iPhone Car Kit

Barty

I have a Nokia CK-7W handsfree car kit in my car with a cradle for a nokia 6230i and a Dension Ice Link for my ipod. The iPhone will work with the Dension (but will not charge) and I can use bluetooth to connect to the CK-7W, however I have been trying to find a product where I can put the iphone in a cradle and it will charge, play music and also root the voice through the car speakers when a call comes in - has anyone come accross such a product?

Thanks,

Barty

Victor_M

Ah the holy grail of iPhone accessories - A one product does it all solution.

Don't hold your breath, despite it being a simple enough task, and despite the huge market potential unless the good folk at Dension come up with one you'll have to buy an after market head unit, that will nearly do all of those thing right.

Edit: I meant to say, the current solution you have is probably the best available out there (I have exactly the same setup in my car & TBH I was surprised the iPhone worked at all with the Icelink) once this http://home.swipnet.se/ridax/ (click the 8th link on the left) goes on sale you can get it and try it with the connector on the Icelink you never know all the other pins may be unaffected except for the power.

Barty

A couple of years ago when the Ice Link first came out I thought there would be alot of similar products come on the market, but that has not been the case. They have persisted with the cradles that you put in the cigarette charger (which constantly charge the ipod/iphone) and use an FM transmitter - the Dension stuff is worth the extra money.
There is a Dension adaptor for the ice link plus for the original iPhone (not sure if it will work for the 3G iPhone), but I cannot find a supplier in Ireland (or that will ship to Ireland).
I have mailed Dension asking if there are any plans for what I outlined about - if I hear back from them I will update here.

Victor_M

Barty wrote: »

A couple of years ago when the Ice Link first came out I thought there would be alot of similar products come on the market, but that has not been the case. They have persisted with the cradles that you put in the cigarette charger (which constantly charge the ipod/iphone) and use an FM transmitter - the Dension stuff is worth the extra money.
There is a Dension adaptor for the ice link plus for the original iPhone (not sure if it will work for the 3G iPhone), but I cannot find a supplier in Ireland (or that will ship to Ireland).
I have mailed Dension asking if there are any plans for what I outlined about - if I hear back from them I will update here.

Just be aware that the original iPhone charged in the Dension kit properly, they have removed the 12V firewire charging for the 3G which is USB 5V only. So if you see some site claiming that the Dension Icelink works with the iPhone it's currently only the 1G they are referring to.

Can you put up a link or tell me where you heard about the adaptor for 3G compatibility and I'll do a bit of nosing around myself, if we could get the iPhone to charge with the icelink combined with the C7-KW it would be pretty much the perfect in car setup.

Barty

Victor - I checked up the site that I was reading about the adaptor and indeed nothing specific is said about the 3G iPhone.

I contacted a supplier in the UK about the possibility of a kit to double up as a handsfree car kit and music player being released by Dension (or any of their other suppliers) - the response I got was:

Hi, Im afraid you wont be able to do this. Its a simple limitation of the actual iPhone 3G. The only way of doing this is what you are doing now.

I asked him to expand on the limitations and got:

When apple designed it, they decided to only allow charging through 5Volt Firewire connection instead of USB. The iPhone 3G is actually very over-rated and it has many disadvantages over the normal iPhone, the only real advantage is the WiFi.

I am gonna contact Dension directly and ask them - I would have thought that the change in pins should not prevent a handsfree kit being developed? (Unless Dension, or other companies, think that Apple may change the pin configuration in the next version - it's very annoying when all old chargers and docking stations don't function fully with the 3G iPhone)

TherapyBoy

Safesounds in Drumcondra are selling a kit that doubles as phone kit & streaming erm...thingy for €350. Can be fitted to any car I think. Doesn't charge it though =[
They also sell Harmon Kardon drive and play kits with bluetooth. They don't do the streaming thing far as I know but then it's a proper ipod kit so you wouldn't need to stream your music. I think that does charge the iphone. Give them a bell

Barty

Cheers for that Bizarre - will give them a call.
Since the 2.1 update having a bit of trouble with the iphone - when connected to the bluetooth kit cannot answer incoming calls with the CK-7W button, have to answer the phone using the slide bar on the phone!
Also, when docked in the dension cradle it just displays an image saying it is connected to an accessory - more difficult to browse music with!