One of the reasons the apple iPhone is so successful is because it brings all types of new digital media to the table. In fact some would say its responsible for a large part of the development of new media. For instance, Would sites like Facebook and Twitter be so popular if they weren’t accessible on your mobile phone?

Harnessing this new media is a challenge for all companies wanting involvement in the iPhone revolution, making an add-on that actually improves the features of an iPhone is somewhat difficult. Apps can be created relatively easily depending on the subject and performance targets, and of-course the skill of the development team behind it. However the devices that physically connect to the iPhone face entirely different obstacles. A good example was the power chance from 12v to 9v and 5v charging.

One of the problems when trying to integrate the iPhone with external hardware (None computers) is that the software on the phone is complex, computers can obviously install compatible software to integrate well, however when trying to integrate into something more simple in design i.e a car stereo more problems are encountered. Software is obviously not available to install on car stereos so certain features on the iPhone are not transferable.

The major problem when connecting an iPhone to a device without software is that the iPhone locks out and goes into flight mode. In the case of iPhone car kits, If you wanted to control the iPhone through the stereo or steering wheel controls the kit will lockout the iPhone, basically turning it into an iPod. Which isn’t a problem when navigating through your music collection, however you will not be able to make or receive calls or texts.

Dension have created a new iPhone car kit which allows the connection of the iPhone without it going into flight mode, you control the iPhone’s music from the phone its self so you still have full phone features combined with the music integration into your car. The iPhone is charged while connected and the stereo retains all of its usual controls, I.e volume controls.

The Gateway Lite is the next generation of iPhone car kits specifically designed for such purpose, have you mobile jukebox in full operation in your car and you phone if required. The Gateway lite is not a phone kit and does not offer any handsfree functions, but is the best solution for integrating your iPhone into your vehicle.

iPod car accessories are useful for long journeys, car accessories for the iPod and iphone can range from protective cases, to protect against scratches and more serious damage, Through to fully integrated iPhone car kits which provide a digital connection combined with iPod and music control through the stereo / steering wheel adapters and charging facilities.

Music and applications can be downloaded instantly, negating the need to travel to a store to purchase CD singles or albums. Which except for a few people, was seen as a hindrance. No longer do we need to carry stacks of disc’s and filter through them to find an album for what ever mood were in. Put simply the iPod has revolutionised the music industry and carried it into the future, making music more accessible in our daily routines.

Many other companies have joined the music revolution in a bid to further improve the way we control and listen to our favourite albums. It has become big business, with more and more companies offering improved quality and functions for home audio and visual systems as well as car and mobile audio. One of the market leaders in the car audio field, Dension, have been developing new systems which allow full control of the iPod through the stereo and entertainment system in the vehicle.

For many the iPod symbolises mobile music, and more recently mobile entertainment with the release of the iPod touch and iPhone, and the continuing developments Apple are making in the Video and TV area. Dension have adopted this ethos of entertainment on the move and produced iPod car kits that surpass any other kit on the market in terms of quality and integration.

iPod integration is key for quality and ease of use of the kits, if they don’t match Apples exacting standards for the iPod there is no point in developing them. With this in mind Dension set about improving previous versions of iPod kits they already produced. (Which they were already market leaders) and come up with a kit that ensures great quality audio and simple easy controls. The Gateway Lite was born.

The Gateway Lite is the next step up from the Gateway 100 / Gateway 300 ipod car adapters, The lite offers a much improved navigation system which was not available on the 100 / 300 unless text compatibility was available on your vehicle. By making the system easier the Gateway Lite is much more effective when making a track selection, reducing the browsing time and frustration this may have caused.

Combined with USB input the Gateway lite makes your favourite music truly mobile, allowing you to carry you entire music collection in your vehicle, you no longer need the poor quality and probably illegal FM transmitters. Simply choose the Gateway Lite.

Dension are market leaders in iPod car kit integration. Their iPod car adapters provide better quality audio and track navigation and selection over any other kit on the market. Drive, Control, Charge and Play your iPod with Dension.

