3 ms·

> And then you can't power the phone Qi/MagSafe helps with this

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
If your phone has that. And if you run a wire to this in your car and keep it tidy. Oh, then you need to run another wire for the audio. Whereas with the ancient 30-pin iPod port, you got an audio line out AND power in. And the cool thing about that one is that it was a true line-out: The volume control didn't affect it, so you didn't have to dick around with the volume on two devices (the player and the car radio). I bought the Lightning-to-30-pin adapter from Apple, and it duplicates all of that. You get the audio line out and power in. A cheap Y cable with USB for power and 1/8" plug for audio solves everything. As far as I know, it's the only solution that Apple has ever sold for a problem it deliberately created. And I doubt anyone, statistically, is even aware of it.
- kalleboo 3y ago
  I think the vast majority of people just use Bluetooth in their cars. My car is from 2016 so it has CarPlay. I bought a $50 wireless CarPlay adapter and pulled the cable for a MagSafe dongle through the dash and now I can just plop my phone down so it's held in place, it charges, connects to the car console, everything is super handy.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    Lots of cars don't have Bluetooth for audio. For example, we have a 2013 Mini that (somewhat inexplicably) supports Bluetooth for phone calls but has no provision at all for music over Bluetooth. But it does have a auxiliary audio input. Neither of the other two vehicles in our household have Bluetooth at all, but they both have aux inputs. Bluetooth is a shitty workaround to intentional, anti-consumer stupidity. Just as almost every car (even cheap-O rental cars) integrated auxiliary audio inputs, Apple removed the audio output from their best-selling music player (the iPhone). And when gutless consumers allowed them to get away with it, everybody else followed suit and now we've regressed decades. Twenty years ago I built an iPod dock into my car, into which I could plop my iPod (and later iPhone) and get power into the phone and audio directly into the stereo system. The phone charged, and delivered good audio quality. As a bonus, it did so without the need to dick around with two volume controls, since the 30-pin connector had a proper (fixed) line-level audio output that didn't vary with volume adjustments on the phone. This is a level of convenience and performance that very few people enjoy now, and that is pathetic. Manufacturers have intentionally degraded so many of our consumer-electronics experiences with no payoff for us, and very questionable payoff for them.

If your phone has that. And if you run a wire to this in your car and keep it tidy. Oh, then you need to run another wire for the audio. Whereas with the ancient 30-pin iPod port, you got an audio line out AND power in. And the cool thing about that one is that it was a true line-out: The volume control didn't affect it, so you didn't have to dick around with the volume on two devices (the player and the car radio). I bought the Lightning-to-30-pin adapter from Apple, and it duplicates all of that. You get the audio line out and power in. A cheap Y cable with USB for power and 1/8" plug for audio solves everything. As far as I know, it's the only solution that Apple has ever sold for a problem it deliberately created. And I doubt anyone, statistically, is even aware of it.

kalleboo 3y ago
I think the vast majority of people just use Bluetooth in their cars. My car is from 2016 so it has CarPlay. I bought a $50 wireless CarPlay adapter and pulled the cable for a MagSafe dongle through the dash and now I can just plop my phone down so it's held in place, it charges, connects to the car console, everything is super handy.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  Lots of cars don't have Bluetooth for audio. For example, we have a 2013 Mini that (somewhat inexplicably) supports Bluetooth for phone calls but has no provision at all for music over Bluetooth. But it does have a auxiliary audio input. Neither of the other two vehicles in our household have Bluetooth at all, but they both have aux inputs. Bluetooth is a shitty workaround to intentional, anti-consumer stupidity. Just as almost every car (even cheap-O rental cars) integrated auxiliary audio inputs, Apple removed the audio output from their best-selling music player (the iPhone). And when gutless consumers allowed them to get away with it, everybody else followed suit and now we've regressed decades. Twenty years ago I built an iPod dock into my car, into which I could plop my iPod (and later iPhone) and get power into the phone and audio directly into the stereo system. The phone charged, and delivered good audio quality. As a bonus, it did so without the need to dick around with two volume controls, since the 30-pin connector had a proper (fixed) line-level audio output that didn't vary with volume adjustments on the phone. This is a level of convenience and performance that very few people enjoy now, and that is pathetic. Manufacturers have intentionally degraded so many of our consumer-electronics experiences with no payoff for us, and very questionable payoff for them.