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09/30/2005, 8:35am, EDT

Friday, September 30th

SmartDeck cassette adapter provides iPod control

Griffin on Friday announced that it is now shipping the SmartDeck Intelligent Cassette Adapter for iPod. SmartDeck allows users to control their iPod using the built in controls of their cassette player. The SmartDeck uses a new technology to determine which commands the cassette player sends to the iPod. It achieves "truly seamless integration between iPod and cassette deck." Users can utilize the cassette deck's forward and rewind buttons to advance to the next or prior songs in the iPod playlist. In addition, pause and stop buttons do what pause and stop buttons are expected to do. When the user hits the cassette deck's Eject button or switches from Cassette to Radio, Griffin's SmartPlay technology automatically pauses the iPod. The device will costs $30 and works with standard iPods and the iPod mini (third generation iPods do not support the Play/Pause feature).


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siMac
Old News...
0
09/30, 8:50am, EDT
Welcome to September!
Mac Elite
Joined Aug 2004
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ibugv4
Play/Pause no go on 3G?
0
09/30, 8:56am, EDT
I wonder why? It can't be a software issue.. can it?
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mouseketter
Who even has...
0
09/30, 9:03am, EDT
Who even has a cassette player in their car anymore. I just bought a New Jetta and it has CD.

My wife and I looked at 3 other cars before buying the Jetta and all 3 of those come only with CD as well.

By the end of next year I would think this adaptor would be about as useful as a blank Beta format video tape.
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corsair
I have one!
0
09/30, 11:11am, EDT
I have a cassette deck in MY car, you insensitive clod! :) So do several of my friends. We all drive aging yet well-maintained cars that don't need to be replaced yet. Cars that are 100% paid for, I might add. Your mistake was you were only looking at new cars. Of course, no one in their right mind would sell a new car with a cassette deck. But lots of people who don't throw money at cars every few years still drive cars with cassette decks. I don't mind; a cassette adapter is the least expensive way to hear an iPod on a car stereo. Less than a flaky FM adapter or a new car stereo.

Sorry, that comment almost smacked of the "I'm affluent, so there are no problems in this country" mentality that's too common in America these days.
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testudo
Re: Old news
0
09/30, 12:24pm, EDT
This isn't old news, best as I can tell. I went to griffin's site last week and it still was up for 'preorder'.

Oh, and my Honda CR-V that I bought in April 2004 has a cassette player in it (and I'm glad it does). A friend of mine insisted on a cassette player because he likes to listen to a boatload of those books on tape you get at the library.

And I'm sure its got to sound a lot better then those FM transmitters. Esp. since most cars DON'T come with an auxillary in jack, so there's no easy way to hook up an iPod without the cassette player.
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tomodachi
ditto
0
09/30, 1:17pm, EDT
to corsair and testudo. My cassette deck in my SAAB broke and I had the opportunity to swap the stereo for an "up-to-date" CD player (with MP3 capabilities, too), but I didn't and decided to get my cassette repaired. The reason? Because of this SmartDeck. So far this is the only solution that I'm aware of that will automatically pause your iPod when you turn the ignition off, allowing for a truly integrated experience.

Unfortunately for me, who placed an order for this way back in February, they tell me now that it won't work with my 3G 40GB. Which is why I cancelled my order.

In retrospect, I should've gotten that stereo upgrade ;-)
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siMac
Nano version...
0
09/30, 1:59pm, EDT
I'm eagerly awaiting the nano-compatible version that is apparently in the works. Same, but with a dock connector. I hope it comes soon...
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jrbm689
Cassette Deck In New Cars
0
09/30, 5:42pm, EDT
Actually, fellas, the Toyota Prius (the state of the art from Japan) has a cassette deck. Maybe you guys are just looking at the wrong companies. The Prius is an upscale car with luxury refinements. I'm sure many of Toyota's Prius customers appreciate the cassette deck and they certainly aren't "crazy" to add a
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tomodachi
re: I wonder why
0
10/01, 10:40am, EDT
ibugv4

You can look at the FAQ on the Griffin website. Apparently, it can't do Auto Play/Pause because 3G iPods won't automatically pause/play when the headphone jack is removed (a feature Apple added to the 4G iPods and beyond), which is what they take advantage of for this feature.

Which is a dumb excuse. If they can do fast forward, rewind, skip tracks, etc. (because, after all, this adapter connects to both the headphone jack AND the remote control), why couldn't they make it to pause/play?

I think they decided that it would be easier to take advantage of the built-in auto play/pause feature (they probably only have to cut off the current inside the adapter to make the iPod pause) rather than write some more code and add a few more transistors inside SmartDeck. Lame-ass, if you ask me.
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