This isn’t the first Blutooth for iPod rumor to make the rounds, but this time it has some legitimacy. Apple’s iLounge reports that a spokesman from Pioneer is talking about a forthcoming Apple Bluetooth iPod adaptor. The purpose is to give the iPod the ability to use Bluetooth peripherals like Pioneer’s own DEH car stereo head units. The Pio DEH will offer the same kind of functions as the Parrot Rhythm N’ Blue. Bluetooth gives the car stereo the ability to playback music through a Bluetooth compatible music source such as a cell phone or MP3 player. But it can also allow the user to send and receive phone calls through the car stereo speaker. That’s about all we know so far of this new rumor. You never know, maybe the spokesman jinxed it by talking about it prematurely. What version of Bluetooth? We don’t know but can only assume it will have to be Bluetooth 2.0, which would be required to get the best possible hi-fi audio signal.
A Bluetooth car stereo is definitely asking for one of the nicer music phones out there, like some of Sony’s Walkman phones. Playing back music through the phone is a cool feature, especially when you can interrupt your music automatically with an inbound call. Taking that call without having to move anything but your diaphragm to speak or give a voice activated command to dump whoever it is to voice mail, is about as Star Trek as it gets today. That would be cooler than Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone.
But do we really need a Bluetooth compatible iPod? Well, I suppose if we need iPod compatible running shoes from Nike, someone out there is bound to get on board. Bluetooth iPods make me think of a canoe paddle with a motorized propeller built into the bottom of it - I know what you’re trying to do, but there is an easier way to do it.