DIY: Bose Touring Stereo (NON NAV) iPod Interface Upgrade: iSimple Media Gateway

Augustus

Yes, it stays where you left it. Leave it in iPod, and it'll pause the track. Resumes right where you left it on restart.

Yes. Ninja Edit: Adam's right - the tracks themselves are ordered by track # in the album.

Yes, but you don't access it through the random button . I think you hit SCAN. It's in the instructions.

Both, and the same lag. Steering wheel controls are actually worse because you have to hold down the next/previous button for ~2 seconds before it changes. It's not horrible, but it's there. Takes about a second between each input. Sometimes a "next track" command instantly flips to the next, sometimes it takes 1-2 seconds to start playing. Worse than the lag is that there's no fast-scrolling, and you have to hit the button each time to advance - you can't just hold it down. Getting to ZZ Top in your Artist list would take me 5 minutes. You really gotta do playlists. And don't do what I did and first name them all "Z" something. Z-Crusin, Z-Rock, etc. Doh!

Buddy at work has a touchscreen Pioneer deck in his car. It's a much easier/better iPod/iPhone experience.

Honestly... I'm thinking of returning mine. I'm undecided but growing less impressed with it. It's very nice that one's iPod is charged & hidden. SQ is quieter but otherwise fine. But the interface is so pokey that it's faster (arguably safer) to just do it on the iPod directly. I'm also not pleased at how it screws up my XM display; to make a long story short, on the *first* startup after sitting for more than a few minutes, my XM display only displays 8 characters of songs/artists/channel. With the iSimple removed, the display returns to normal. So if I want XM with full characters, I have to hit ACC before I start the car. Not so cool, as I listen to XM as much, if not more, than my iPod.