Hit the road, Jack
So General Motors announces it will equip some of its new vehicles with a radio that features an auxiliary input jack on the front panel. There’s nothing wrong with that, except perhaps the some.
But MacNN is quoting Paul Nadeau, director, infotainment displays and controls, for GM Engineering:
We think the ability to easily connect an iPod or other audio source directly into the vehicle audio system will be a big hit with customers.
This is preposterous. Is he actually expecting us to marvel at GM for having the so-called idea of putting an input jack on car radios back?
I may be the only one but I clearly remember that the first car CD players did indeed feature an auxiliary input. It was natural: you couldn’t use a tape adapter anymore so a line-in was provided instead. Only later did the car manufacturers start locking their customers into proprietary systems1, expecting to sell outrageously expensive CD changers to those who didn’t want to die of boredom after listening to the same album for a whole trip. And now they finally step back, in a move that must cost them at most fifty cents per car, and congratulate themselves over it, making sure they mention the iPod to attract the media’s attention? Ooooh pathetic!