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  • alovell83 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    I know they've been developing forever, and that it's hard to scrap all your work, however Chrome OS is designed for mouse and keyboard input. It seems like an easier adaptation, additionally, if this concept becomes popular I think it'll be more successful with Chrome OS so people might be buying into this device and getting little developer support. Sales can, of course, prove me wrong.
  • probedb - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    But it's a head unit for a car, how exactly would you use a mouse and keyboard while driving? Android is in wide use, Chrome OS is not, it wouldn't make any sense to use Chrome OS.
  • mino - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    "Chrome OS" is:
    1) not an operating system but a browser on-top-of-a-locked-down-OS
    2) not of any use here as the 3" screen is anything a but useable for browsing the internet
    3) more resource-heavy by definition while providing no real benefit

    Going for a custom UI like Parrot did is VERY good idea if executed properly. Simple UI is what a car media/GPS device needs the most.
  • nafhan - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Plus, Chrome OS isn't even stable at this point. Android 1.6 is rock solid in comparison.
  • Einy0 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Awesome idea but unless I can hook up an external USB CD-ROM on one of those USB ports to play CDs, I'm not interested. I love solid-state media but the beloved CD still rules my car. Most of them have MP3/WMA/AAC files on them anyway but if a friend hops in the car with a new CD, I wanna listen to it then. I don't wanna rip music just to listen to it. I know this isn't the only head unit on the market with no CD drive, I'm just making a point. Put a CD or DVD drive in this bad boy with a reasonable price tag and it will sell.
  • DanNeely - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    To keep a usable sized screen they'd need to go to a 2 din form factor, which they probably should do anyway. 3.5" is annoyingly small for a GPS on the windshield, and that's a much easier to glance at location...
  • Pessimism - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Okay grandpa, lets do some simple math:
    16GB SDHC card, approx. $30

    For sake of argument, we will assume (laughably) that every released CD album is a full 80 minutes long and you will be storing the music losslessly in unaltered WAV format for 700MB per album.

    Lets also assume a CD takes ten minutes to rip to the SDHC card (really it takes closer to 5)

    22 CDs x 700MB = 15400MB
    22 x 10 minutes = 3 hours, 40 minutes rip time
    22 x 80 minutes = 29 hours play time

    So, you would rather carry around a bulky case full of easily damaged media that has no backup if lost, and add a bulky disc handling mechanism to the head unit, which would make the units depth long enough to render the jacks on the back unusable, or add an unwieldy external USB cdrom with a fragile cable dongle and no design considerations for automotive use (shock and temperature tolerances are big ones) so that you don't have to spend $30 and one evening of your time to convert 29 hours of music (more than you will ever need even for a 24 hour consecutive daytrip) to media the size of a postage stamp that is shockproof, scratchproof, easily backed up, and never requires you to take your attention off the road to change discs?
  • Spivonious - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Hey now, I'm only 28 and the CD is still my primary form of music media (although vinyl is quickly taking over...it just sounds better).

    The problem with your SD card solution is that I would have to plan in advance what CDs I wanted to listen to. I can't just grab one of the shelf as I'm heading out to the car.

    Adding a CD drive to this head unit would be trivial. Even selling it as a separate option would be fine. Put those USB ports to good use.
  • strikeback03 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    You could probably add a USB CD drive to one of the USB ports on the back, this is what most people with a carputer do if for some reason they need CD capability.

    I actually do use the CD drive in my headunit, but only because the headunit doesn't support playlists off of USB storage. So I have a few discs of random MP3s burned for when I want a random mix and full albums on my USB storage. In my last car where I had a carputer I never had optical disc capability and never missed it, I had a USB port next to the screen to hook up my phone/flash drive/MP3 player if needed.

    This unit looks very shallow, so there is probably space to reorganize stuff and add a CD drive for a possible other model. The screen couldn't be fixed the way it is now though.
  • Flyboy27 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    I'm 29 and my first question was where is the CD drive? I have a lot of stuff that could go on an SD card but I still want a CD drive.
  • johnspierce - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    I just bought an Alpine IXA-W407 double-din stereo for my car. It has GPS, Bluetooth and supports both regular USB and iOS for playback. I bought a bunch of 4gb USB sticks and put different genres of music on each.

    This head unit has no capability of playing CD/DVD at all. Why would I want that? CD/DVD is virtually dead. It is SO much better playing music off USB sticks; takes up less room, cheap, easy to change.

    I would LOVE to have a double-din 7" screen Android deck with USB ports and 4G/LTE support.

