Apple Universal Dock and iPhone in a car

[BigDaddy5]

I just picked up a "universal dock" through apple, since it has a remote that can be used with it. I plan on installing in my car, and using the line out to connect to my line in on my stereo.

I haven't tested this very much, but if I do this set up, when I receive a call, I assume the music will fade to mute, and then I will hear my ringtone through the car speakers, right? Just like if I'm listening to a pair of headphones, correct?

What happens if I accept the call, now? Will it be on a speakerphone through my car stereo and iPhone microphone?

Finally, what will happen if I pull the phone from the dock to accept a call, and then place it back? Will I have to open up the ipod again, or should it resume from the last place regardless? I know when I pull my headphones out, I have to go back into the ipod, I believe.

And finally, how will this work with a bluetooth ear-piece? If I'm listening to music and receive a call, will I be able to accept it over bluetooth and then go back to listening to music on the phone?

 

[carfac]

BigDaddy:

One thing you may have not considered is that the rf from the phone itself may cause interference. I tested out a couple of iPod car players with my iPhone- some did not work at all- while others had a noticeable buzz in them.

This may be why we have waited a while, and still no good iPhone car adapters.

But that cradle IS made for an iPhone, so may be OK, too.... I dunno!

 

[BigDaddy5]

You do have a good point, and I have not noticed any interference yet with the iPhone unless I was receiving a call, and then it was the typical GSM buzz. I'm comfortable with that, but I haven't actually done any serious testing with this dock yet either, in a car.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[carfac]

OK, beyond that, I would expect everything in the cradle to act just as it does out of it- the music will fade when the call comes in, you will have to reset to iPod after, etc. That is what happened when I got a call at home....

 

[BigDaddy5]

the music will fade when the call comes in, you will have to reset to iPod after, etc. That is what happened when I got a call at home....

What happens when you answer a call, though? Does it come through your home speakers, or do you have to remove the phone from the cradle? What about when using the bluetooth, how does that change call answering?

Most of these questions are small details, and it wont deter me from installing this bad boy in my vehicle, but just some things that have me curious before I actually try it.

 

[thirdeyeopen666]

What happens when you answer a call, though? Does it come through your home speakers, or do you have to remove the phone from the cradle? What about when using the bluetooth, how does that change call answering?

Most of these questions are small details, and it wont deter me from installing this bad boy in my vehicle, but just some things that have me curious before I actually try it.

The music will fade, but you won't hear the call through the speakers, even if you turn on speakerphone. I bought one of these to remedy the situation, but truthfully, it doesn't work very well.

http://www.seidioonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=811

 

[godspropy]

I've been using the dock that came with my iPhone in my car since day 1. It works great. It's true, you will not get the call through the car speakers but if you use a bluetooth headset it is still the default for calls. This works well for me. I have never wanted a call through the car speakers. I prefer to either pick up the phone or use bluetooth.

 

[Tsuius]

iCable with mini to RCA connectors

The doc connector does not work for phone calls (as previously stated). I am using the Monster iCable with mini to RCA connectors (the one made for iPhone) to make calls or listening to music.

I get sound from my car speakers, the iPhone mic picks up my voice, there is no interference on my car stereo and the caller hears no echo.

 

[thirdeyeopen666]

The doc connector does not work for phone calls (as previously stated). I am using the Monster iCable with mini to RCA connectors (the one made for iPhone) to make calls or listening to music.

I get sound from my car speakers, the iPhone mic picks up my voice, there is no interference on my car stereo and the caller hears no echo.

Can you elaborate on your setup a bit? Where does your phone sit? Do the RCAs plug into the rear of your car deck? I saw a few iCables on various sites, but would you mind pointing out which one your're using? Sounds like you have a setup I'd like to duplicate. The seidio cable sucks

-B

 

[Tsuius]

Can you elaborate on your setup a bit? Where does your phone sit? Do the RCAs plug into the rear of your car deck? I saw a few iCables on various sites, but would you mind pointing out which one your're using? Sounds like you have a setup I'd like to duplicate. The seidio cable sucks

-B

My phone is located just below the radio and yes the RCA connectors are plugged in at the rear of my deck. I had to take my car apart to do this but it was worth it. Test your car's radio to hear if it picks up the RF noise generated by the iPhone, not all radios are shielded / designed the same. Here is a link for the Monster icable I am using: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/monster-icable-for-ipod-and-iphone/

 

[BigDaddy5]

My phone is located just below the radio and yes the RCA connectors are plugged in at the rear of my deck. I had to take my car apart to do this but it was worth it. Test your car's radio to hear if it picks up the RF noise generated by the iPhone, not all radios are shielded / designed the same. Here is a link for the Monster icable I am using: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ipod/review/monster-icable-for-ipod-and-iphone/

I assume you plug it into the top of your iphone every time you get in the car, right? I think that's a pretty good idea, but my goal is to have something that I can get lazy with...just drop it into a dock and everything just works. Ideally my dock would be hooked up to an ipod -> head unit cable, so the iphone would be fully integrated. Control the ipod functions on the car stereo, take calls over the bluetooth unit in the car, etc. Never have to look at the iphone while driving.

Of course that's the end goal for me, others may vary.

 

[joshysquashy]

I am thinking of getting a universal dock for my iPhone in the car.

It can output sound to my car's aux, and charge the iPhone by a PowerJolt charger, and I can skip tracks with the remote.

Sounds like a good solution, only wish there were other options for iPhone, but other companies are having trouble dealing with the shielding and getting the security chips.

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

I got a harman kardon drive + play which works superbly and gives full track control and display. It seems pretty immune to interference too with only a very occasional GSM "buzz"