iLounge

1

Umm…this has been in CompUSA for months.

Posted by Gordy. in Atlanta, GA on May 24, 2005 at 6:35 AM (PST)

2

Just looked at the iCruze website.
Compared to the Pioneer solution, which of course requires a Pioneer head unit, it is rather limited and expensive. If I read the FAQ right, you can only play playlists (probably with certain headunits), with a max of 6 lists.
With Pioneer you can play by (unlimited) lists, artists, genres, even albums, though selecting albums can be rather slow and tedious.

Posted by Sieb in Netherlands on May 24, 2005 at 6:48 AM (PST)

3

The price is simply ridiculous. I recently replaced my very old Panasonic headunit with a Pioneer CD/MP3 unit & Pioneer iPod adapter for less than this would cost with the necessary cabling.

Posted by ash8080 in Florida, USA on May 24, 2005 at 7:27 AM (PST)

4

Right. The price is too high. Get a head unit with line in (Aux) and a $15 cable (Sik model ‘din’). Then mount the ipod on the dash or air vent using a $5 aftermarket universal cell phone mount from Wal Mart. Then you won’t need that $99 display.

I guess if you want to integrate into your existing unit, this thing is ok, but way overpriced.

Posted by klwdallas in Dallas, TX on May 24, 2005 at 8:35 AM (PST)

5

that’s exactly what I have

Posted by mvv on May 24, 2005 at 1:17 PM (PST)

6

I don’t see why this is $50 more than an Ice Link. The only “advantage” I see is that for an extra $150, you can buy an external display. ($100 + $50 higher price)

I also noticed that it lacks support for several late-model cars, including several Honda/Acuras.

Posted by Cellulose on May 24, 2005 at 4:06 PM (PST)

7

This is a really overpriced add-on for the ipod to integrate it with your stereo. Alpine already makes a unit that you can plug into your stereo and control your ipod throught the head unit and it only costs $100.00.  I don’t understand the need of this unit.

Posted by HOMERman55 in Chicago on May 24, 2005 at 9:22 PM (PST)

8

Monster iCruze = Monster iPrice

Late to the market; poor price-point

Posted by FahrenheiPod 451 on May 25, 2005 at 11:44 AM (PST)

9

people will pay crazy for monster products… kinda like apple products

Posted by Humpty on May 26, 2005 at 3:30 PM (PST)

10

Be Careful…I just had Monster I-Cruze install in my 500SL…It works with 3rd Generation I-Pods but does not work with 4th Generation.  I tried to get Monster to respond to my questions with no luck.  You might not want to buy I-Cruze until they work out the kinks.

Posted by Robvinlee on June 11, 2005 at 7:36 AM (PST)

11

It is simply inexcusable for any car stereo made in within the last five years to come without a auxiliary input.  In fact, it was never excusable.

Any car-stereo company that doesn’t issue a mandate that every one if its units have an input deserves to be eliminated from the marketplace.

Posted by Information Central on June 13, 2005 at 12:44 PM (PST)

12

I’ve got the Alpine iPod adapter, and think it’s BS too.

These companies found a way to take the most elegant interface of our time, and turned it into a complicated, slow, confusing interface that you are supposed to be able to use while DRIVING!.

Posted by dhardman on June 16, 2005 at 2:42 PM (PST)

13

OK, while I don’t doubt your point, it’s time to stop with the “elegant” lauding at this point.  The interface is nothing more than what you’d expect on such a device.  The only reason the product commands such a lead in the marketplace is the gross incompetence of the competition.

Creative Labs is a great example.  They made a hard-drive music player look like… a portable disc player?  The original Jukebox or Nomad was shaped like a Discman!  Ridiculous!  Hard drives were larger then, but come on, why make it an unwieldy round shape?  Stupid.  Then they come out with the Zen, which could’ve been very good, but they saddled it with proprietary software that you had to load on any computer you wanted to connect it to.  It wasn’t even recognized as a drive when you plugged it in, and the special software was never released for Macs.  So when you go traveling, you’re supposed to carry a floppy disc or CD with software on it if you want to share pictures or files with a friend’s computer?

Ugh.  People have such low standards now, driven down be ever-worse user interfaces.

Posted by Information Central on October 11, 2005 at 12:50 AM (PST)

14

The ICruze has been nothing but problems, it constantly locks up requiring a power cycle (not just turning the radio off/on), responds very sluggishly to the head unit, intermittent garbage on the LCD display, does not always recognize an IPod has been connected unless you reconnect it once or twice more.  Also, a lot of the features it is supposed to have are missing…can’t control the IPod past song 99; it jumps back to one (the instructions say it can go higher than 99 but the display will stay at 99), does not respond to my CD changer disc selector buttons to change the playlist, and does not appear to actually charge the IPod all that well.  The instructions to install the thing are not correct either.  It refused to work unless I had the rear controls connected, unlike disconnected as instructed by Monster.

The thing sounds awesome when it works.

Contacted Monster who apparently does not care they put out a very beta product.

For the money this product is not worth it.

Posted by Rick on January 19, 2006 at 4:13 AM (PST)