Pioneer puts Pandora Radio in your car

Pioneer hammered another nail in the coffin of traditional music radio when it announced that its new top-end car-audio and satnav system would - among many other features - include support for Pandora Radio. There's one major hitch with the Pandora support in the new AVIC-X920BT in-dash AV receiver, however: you need an …

[fifi]

UK?

That's fine, but when will Pandora be available in the UK?

it's a rather important issue for the UK readership.

[Is it Friday yet?]

Pandora in the UK...Erm Nope!

As Pandora is only available in the US this will be about as much use as a catflap on a submarine..

[Dick Emery]

Overcomplicated

Does anyone else feel that in car entertainment has become FAR too complicated and 'feature rich' these days? It's just another distraction and potential for accidents IMHO.

A radio and CD/MP3 player is fine. Everything else is overkill (Or roadkill).

[peyton?]

I would disagree

*But* only if it didn't require an Ipod hooked up via cable?! If I'm going to shell out for a nice radio, the point would be to declutter - I fail to see what this offers (wrt music) that just plugging your mp3 player straight in via aux or FM tuner wouldn't solve...

Once upon a time people cited CDs becoming too cumbersome as a reason to move to mp3 - but as a Pandora fan, I can say it has made me feel that managing mp3 collections is also too cumbersome. Just gimme my thumbs up and down! =D

[Martin 19]

Apart from the possibility

of the entertainment preventing accidents, by helping to prevent driver boredom on long journeys, of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

No

Take your 'clever' quips elsewhere.

[John White]

In Car Entertainment

I'm sure last time I got in a car, the idea was to go from A to B (in some safety/comfort) and the radio/CD/MP3 was there to while away the bring bits on the car park called the Thelwall Viaduct/J21A of M6...

Seems now we almost at the stage of having a personal seat that's wirelessly plugged in to your phone/mp3/video screen attached to thereto. Next we'll sit in the seat in the house; seat+occupant is transported into the car complete and out at the other end whilst virtually navigating our way /simultaneously watching a video and IM chatting to friends

Hang on, think my 17yrd old does that now ....

[Anonymous Coward]

A cable?

You need a cable to connect your iPhone to your car radio? How old fashioned.

[fifi]

Need?

no. I don't "need" a cable to connect it to the stereo.

But unless a wireless connection can:

Charge the phone

Hold the phone securely

Allow me to control the iPod with my steering wheel controls,

I might as well take advantage of the cable connection.

[Quxy]

Android users need not apply

Indeed. Of course, Android phones already provide this capability quite nicely through a $5 cable to any car audio system with a 3.5mm audio input jack. Better yet, you're not limited to Pandora, but can choose your favourite streaming audio source.

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry if I missed it.

If it was a troll, or an attempt at humour, but you can do that with an iphone too.

I tend to use Spotify on my iphone, with a Dension in-car kit.

[Anonymous Coward]

.co.uk

who cares if its an American only thing - we are in UK

[Orclev]

@A.C.

Via the magic of the intertubes El Reg also has a significant American readership. There's also the possibility that Pandora might become available in the UK sometime soon in which case you have this handy review.

[Graham Lockley]

Meh

<Android-phone owners and others need not apply>

In other words the majority of the western world......

Doesnt seem a great selling point to me.

[Random Coolzip]

Phase II

So how much longer until some safety-freak connects the dots and realizes that the hardware for the "eco-graph" could be re-purposed to analyze the current driving style and switch the current artist from AC/DC to Enya if too many 0.5G-magnitude events are recorded in a minute?

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this a big deal?

I get Pandora on my Blackberry for free. I have a fairly cheap Bluetooth-enabled aftermarket car stereo in my dash. Turn on stereo, set to BT Audio, launch Pandora on the Blackberry. Voila, music! Perhaps the high-end gear goes at a higher bit rate and may sound a little better, but mine is free and sounds pretty good. I'm sure it's not as convenient as having it right there, but again---all my gear is bought and paid for. And I can use any audio service I can get to work with the Blackberry, not limited to one. Free is good.