    On your next car deck, seriously; ditch the CD/DVD, it's *obsolete*

    signed -- 54 year-old-guy.
  • Yowen - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link

    For my car I still prefer cd's as previous posters said, my friends bring cd's for road trips, I have a lot of old music on cd. and one mp3 cd can hold a LOT of music.
  • ckgreenman - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link

    Shoot. I'm 39 and my first thought was I hope there ISN'T a CD player. The last CD I bought (about a week after it was released) was Iced Earth Glorious Burden and it has sat, unplayed, in my car CD player since about a week after I ripped it.
  • PotatoMAN - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Get a 3G dongle and stream what you want when you want online.
  • ckgreenman - Thursday, February 17, 2011 - link

    Exactly. Better yet, I have my entire music library shared on my home network (DLNA and uPnP are awesome) and I can access them online as well. The only thing I keep with me is my workout playlist because the gym is an RF hole. No 3G and no WiFI.
  • metafor - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    What the hell's a "CD"?
  • PyroHoltz - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    They're sort of like vinyl records but instead, digital and much smaller. ;-)
  • knedle - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    I don't have friends that use CDs anymore, but I have plenty of friends with mp3 players, or mobile phones that they connect to my very cheap stereo. 30$ for stereo without CD support (version with CD drive - 65$).
  • CloudX - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    This is true.. If you're picking up a girlfriend or a date and she's like "omg I want to hear this new cd!! Can I put it in?", you had better be able to quickly play that CD.. I'm just saying, it's happened to me.
  • Pessimism - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    If that happens, you are dating the wrong woman.
  • Jambe - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Fingerprints. Ugh.

    I WANT ALL BUTTONS TO HAVE A MIRROR FINISH. YES.
  • LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    What this unit appears to do right

    -Has lots of USB connectivity
    -Has the Android OS
    -Supports iDevices out-of-box (for those of us that have been using an iPod for car connectivity)
    -Has Bluetooth support integrated for cell phones
    -Has SDHC card slot

    What this unit appears to do wrong
    -No touchscreen (limiting Android's flexibility)
    -SDHC card slot requires faceplate removal
    -GPS should be integrated IMHO (Android Navigation app being as great as it is)

    Unknowns
    -Voltage of preamp outs
    -RMS/peak wattage of onboard amp
    -Quality of construction of the unit itself (internally and external buttons)
    -Quality/usability of the customizations to the Android OS

    I'll be interested to see a full review.
  • defiler99 - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    If you want a CD player in your car, this unit isn't for you. Simple.
    Personally, I still use a pair of empeg (Rio Car) units, and I can't wait to try this thing out as a replacement.
  • synaesthetic - Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - link

    Until I can buy un-DRMed lossless tracks in a standard format online for a buck each, the CD is not dead for me.

    I will not pay money for lossy compressed tracks.
  • strikeback03 - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link

    Who said I don't buy CDs? I still do (for pretty much the same reason), I just rip them to the computer as soon as I get home and then toss the CD in a box with the others and use the digital copies.
  • fluxtatic - Thursday, January 6, 2011 - link

    I bought a Pioneer deck, CD with a USB pigtail, I couldn't say for sure that the CD player even works, as CD has been dead to me since I finished ripping my collection. There is an 8GB flash drive in the glove box that I pull out and update once in a while or swap with a different drive. Not having to screw around with changing discs, getting them scratched or accidentally leaving the case visible and having it stolen are all very good reasons to leave CDs behind. I wouldn't mind an SDHC slot behind the face - I wouldn't want to try swapping a card that size when the car was in motion, so pulling the faceplate off to do it wouldn't make much difference to me.

    Double-DIN would be better for the sake of screen size, but do both. I couldn't use a double-DIN deck, and there are many cars on the road like that. I'm not going to have Car Toys idiots sawing apart my dash just fit a new deck in. Do the single-DIN first, bring the double-DIN later. Given the condition of the roads I drive on, I wouldn't care if it didn't have a touch screen, as I have problems navigating my folders using the multi-wheel or whatever Pioneer calls it as it is. But, sure, bring a touch screen and an optical drive to the party, too.

    Also, lossless formats are for idiots. Once you've hit 30, you're kidding yourself if you think your hearing is good enough to appreciate the difference between lossless and a decent lossy format at a high enough bitrate. Same goes for vinyl - it doesn't sound better, much like your tight pants, ironic facial hair, and John List glasses don't make you cooler.
  • Threeheadedtoad - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link

    The first thing I said when i saw this was "Where's the CD??". Then, my buddy said, and rightly so "CD's are over". I agree. Its so much easier to rip everything onto stick, and have your music in hand these days. I guess old habits die hard....

    However, if you REALLLLY want CD, you can add your own changer and plug it into one of the many many many ports on the back of the device. Even install it seperately as a seprate unit, this device is so small, you should have the room.

    What i want to see is more Zune integration. Im not anti-apple, or anti-idevice, but i like owning my music. My daughter uses her iPod, but the music isnt transferrable to other devices, etc....

    Zune - the music is mine, i can move it to another mp3 player, i can transfer it to another computer easily, i can even burn from or to my zune without having to verify my identity...

    So, in my opine - onion - this device looks cool, but i wont buy it first!

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