Is iPhone really a substitute for an iPod? To find out, we tested the iPhone with two different iPod-compatible head units by Alpine and were surprised by the results.

This is Steve. Steve is a Mac addict.  

 

 

 

As a Mac addict, Steve wants to demonstrate the eminent superiority of all things Apple. Waving a brand new iPhone around, it’s easy to talk about how this thin slab of glass is the coolest gadget since Optimus Prime first transformed into a late-model Peterbuilt. But I really wanted to see if this thing could replace my iPod and my Smarphone. To achieve this, it would have to be backward compatible to my iPod compatible Alpine head unit.

Steve has the new, higher-end model of the very same head unit. Mine is last year’s iPod compatible CDA – 9853. Steve’s ride totes Alpine’s brand-spankin’-new iPod-Bluetooth-palooza iDA-X001. Both head units come armed with an iPod adaptor kit. This lets us control the iPod from the head unit while charging the iPod.

According to reports I found online on Apple's support and on everythingiPhone they should work – as long as you ignore the error messages. Stick the iPhone into Airplane mode to avoid interference through your speakers and presto!

Airplane Mode – Check.

Try as we might, we just couldn’t get the iPhone to playback in the iDA-X001.

 This error would pop up for only a few seconds if you weren’t in Airplane mode when you tried to connect.

Even being in Airplane mode didn’t matter to Steve’s iDA-X001, you just didn’t get any sound. It appeared to be charging the battery of the iPhone but there was just no compatibility.

Over my CDA – 9853, I got sound. Despite the initial error message, everything worked perfectly. The head unit even allowed me to navigate and set to random mix.

Sadly, it looks like Steve’s iDA-X001 won’t play back iPhone music through his Alpine stereo anytime soon, at least using its iPod cable. Since it is a Bluetooth device, Steve has another option. iPhone is also Bluetooth ready so he can at least charge the iPhone using the Alpine cable and playing back music over Bluetooth.

I decided to do a little more digging about this problem and found out that Alpine has no plans to release any firmware revisions to make their devices iPhone compatible.

I contacted Alpine Support to find out what the experts had to say about using their iPod-compatible head units with iPhone. According Alpine engineers, it’s hit or miss and Alpine has no plans to release any firmware revisions to make their devices iPhone-compatible. They feel the onus is on Apple to fix its own backward compatibility. The person I spoke to from Alpine Support Desk intimated that he heard Apple has a fix on the way.

So, as beautiful and slick as the iPhone is, it’s not quite ready to replace your iPod just yet.

Three Rules To Live By:

1. Don’t buy a car in its first year of production.
2. Don’t install version 1.0 of anything.
3. Avoid paying premium prices to perform beta tests on revolutionary new products for manufacturers.