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CAptivate + alpine headunit

ATTme

Newbie
Aug 8, 2010
17
0
Hello,
I have an alpine iDA-X305S headunit which I stream Pandora and play my itunes from my iphone with. I would like to switch over to the Samsung Captivate, but I really do not want to lose this ability. The Alpine headunit does not have a CD player so I would have nothing but radio :(

I went into the store I purchased the head unit from and they said it would not work because it uses the AlpinLink App only availble in itunes.

is this true?
I would really appreciate some actual experience with this situation. Sadly this will be a deal breaker for me. I really like the phone, but I do not want to drive around in silence lol! Sorry if this has been asked. I searched around the forum and googled it but could not find what i needed to know.


thank you for any help
Jason
 
The last thing I read indicated the current Pandora apps on non-Apple products were not compatible with the X305S, though I understand the intent is to update to allow it to work (no idea about the schedule of this).

Alternately, you could always mount up the Captivate as a USB device on an IDA headunit and get full track listings, MP3 meta data, etc. I've got an X100 and I've used a USB thumb drive a few times and it works really well (and doesn't require any connectivity or bandwidth). I realize that may not be what you want, but it's a nice interim solution (assuming there is actually a plan to being Pandora >> X305S integration to the Android version...)
 
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The last thing I read indicated the current Pandora apps on non-Apple products were not compatible with the X305S, though I understand the intent is to update to allow it to work (no idea about the schedule of this).

Alternately, you could always mount up the Captivate as a USB device on an IDA headunit and get full track listings, MP3 meta data, etc. I've got an X100 and I've used a USB thumb drive a few times and it works really well (and doesn't require any connectivity or bandwidth). I realize that may not be what you want, but it's a nice interim solution (assuming there is actually a plan to being Pandora >> X305S integration to the Android version...)


does this mean I could plug it into the usb (like I do with my iphone) but I would lose the interface on the headunit? I could still select tracks, skip, and change stations from the phone? Otherwise i dont understand :eek: That would be fantastic if they made an AlpineLink app for android...


and thank you for the other suggestion, but I do not want to connect through blutooth. IMO you lose sound quality that way.
 
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Yes! [with a USB connection] You get song MP3 data, and all the control interface, everything minus album art, plus the listings of the files is basically the file/folder structure.

vs. an iPod where you get just the normal album/artist listing, etc., basically a complete emulation of the iPod/iPhone player UI.

While it's not quite as seamless it's not terrible. I've only done it a few times, plus I've used a USB drive to move over custom backgrounds for the headunit.
 
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I think there's two connections on the IDA HUs, one is the 422 for older iPods, and the other "high speed" connector is actually just USB, at the end there's a standard USB connection, then a small adapter cable that goes from USB to the proprietary Apple bus interface. I use the same cable for USB or iPod (I just remove the iPod section).

Like I say, it's not as jazzy as the iPod, but it'll get you to a drive with MP3 files with some decent amount of control.
 
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Well, that didn't work. The Captivate just kept cycling USB connected... over and over again, like it was connecting then disconnecting. I don't know if it's a low voltage situation (with the 5 foot Alpine cable plus the fairly long micro/usb cable from Samsung). I don't currently have another cable or just an adapter, though I have boxes of that sort of thing, I'll have to look.
 
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Well, that didn't work. The Captivate just kept cycling USB connected... over and over again, like it was connecting then disconnecting. I don't know if it's a low voltage situation (with the 5 foot Alpine cable plus the fairly long micro/usb cable from Samsung). I don't currently have another cable or just an adapter, though I have boxes of that sort of thing, I'll have to look.

hm.... so it didnt work? I will try a captivate with my headunit tm and see what happens.
 
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Yeah, it wouldn't mount it, but it works with just a generic USB drive. So like I mentioned above either a signal issue or just some weird USB incompatibility. I had it set to auto-mount as storage, and even after I unplugged it, the phone still just sat and cycled the USB notification. I'll try a few other things later, I'm really curious about it working now :D

Keep in mind my HU is an IDA-X100, so there's been a couple of revisions since (the X305 and X305S) so YMMV :)
 
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This is a big iConsumer annoyance of mine. Not to insult you in any way for your purchases, but I think all these iPhone/iPod only devices that are flooding the market are a problem for the electronics industry. The iPod got big... everybody had them, so every electronics company decided "Hey, lets take advantage of this. Since everyone is buying these iPods, if we make crap that works with them we'll make a ton!" This leads to people not only spending hundreds of dollars on a music player, but sometimes hundreds more on accessories and devices that work with it (and in most cases ONLY it). Years later (or maybe sooner, depending on spending habits lol) you want a new or different device... but you now have all this crap that only works with one device... So your pigeon holed into getting another freaking iDevice. It's a vicious cycle. I'd be pissed if I had a $400 radio in my car (i say $400 because that is what their website says retail price is on it) that became useless if I got rid of my iPod/Phone. <sigh> Sorry about the rant...
 
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tekonus, I agree with you. I didnt know pandora capable headunits existed until I purchased mine. I absolutely LOVE pandora so I jumped on it. I will eventually get an iphone4 (AT&T employees cannot get them until demand dies down or until further notice) :( I would like to try something different in the mean time... If I cannot get this to work I will just stick with my 3GS.

I will update tomorrow evening. I have the day off so I will pull my head unit out and plug the captivate in and see what I can get to work.
 
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I don't see any new posts since august but I also have a Samsung Captivate and and IDA-X001. (well not also on the alpine unit but on the captivate). I actually removed the head unit and plugged the Samsung usb cable directly into it where the iPhone/iPod usb connection was. It did not work. The captivate on all modes, media, kies, pc, mass storage hell even under usb debugging didnt work. I've tried it rooted and non rooted. I plugged the iPhone/iPod cable back in and have also tried an off brand and the Samsung cable directly into it. Same thing, no success. I actually never intended to replace my 3gs but due to uncontrollable circumstances I no longer have it and replaced it with a pretty nice phone (I Thought) but I also stream Vibration Poprock (chocradios app) and played lots of music through it as well. I've had all variations iPhone, 3g, 3gs and wasnt going to pay 400.00 or 300 for a iPhone 4. Just couldn't swallow that(thats to the above commenters who feel justified in flaming those of us who unwillingly lost our iDevice and couldnt afford/didnt want to spend the $$ to have it replaced. So.. back on topic, anyone have any luck please reply. I'd love to figure a way to get this working. I've also checked xda dev but haven't found anything there yet either..
 
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