capable head unit (or new, pricey high-end luxury vehicle that comes equipped with one). But the joy of crushing our FM-band crapfest solution under foot is worth all four figures, minimum. More »

Volkswagen's Golf Gets iPod Dock, Says German Paper

According to The German Car Blog, German-language automotive site, Auto News is reporting VW is ofering an optional iPod interface, set in center consoles of the VW Golf and Golf GTI. The system, which costs 195 euros ($236 or 47,200 haypennys), will allow drivers to operate their iPods or iPod minis via steering-wheel controls. No word on whether or when they'll be offered in the states (surely they will, sometime.) More »

Seven Inches of Music: Nissan to Offer iPod-Capable Nav System

Nissan is marketing an in-car navigation system in Japan that allows iPod users to connect up their rig, and control it via cars' seven-inch touch screen display. Nissan collaborated with Apple Computer on the system, which it will offer in Japan as a (hai, ya!) $2,800 option on 11 models, including the Tiida compact, X-Trail SUV, Moco minicar and Serena minivan. The system also includes Nissan's Carwings mobile communications service and CD, Minidisc and DVD playback. No word on whether the system is US-bound. More »