Me: I live in Silicon Valley with my wife, child and cat. I have worked at Microsoft since I graduated from College, both in the Macintosh Business Unit on products such as Outlook Express, Entourage, IE, and Virtual PC and in Windows Live on Hotmail, Calendar and People. I am currently a Principal Lead Program Manager on the Windows Live Social Networking team. I basically manage a team of Program Managers responsible for delivering features to support our web and client applications. I've been blogging since 2001 and like to play around with .NET in my spare time working on projects such as dasBlog (the blog that powers this site) and Send to SmugMug (an application for uploading photos to SmugMug). I blog about a number of technology and productivity related topics.
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If you car has an integrated iPod kit, chances are when Apple removed the ability for Firewire to charge through the iPod adapter, your iPhone 3G and iPod don’t charge any longer.
In the past few months a few options have emerged that basically allow a firewire powered iPod connector to charge the iPhone or iPod using USB.
I had luck with an adapter that Apple sells called Scosche passPORT. It works great in one of my cars that has an aftermarket Blitzsafe adapter, but it doesn’t work at all in my new car, a Mercedes with a Media Interface (which is basically a killer interface that allows control of the iPod or iPhone via the system’s COMMAND interface, steering wheel etc).
Anyhow, even though automakers have had about 3 years to adapt to this change, the bottom line is that many of them have yet to release anything that allows their kits to charge a modern iPhone or iPod. Silly really.
So these adapters are great. Griffin makes one now called the Griffin Charge Converter however it states very clearly on their web site:
Our Charge Converter is not compatible with Pioneer head units that use the CD-iB100 or CD-i200 iPod to IP-Bus adapter. The Pioneer units send proprietary data as well as FireWire power. Although the cable will continue to pass the audio, iPods that charge via USB-only will not charge, remote commands may be limited, and the head unit may display an error message. iPods that charge via USB-only include the 4th generation iPod nano and 2nd generation iPod touch, as well as iPhone 3G. This may also apply to the Mercedes Media Interface Cable.
Our Charge Converter is not compatible with Pioneer head units that use the CD-iB100 or CD-i200 iPod to IP-Bus adapter. The Pioneer units send proprietary data as well as FireWire power. Although the cable will continue to pass the audio, iPods that charge via USB-only will not charge, remote commands may be limited, and the head unit may display an error message. iPods that charge via USB-only include the 4th generation iPod nano and 2nd generation iPod touch, as well as iPhone 3G.
This may also apply to the Mercedes Media Interface Cable.
Bummer. Mercedes released a service bulletin S-B-82.60/643a in January that says:
If you receive customer reports in the above model vehicles (equipped with any of the two options below) that their Apple product (refer to below list) is not charging but music/telephone communication functions are operational, this maybe due to a change in the charging circuit design by the Apple Corporation. Apple Product: iPhone 3G, iPod Nano 4th Generation, iPod Touch 2nd Generation and iPod Classic 120 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity, as well as all iPod/iPhone products superseding the ones referenced in this Bulletin. For vehicles equipped with the Accessory Media Interface Option, a customer-pay remedy is forthcoming. This bulletin will be updated accordingly when available. For iPod Interface Kits (part numbers listed on Page 1), a new iPod data cable connecting the iPod Interface Module and the iPod/iPhone, the part number is B6 782 45 31. This is a customer-pay remedy. This technical change (change in charging circuit in newer Apple Products) is applied by the Apple Corporation; MBUSA is not responsible for diagnostics, parts and labor costs.
If you receive customer reports in the above model vehicles (equipped with any of the two options below) that their Apple product (refer to below list) is not charging but music/telephone communication functions are operational, this maybe due to a change in the charging circuit design by the Apple Corporation.
Apple Product: iPhone 3G, iPod Nano 4th Generation, iPod Touch 2nd Generation and iPod Classic 120 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity, as well as all iPod/iPhone products superseding the ones referenced in this Bulletin.
For vehicles equipped with the Accessory Media Interface Option, a customer-pay remedy is forthcoming. This bulletin will be updated accordingly when available.
For iPod Interface Kits (part numbers listed on Page 1), a new iPod data cable connecting the iPod Interface Module and the iPod/iPhone, the part number is B6 782 45 31.
This is a customer-pay remedy.
This technical change (change in charging circuit in newer Apple Products) is applied by the Apple Corporation; MBUSA is not responsible for diagnostics, parts and labor costs.
So basically what they are doing is blaming Apple for this when they had a few years to address the problem while also saying they have no solution for 2009 cars with their brand new Media Interface.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I found an adapter that does work made by a nice fellow in Sweden. I PayPal’ed him last week and received my adapter today. The best part is, IT WORKS.
You can get the Small iPhone 3G Charge Converter for $29.90 plus $9 shipping.
Note: Mercedes has fixed this problem with a new cable for the iPhone. Part number is A 001 827 84 04 and the cost is about $70.