"ipod integration in '06", for Nissan (and Mazda). That's the announcement on the Mac rumor sites. How will that play out for us, the proud owners of the '05? Might we swap out for a new RF and still keep steering wheel controls functional?

Anyway, that's the Apple news of the day...

Whoohoo! It's about time they got with the program. Portable music devices are too common these days to be ignored.

All/most of the after market (Alpine, Kenwood, IceLink, Monster, etc...) iPod integration devices have been given bad reviews. It seems like the response time is slow and the searching capabilities are limited. I've heard stories of it taking up to a minute to scroll through a 100 song playlist. Keep in mind that this is a function the iPod can accomplish in 5 seconds or so. I've also heard that these units don't allow searching by Artist, Songs, Genres or Albums but ONLY playlists.

It seems that these companies have bypassed some of the iPod's more detailed functionality in hopes of getting to market sooner (either that or Apple is being stingy with it's source code). I would be very careful about jumping on this wagon. Make sure you do your research and test it out before buying this product. In all reality, it would be better if they included outputs for aftermarket amplifiers and an auxilliary input rather then a crappy integration product.

I currently have an Alpine 9855 with the ipod connector in my X. It's true, there are downsides to any of the ipod connectors for the aftermarket head units, search time is slow, especially if you have a lot of music (I have a 60 gb ipod w/8500 songs). The Alpine unit lets you search by Song, Album, Artist, or Playlist but it's slow. My unit has the Alpine glidetouch bar on it, and if you slide it rapidly, it will speed up the search by jumping through the artists or songs in increments of about 10 or so instead of individually. It sucks when you start your search under "A" and want a song/album/artist that's further down the alphabet. The best solution is setting up your own playlists on your computer, that way you don't really have to use search as often. For the downsides there are advantages, you can view song info on your head unit and it charges up the ipod as well. It's not perfect, but you can also see/control your songs without looking down at your ipod in your hand as you drive. This is only the first gen, so it should all improve in the future.

Uhh..it is for Japanese Nissans I believe.

Here is the linky: IPodLounge

Alongside the Japanese iTunes Music Store and Abkco announcements, Apple today also said that Nissan, Mazda and Daihatsu have joined other car makers in Japan to add iPod integration to their 2006 model lines. The new companies join BMW, MINI, smart and Alfa Romeo and others.

“We’re delighted to have such a wide variety of car companies in Japan offering iPod integration,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “iPod is the number one digital music player in Japan and more music lovers than ever can now enjoy a seamless iPod music experience in their car.”

http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=38;t=002559

I followed this how to fr4om Gerver and others, Ordered the unit for $80 and lemme tell ya it works like a sonofabitch, EXCELLENT sound

I don't see why they can't just put in an aux-in jack like everybody else. Even the cheapest, crappiest home stereos from Wal Mart come with them.

What really rips me is I've seen aux-in jacks in the @%#$ Titan's

My brother-in-laws 2004 Nissan Sentra has an audio input right on the front of his stock deck.