MP3 car players in the news

http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0303/12/e01-106186.htm

Has a few pics of the empeg mk2

Dave

I'm just more amused about how they refer to it as the "Empeg Car Mark"

- Trevor

I especially like the compact solution shown in the picture at the bottom of the page, so sleek, so beautiful, so.....

Makes ya damn glad ya got an empeg

LMAO! They look very proud too...With all that in the back where are they going to put the subwoofer?

With all that in the back where are they going to put the subwoofer?

.....or the dogs!

Doesn't it rather defeat the object of the exercise when the MP3 solution appears to take more room than the CDs it replaces, they could have done better with a lap top, and it would be less bothered about it being shaken about in the car.

As for the sun visor/keyboard - it seems to block out a great deal more useful information than the sun.

I especially like the compact solution shown in the picture at the bottom of the page, so sleek, so beautiful, so.....

I will have to say, though, that the keyboard in the sun visor is very cool.

Also, from the article:

"There's still nothing," said Nat Wilson, 21, a student at Towson University in Baltimore and an administrator at MP3car.com, a Web site that features vehicles rebuilt with computers to play MP3 files. "None of them have met the needs to store your entire MP3 collection."

Apparently, Nat (or more precisely, the interviewer, given the adjective ``your'' -- but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt) has more than 120GB of mp3s. Seems likely, huh?

And more to the point, the implication is that most people would have more than that. Anyone unable to fit their entire collection in 120GB? (Ignoring the fact that you might be too lazy or too poor to buy two 60GB drives.)

... Anyone unable to fit their entire collection in 120GB? ...

Um, getting close, but not yet... I still have about 90MB free...

I still have about 90MB free...

You're going to be in trouble when the new Harry Potter book comes out on CD . . .

I'm sorry but the visor mounted keyboard is ridiculous.
And we thought distracted cell phone users were bad...

I'm not proposing that the keyboard be used while driving, but a full-featured computer with a real physical UI in your car could be very cool.

I'd like to put a non-functioning one in my car just for a conversation piece.

It sure spells geek!

I'd like to put a non-functioning one in my car just for a conversation piece.

I can hear the conversation now....

"What the [censored] is that"

"It's my new mp3 player"

"Right,...... so what does that do?"

I'd like to put a non-functioning one in my car just for a conversation piece.

I guess it's like the cop badge thing: if you get pulled over for an RFC violation, you can just show the guy your keyboard and he'll realise you're a fellow geek and let you off (with a warning that you SHOULD NOT do that again).

Peter

And we thought distracted cell phone users were bad..

But that only ranks at six in a list of whats most distracting

Having just spent some time in Hawaii, let me tell you, being distracted by my cell phone was the least of my worries.
The hotties (I mean this in the least degrading way possible, of course) were definitely running amok.

It was a major effort to keep my Jeep going in a straight line.

Hmmm, Hotties, I guess that falls into the "looking at scenery or landmarks" category

adjusting the radio, tape, or CD player (7%)

And people laugh at a remote control for the car stereo... "Too lazy to reach over and push a button?" they'd always ask... The first stereo I had with a remote was in 93, a Pioneer that had volume, disc control, power and tuning. The basics you need when driving...

I imagine that a good portion of those is from trying to release media, especially CDs, from their cases while driving, not to mention juggling two CDs while attempting not to scratch them during the swap and keeping one hand on the wheel.

Another case for in-car mp3!

Greetings!

One of the reasons I so eagerly await the 80GB drives...

The first mp3 player I built for my car (couldn’t afford an Empeg at the time) was a computer in a custom case running Win98 light controlled by a pack bell remote the screen was a matrix orbital 20x4 character display using a WinAmp plug-in… and people (none geeks) gave me so much crap like why do you need a remote, just push the buttons and why can’t you just change the CDs, until they found out how many songs I could choose from with out scratching any of my many “one hit wonders” and or looking down from the road.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=922adee8144b6de19cb448669f698240&threadid=13010&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

I imagine that a good portion of those is from trying to release media, especially CDs, from their cases while driving, not to mention juggling two CDs while attempting not to scratch them during the swap and keeping one hand on the wheel.

# umount /cdrom
# eject
(fumble around)
# mount /dev/hdb /cdrom
# cd /cdrom
# xmms playlist.m3u

Thankfully I haven't needed to do that for quite some time while driving

"Kevin Brangan, director of product marketing at Sonicblue, said the company hopes to sell the Car Mark, now renamed the Rio Car, directly to automakers. It is being tested in an unnamed luxury vehicle and may come to market by the end of this summer"

...Have I been under a rock? I didn't realize this was underway! Good work Empeg/Sonic crew!