Once you’ve decided to purchase an iPod car kit, inevitably you’ve chosen the Gateway Lite produced by Dension. You only have one further obstacle to hurdle, the installation. There are two options available to you for installing the kit. The first option, Pay a professional engineer to install the kit, either travelling to them or they can travel to you. The second option, is to install the iPod car kit yourself. Which is by far the more cost effective option and probably most convenient too. See below an installation guide to judge whether your capable of the installation, should you choose to go ahead.

The installation of the Gateway lite is fairly simple and pain free. Although this is a generic installation guide, it will suit 99% of vehicles.

Before you begin the installation, please remove the keys from the ignition and check that any radio codes are recorded for future reference.

Step one is to remove your car stereo, this will usually involve radio removal tools which will vary depending on what vehicle you have. Radio removal keys are readily available and the majority of online shops or traditional vehicle based retail outlets stock them. Radio removal tools are extremely convenient and can save you a lot of time and energy. This should take between 1-5 minutes

Step two is to remove the harnesses from the back of the stereo, Most vehicles have a Quadlock connection, this is a fairly large connection block that houses the wires to and from the stereo. If the Harness is a Quadlock connection the Dension harness will usually replicate the original harness exactly. The Dension Lite harness simply fits into the vehicle harness and then back to the stereo, basically a link between the vehicle and the stereo.

If the vehicle doesn’t have a Quadlock connection, the gateway lite harness fits into the CD changer port on the the back of the stereo. Usually located in the top right of the stereo as your looking at the back of it. Most of the time the harness simply connects straight into place, however occasionally the harness may have to be connected into the original harness then re-connected. This stage should take 2 minutes.

Step three is to connect the Gateway Lite PCB (the little black box) to the dension harness, its the most straight forward step of the installation. This will take 30 seconds.

Step Four is to connect the iPod dock and USB extension cable to the PCB, again very straight forward. Once this stage is done its usually a good idea to turn ignition on to check the system works. (Follow the user manual to perform the operations for iPod/USB track selection) Again this will take 1-2 minutes.

Step five, Route the cables through into position within the vehicle, this is usually the most time consuming part of the installation. Depending on the vehicle this can be a complex job and may require the removal of some of the fascia / Dashboard. This part of the installation may take up to 30 minutes depending on difficulty, especially if you want a professionally installed look.

Step Six, replace the stereo into its fittings. Read the operational instructions from Dension and enjoy the use of your iPod car kit and all of your music while your driving.

The 100 iPod kit offered track selection from the steering wheel controls / Stereo or the iPod, in which either artist, album or playlist could be selected. However the complexity of the gateway 100 system was not well suited to the majority of vehicles stereos, which cannot provide text support. This meant users would have to remember which combination of functions would enable iPod or stereo mode, and allow selections of tracks depending on browsing type, something that frustrated a lot of users.

The problem isn’t necessarily with the Dension unit, as the system works perfectly with text compatible radios. The problems occur when no text is available, and unfortunately most factory radios are not capable of displaying text rendering the gateway 100 kits difficult to use.

Dension have realised this problem and have improved the browsing system used in the new Gateway Lite. Dension designed the Gateway Lite specifically for none text compatible radios, and by doing so improved the browsing functionality by simplifying the track selection process.

Rather than the complex deep structured system in the Gateway 100, the lite is controlled via the iPod click wheel to browse through the iPod folders. Once the source is selected, tracks can be flicked through using the steering wheel controls for ease of use.

However the improved browsing functionality isn’t the only addition to the gateway lite, Dension have added a USB input into the system as standard. Enabling an additional 8 to 16Gb of music to be browsed through. Browsing through the USB drive is as simple as the iPod, CD button 6 selects the USB and 1-5 select Playlist, albums or artists.

In short Dension have yet again improved upon previous kits. Increasing the usability, simplifying the operations and adding additional source selections, you might think all these benefits come at a cost. You’d be wrong. The gateway lite is actually cheaper that the Gateway 100 and Gateway 300. The only downfall is that it doesn’t provide any text compatibility, however the this will never be available for those vehicles without CAN Bus systems.

Its time to tell you about another of our customers. Andy Crawford from Leeds contacted us around a month ago and was more than happy to share his story.

Andy purchased a new (09) VW Golf from his local VW dealership, he was told be the salesman that an iPod integration kit was included in the price of the vehicle. Andy was delighted as he was also looking at a Renault Megane which didn’t have the option for iPod Integration, hearing this news tipped the decision towards the VW. Andy drives alot for his job and can average 200 miles a day in some weeks. He ordered and eagerly waited for his new car to arrive.

