Parrot Rhythm N'Blue - Bluetooth Car Audio
Say Hello to Bluetooth Head Units
Parrot is a mobile communications company that cut its teeth creating voice recognition software in the early 90s. Today, Parrot makes a variety of clever consumer electronics products that incorporate wireless and voice communications.
Polly want a cracker?
Parrot’s Rhythm ‘N Blue is the first time we’ve seen Bluetooth technology used in a car stereo head unit. As a car stereo system, it’s a stylish looking MP3/CD player. The face plate has highly visible backlight buttons.
Its large LCD screen can be changed between seven different backlight colors to match the interior styling of your automobile. It has 4x45 watt outputs and an RCA pre-out to integrate an external amplifier. These features are typical in a decent quality car stereo CD/MP3 player head unit.
What really makes the Parrot Rhythm ‘N Blue worthy of CES recognition is its integration of Bluetooth wireless hands-free technology. This allows a driver to listen to CDs, radio, and MP3s, but also make and receive phone calls as a Bluetooth extension of their cell phone. A synchronization features allows the Parrot head unit to integrate your cell phones phonebook to the car stereo. This means you can effortlessly dial numbers hands free to access your contacts. Phone numbers can be dialed manually or hands free using Parrot’s voice recognition feature. All the driver needs to do is say the name of the contact and it is automatically dialed.
Features:
- 4X45 Watts, 180 total
- DSP including: Classic, Rock, Pop and Flat
- Bass amp
- Bass/Treble EQ
- AM FM Tuner
- CD/CD-R/MP3 playback
- Detachable anti-theft faceplate
- 132x32 pixel LCD screen with seven color variety
- Telephone keypad right on the faceplate
- Software updates via Bluetooth
- Pairs with up to five registered devices
- Caller ID displays on LCD screen
- Voice Recognition of up to 150 names
The use of Blutooth for MP3 playback is particularly innovative given the popularity of musical cell phones. All you need is a wi-fi handset with a decent storage capacity and you’ve got your own mobile, wireless media center. A simple "phone" music button allows you to stream music from a phone to a car stereo. ID3 tags are included so you can recognize what you’re playing as if it were playing from a burned CD. Team up the Parrot Rhythm ‘N Blue with your Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman cell phone and you’ll have instant Bluetooth car stereo music listening bliss.