A few months ago, I built an Apple TV remote into an NES controller for a friend of mine in appreciation for some graphic design work he did for the company, and I was very pleased with the results, so I decided that a perfect Christmas gift for another friend would be an Apple TV remote in a different piece of old tech. My original thought was to get an Atari 2600 controller and add a button to the top of the joystick to give full access to the Apple Remote’s features, but I wasn’t able to find one in time, so I decided that an Atari 2600 cartridge might actually be a more interesting choice, since there is plenty of room and I could modify the labels to reflect the repurposing of the cartridge! I scanned the original Asteroids labels and artwork, made a few subtle changes, then printed them out and (after much scraping and grinding) removed the old labels to make room for the new ones. Integrating the Apple Remote worked out nicely as well, and only required milling down the face of the remote, cutting some precise holes here and there, and carefully assembling the whole thing. I made sure - as I did with the NES Remote - to allow for easy replacement of the battery so that the end user wouldn’t ever have to disassemble the final piece for maintenance. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and the gift was truly appreciated! Happy Holidays to all, and stay tuned…

We’re pleased to announce our holiday promotion for 2008, which begins today and runs through January 15, 2009! We tried to make it really simple - no rebates, just a simple $25 of anything in the online store using promotional code “XMAS” during checkout, or free installation for our Atlanta customers…Check it out, and please contact us with any questions! Happy holidays to everyone, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Just a quick note to amend the post below - we’ve confirmed that DICE has been supplying us with USB-charging enabled interface cables for a month or so now (they have a blue connector on the interface side), but we were awaiting the arrival of the updated interface boxes that must be paired with these cables to allow charging of the iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 2nd gen and iPod Nano 4th gen. We now have these interface boxes available, so all new orders that come packaged with a DICE interface will be USB-ready. For existing customers, we will be offering the same upgrade program mentioned below, and DICE is going to be accepting older interface boxes directly for an upgrade with new components to enable this feature. Please call or email us for details!

Today, we received a shipment of the new USB charging cable from USASpec which finally addresses the issue a lot of our customers were having where their iPhone 3G, 4th generation iPod Nano or 2nd generation iPod Touch would work perfectly with their installed USASpec/2point5 integration package except for one major feature - charging. Since July 11th when we discovered this problem, we’ve been in touch with USASpec as they went through the development and manufacturing process of these replacement cables, and I’m pleased to say that they are here and that they work as described! From here on out, any of our spec.dock packages that are bundled with a USASpec interface (most BMWs and most Audis along with all VW, Infiniti, Nissan and Honda packages) will include this cable, which is backward and forward compatible - supporting charging on all iPod and iPhone models.

We recently spoke with a customer who was interested in our full iPhone and iPod integration solution for the 2002-current BMW 7-series E65 to make the use of his iPhone 3G on his daily drive more of a pleasure than a frustration, and we were happy to tell him about our package for these cars. However, he told us that he had a 2002 year model, which in the past meant that we had to tell him that we were very sorry, but no manufacturer’s products (including BMW) worked with the 7-series from 2002 until March of 2005…

Instead of saying no, my business partner decided to download Dension’s most recent application guide to see if anything had changed. To his surprise, these early E65s were actually listed as compatible, albeit with some reduction in functionality. We told the customer about the new development as well as the fact that this was entirely untested by us, and he was willing to give it a try…It worked! So, I can now say that as long as your 2002-March 2005 7-series E65 has a CD changer (I’ve never seen one that didn’t), you can finally listen to and charge your iPod or iPhone (including the iPhone 3G) in you car. Hallelujah! Please visit the product page for more details. We look forward to hearing from you!

Just a quick note to announce the addition of yet another new spec.dock model to the lineup…We now have a model for the B5 chassis Volkswagen Passat (1998-2004) that fits in the ashtray and still allows the ashtray lid to close completely. Click here to enter your vehicle information and see which package is right for you! Thanks as always for everyone’s support of our growing company, and we hope to put something together for your car soon!

One of our customers was kind enough to do some research on his own and drop me a line today regarding the charging issues for the iPhone 3G which have been discussed in detail here over the past couple of months. I mentioned in an earlier post that Dension has two models that (with the right cable) will work just fine. Here’s a copy of the information that showed up in my inbox this morning:

Dear Customer,

Do you already have a GW100 or you are planning to buy one.
If don’t have a Dension device I recommend you to buy a new GW100 (slightly redesigned hardware). The item number starts with GW16xxx and not GW15xxx.
The GW16xxx has been tested and works properly with iPhone 3G. WE are currently testing the iPhone 3G with the older GW15xx. The results will be available shortly at http://www.dension.com/dension_apple_matrix.html Please note: TExt will not be visible on your HEad Unit’s screen or on your cluster display.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
Please confirm that our reply was satisfactory.

Kind regards,

Dension Support Team

It’s good to hear that Dension said they were going to update their units and that they actually are!! Looks like we’re slowly starting to come out of the woods on Apple’s transition to USB charging…

I’m not sure if this obscure bit of information flew right past anyone, but it looks like the iPod Touch 2G and iPod Nano 4G have continued Apple’s trend toward dropping FireWire charging altogether, according to their spec sheets:

It doesn’t really come as a surprise at all, and as I’ve mentioned a lot recently, the industry is quickly catching up, so we’ll be ready soon with updated spec.docks that will enable everything from the iPhone 3G forward to play and charge flawlessly. More to come…

I finally got a chance to test out the information I received as far as the ability of the Dension Gateway 300 and 500 products to charge the iPhone 3G by using the already-existing dock connector cable that has a blue end, and I can happily confirm that this is indeed the case. Over time, Dension has supplied three connector colors - grey, green and blue. I tested all three, and only the blue cable will charge the iPhone 3G properly on the Gateway 300 and 500. I also was able to test this functionality through the Dension BT1000 Bluetooth unit, and can confirm that this works properly as well.

You still get the “This accessory not made to work with iPhone” message about GSM noise (see posts below), but there is no mention of charging issues via the iPhone 3G itself.

As before, I’ll be posting information on the other manufacturers as I get my hands on it!

For those of you wondering and waiting for the new iPhone 3G charging cables to be released by the various interface manufacturers out there, the current word is:

1) USASpec should have their cable “available in September,” according to their website.
2) DICE should have their cable ready around the second week in September according to their support department.
3) Supposedly, Dension Gateway 500 and 300 units using the blue (not the green) connecting cable can already charge the iPhone 3G. I should be getting my hands into a car to test this Thursday or Friday, so any information I gather will be posted here.
4) Dension is updating the Gateway 100 firmware to support use of the blue connecting cable to enable iPhone 3G charging with those units as well.

We should be just about over this hump and can get back to business as usual in the coming month! Please check back for more info as we gather it…