iPod your BMW, the good, bad and ugly...

So we'll start this off on a positive note. Apple, BMW- nicely done. The car is one of the 3 places we all listen to music (home, walking around and in the car). Adding the iPod via a direct connection to a car audio system is the natural evolution of things, in fact expect to see this as a standard option on a lot of vehicles in the forthcoming years.

Now, the bad and ugly— granted, we realize BMW and Apple are likely to be working feverously on the next version- here's what we don't like about the current version of iPod your BMW:

1. You can't use it with a BMW with a CD Changer, Satellite radio, GPS navigation system or cassette. So, that means most/all the people who got a BMW are out. Who doesn't get at least one of those in their BMW?

2. Playlists. You need to make separate playlists on your iPod called BMW1, BMW2, etc…AND the track titles do not show up in the BMW, it just says track1, track2, etc…Blah.

3. In case you didn't notice, the thing the iPod does, is just pretend it's a CD player that the BMW didn't get.

4. BMW and Apple will tell you the sound quality is great, and it most likely is- but when we use our iTrip mini or tape audio in, with a BMW 300ci and compare with the CD player with the top up or down, our ears couldn't tell a difference- if you can, then maybe this is for you. But if you're ears are that good, you likely don't do your hardcore listening on a noisy highway.

5. Glove box, you need to open up the glove box and plug it in.

We don't mean to totally poop on this, like we said- it's a good first step, we're sure they're working on version 2 already.