There is a 2008 Scion xB in the Autoblog Garage right now that you'll be hearing all about soon. One of the cool features of the new xB is a standard iPod interface that you can control from the head unit. Just plug in the iPod and the ID3 tag information displays on the radio. The knob on the lower right acts as a joystick so you can navigate the standard menus and you can even fast forward, reverse, and toggle shuffle or repeat modes. For all that cool stuff, there is one major fly in the ointment. After reading the manual and pressing all the buttons, there appears to be no way to pause the iPod. Once the iPod is plugged in, the click wheel is disabled so you can't even reach down and manually pause the unit yourself. You can mute it but it keeps playing. Why can you navigate playlists, artists and genres but not pause? If anyone out there knows of a way, please chime in via the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Lucas @ Oct 7th 2007 4:57PM
Slow news day?
Robert Preslar @ Oct 7th 2007 5:03PM
I'm glad they post stuff like this. If I were looking at buying this car vs. another car that came equipped with iPod compatibility but COULD pause, this could be deal breaking (and making) news.
Lucas @ Oct 7th 2007 5:52PM
Ok, fair enough... then I say this: its what you get for drinking Steve's kool-aid.
Zephyr @ Oct 7th 2007 11:11PM
Lucas- I was gonna get a zune. But I wanted a direct link to it through a car stereo, so that was out. I thought about a Zen, but then I realized it's got no product base. No aftermarket stereo system accepts it. So I was left with a huge jug of Jobs' kool-aide. As bitter as it is, I'm thinking I'll just keep chugging away until someone else can make a high capacity, easy-to-use, capable media player which connects with aftermarket applications. It'll help if it can play my cursed apple encoded music too.
Justin @ Oct 8th 2007 8:19AM
Zephyr,
I've actually always been happy with my Creative players. I'd say their shortcomings are occasional hardware issues, which always get fixed by them, and the software is so so...but still better than iTunes.
And I can talk, I have an ipod too (won it free) and I loathe it.
Justin @ Oct 8th 2007 12:28PM
zephyr, are you saying you can't have a direct auxilliary link through a zune or zen? They all have headphone ports, they should all work as universally as an ipod (not talking about the song info popping up in the stereo of course, just getting it to play). I know ipods are proprietary (exactly why i hate them) but don't they have standard 3.5 mm ports for plugging in the auxilliary? I should know as far as other players go, I've always used my old dell dj, phone, and brother's zen v-plus through the aux in my car. You should have no issue plugging a zune into an aux port.
epilonious @ Oct 8th 2007 12:55PM
*sigh* I fail to understand why Apple hate-ery is so in vogue. It seems to be directly related to their stock price. I can only assume that should apple stock split people will start having heart attacks in their fits of apoplexy.
In the meantime, a few points.
1. If you won it or got handed an iPod, you probably treat it like crap... things given versus things earned tend to have shorter shelf lives and worse performance records.
2. iTunes on windows is probably the same, if not better, than Windows Media Player, MS Sync, or whatever other mediocre syncing program came with your Zune or your Zen or your other thing that Is-Like-An-iPod-Was-A-Year-Ago. The common denominator seems to be windows. Apple did their best to make their program work as well as it could on that OS but there are a lot more factors out of their control and sometimes it blows up in Windows User's Faces.
Z @ Oct 8th 2007 12:38PM
Well the problem with the headphone jack is A) sound quality and B) charging while in use. Right now I can run my ipod through my alpine HU while able to control it, charge it, and get fairly good audio quality. I dislike the amplified jack's interference. I recently opened up a new Ipod (4th gen) and it was dead. And even though it was new in box, apple still wouldn't do anything about it. Bad decision, but still. I hate them.
All I want is microsoft to come out with the Zune v2.0 that's small, high capacity, and compatible with apple encoded formatting. Hopefully it would catch on to the point where manufacturers would start to develop Ipod-like interface equipment so we wouldn't have to use crappy FM transmitters. Until then, I'm steve job's B!tch, And I hate it.
rv @ Oct 8th 2007 9:11PM
If these other players don't work with iTunes AND don't have the sexiness of Apple's product, I don't see the point - just more landfill... No iTunes is THE deal killer for me. Tried to use other players - slow and confusing. iTunes - everything is pretty much a right-click away. Love smart playlists, configuring an iPod is a cinch. There is no Kool-Aid, just the bitter pills you poo-brown Zune users are chewin' on...
Matrixv01 @ Oct 7th 2007 5:01PM
I have the 2008 xB with the Premium Audio upgrade. Like the base stereo there is no 'pause' button. Not quite a fix but I have noticed that the iPod pauses when you switch modes from ipod to: (fm tuner, am tuner, compact disc) I believe the Scion Navigation System upgrade have a 'pause' feature though.
truckerschoice @ Oct 7th 2007 5:26PM
On the few car stereos I've used, when you turn the stereo off it pauses the ipod.
Nellydesign @ Oct 7th 2007 5:45PM
You know, I hear constant complaints of interior design on domestics, why no criticism of this horrible looking stereo head, regardless of it's lack of pause, from a Japanese powerhouse of quality such as Toyota.
Vivek @ Oct 7th 2007 6:14PM
Because Toyota's are immune from all that ofcourse.
Solo Racer @ Oct 7th 2007 6:44PM
Why is that one horrible?
MKIV @ Oct 7th 2007 6:52PM
The radio is Pioneer or Panasonic. Toyota don't make radios.
Craig @ Oct 7th 2007 8:02PM
We don't get Scions here in Australia, but if that head unit look is indicative of the whole interior, I wouldn't touch one.
That head unit looks really cruddy. Black with grey plastic and the writing on the grey buttons is extremely hard to see.
Not too mention that the display is way too small for most tag information. Do you have to navigate the iPod menus one line at a time?
David W. @ Oct 7th 2007 10:37PM
I remember somewhere they said they purposely included cheap radios because a large majority of their customers replaced them anyway...
Nellydesign @ Oct 8th 2007 9:02AM
The problem is that aftermarket stereos lower resale. So if you don't want to hurt that then you end up keeping your Scion brick in the dash.
General @ Oct 7th 2007 5:47PM
So basically, it can't stop, won't stop?
Seanross @ Oct 7th 2007 5:50PM
^ Bad Boy baby!