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Alpine's Blackbird Rocks Your Car, Guides You on the RoadThe new and improved PMD-B200 model |
By Alex Vochin, Technology Editor
19th of October 2007, 11:51 GMT
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The people over at Alpine have released a very large number of car audio systems over time, but in order to be able to provide complete in-car systems, they've also come up with a few interesting GPS-based navigation systems. And that's exactly what we'll talk about as follows, namely the new Blackbird (PMD-B200) model, which sports upgraded features that improve the driving experience, including a built-in Bluetooth module, a built-in traffic tuner and the flexibility to use the unit as either a portable or fixed unit with one of Alpine's AV head units.
The PMD-B200 runs on the Microsoft Windows CE platform and comes with a built-in flash hard drive for preloaded NAVTEQ map data of the United States and Canada (including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) and 6 million NAVTEQ Points of Interest (POIs). The maps can be viewed in four different ways including 3D mapping, 2D full map, split map and turn-by-turn arrow view. These maps are accompanied by full turn-by-turn
voice-delivered instructions, which are available in English, French and Spanish.
Moreover, the PMD-B200 has a large 4-inch wide LCD touchscreen display, which is used for displaying the Graphical User Interface (GUI for Drivers) and on-screen driving directions. New to the PMD-B200 is POI Name Keyword Search, which searches all POI names that include the entered keyword.
The PMD-B200 has a built-in FM radio data system (RDS) traffic tuner that, when used with the NAVTEQ Traffic RDS service subscription, will keep drivers updated with changes in traffic flow and incident information such as construction, accidents and congestion levels (traffic flow and incident data vary by service area). A new Traffic Events List sorts traffic incidents by distance, name or location along the current route.
The Blackbird lets users take their favorite tunes on the road through an SD card slot that is capable of playback of up to 4GB of stored WMA/MP3 music files. When Blackbird is used in the supplied windshield cradle, music and driving directions can be transferred to the car's stereo through the built-in FM modulator. New to this second-generation Blackbird is a built-in Bluetooth module. When connected to a Bluetooth enabled mobile device, users can answer phone calls through a one-touch "Call" button. "Phone book," "Dialed calls," "Missed calls" and "Received calls" are all displayed on the PMD-B200 (feature capabilities vary by phone make and model). An on-screen 12-key pad can be used to dial out, or users can scroll through the Blackbird's address book or POI list to find the desired phone number.
A very important feature of the PMD-B200 is its ability to be docked inside of Alpine's IVA-W205 2-DIN in-dash head unit, creating a complete audio/video/navigation (AVN) system. The IVA-W205 is a robust DVD/CD/MP3/WMA AV head unit with a faceplate that slides down to a 90-degree angle, revealing the DVD/CD slot and a separate slot for the Blackbird. Once docked inside, the Blackbird becomes a dedicated navigation system that does not take processing power away from the IVA-W205, allowing the IVA-W205 to focus on the audio and video functions. All the user control functions on the Blackbird are automatically transferred to the IVA-W205's 6.5-inch QVGA touchscreen monitor.
The Blackbird (PMD-B200) is available for around 750 US dollars, while the associated IVA-W205 can be purchased for around 1000 US dollars, which places them among the most expensive such products available on the market (although we've kinda come to expect this from Alpine products).
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