3 weeks later he got the call to collect his car and swiftly popped down to the VW Dealer. He was delighted with the car in every aspect but within a few hours (after playing with all the gadgets and getting used to it) he got around to testing the iPod kit. To Andy’s disbelief the only visible iPod connection was just a 3.5mm jack in the glove box. He scoured the vehicle manual and couldn’t find any information so he called the dealer and was told that the 3.5mm jack was the iPod Integration kit that he was promised. Andy pointed out that 3.5mm jacks cannot integrate an iPod with a stereo, it can only provide a simple audio signal. He was after hoping that his iPod would stay charged and have the ability to be controlled from the car stereo.

After a 30 minute conversation the VW Dealer finally decided to offer an integrated iPod solution to Andy for free of charge. The car was booked in and the iPod kit was installed. It turns out that the kit they were installing was a very poor, very old version of a Dension In Car iPod kit (infact, one of the very first versions produced nearly 8 years ago). It wouldn’t charge his iPod, it would only map 5 playlists on the stereo (he couldn’t control it via albums, artists, tracks or any other means), he couldn’t revert the controls back to the iPod, the kit didn’t send track information (ID3 tagging) to the stereo. All in all, Andy wasn’t happy!

We received a call at 3:30pm on a Friday from Andy, our first contact with him. He asked what could be done and if any of the features he wanted were possible. We confirmed that ALL the features were possible & infact very simple. He could even install the kit himself easily. Andy ordered & we received a call on Monday morning from Andy. Andy received the kit on Saturday at 8am, had it installed by 9am and all the features he was after worked just as he had hoped.

Andy was just another happy customer of iPodCarKitDirect. If you want iPod integration or an In Car iPod then give us a call, see what see can do for you! ]]> http://www.incar-blog.com/2009/09/23/customer-case-study-vw-ipod-car-kit/feed/ 0 http://www.incar-blog.com/2009/09/21/i-have-an-hd-radio-%e2%80%93-why-do-i-need-an-ipod-car-kit/ http://www.incar-blog.com/2009/09/21/i-have-an-hd-radio-%e2%80%93-why-do-i-need-an-ipod-car-kit/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:09:11 +0000 info http://www.incar-blog.com/?p=277 More and more people are getting HD radio installed in their cars. The reception is better, the sound is clearer, and there is a wider variety of shows and stations to listen to. So, if you have already purchased an HD radio for your car – or if you bought a car with a HD radio already installed – why get an iPod car kit?
For one thing, with HD radio, the sound quality is improved over a normal radio but the sound will be poorer than an iPod kit; there are also commercials in between tracks. Sometimes the commercials are as often as every few songs, depending on the station. There is less static with HD radio compared to the standard FM or AM radio, but you can still have problems listening to stations; the station won’t fade out as quickly, but if you are too far from where the station is being broadcast, you won’t be able to hear it. This is especially a problem for people who often make long drives – searching for a new station every hour, because you’ve traveled outside of the previous station’s broadcast radius, can get pretty annoying. Obviously, neither the commercials, nor the geographical location, are a problem for someone who is listening to an iPod.

Even though HD radio has a greater variety of programming than regular radio, it can’t beat the variety of programming that can be found on podcasts, and played through your iPod. With an iPod, you can always choose what you want to hear; if a song comes on that you don’t want to hear, you simply fast-forward. No more flipping through stations hoping to find something you’ll enjoy; you have control over what you want to hear, anytime you listen.

The iPod is now more universal with the iPod Car Kit

This push from Apple had just this problem. However, we have had a few test models and have compared them to older iPod Touch models (1st and 2nd Generation). We found the following results;

• Boot speed was cut from around 25-35 seconds to around 15 seconds.
• Opening web pages was cut from 30 seconds to around 20 seconds.
• Loading games was also cut in almost half. Games included Rolando 2, Tap Tap, Spore and more.

I think thats pretty conclusive evidence that Apple are on the right track here!

These new kits also appear to work perfectly with the Dice and Dension iPod Car Kits and In Car iPod kits on first quick tests (although tests will continue to confirm)