A2DP – THE Convergence Solution for MP3 Players, Cell Phones, and More?

My Wife has wanted an iPod for quite a while now. I’ve talked her out of it several times specifically because Apple has thousands of people more-or-less “leasing” music from the iTunes store. Being a bit of a technology evangelist, “vendor lock-in” is practically heresy to me. [As a side note, if I had just gotten an iPod in the first place, we'd've had a couple years of enjoyment by now that would have made the whole "future-proofing" approach I've been taking irrelevant]

There’s no doubt it is a pretty slick device, but that’s never been enough to get me to give in. What really started to turn my head though were all of these cool gadgets that integrate with the iPod. All-in-all, its been a very subtle embedded device revolution of sorts. But ultimately, these extra gadgets you buy for your iPod are the utmost in vendor lock-in. What are you going to do with that “iPod dock” when your next cell phone has a 2GB MP3 player built-in?

A2DP Bluetooth Profile to the rescue! Seriously, why aren’t more people talking about this? If it all works out, it makes integration of music players to stereos, computers, etc. standardized and wireless. For example, with A2DP-enabled devices (like my LG CU500 cellphone), the minute you sit-in your car, not only can your cell phone calls be answered via the car stereo, but the music on the phone can be played on that stereo too. The iPod dock as we know it would no longer be a “dock”, it would simply be a pair of speakers with some rudimentary controls (play, pause, forward, back). Doesn’t that sound a lot like any old home stereo?

Anyhow, I’ve got much to say about this technology and its potential, but for now I’ll just list all the resources I’ve been exploring:

For the home

Motorola T605 Motorola DC 800 – This device (and others like it) would help you with the above-mentioned home stereo to Bluetooth integration. I’ve seen a few other “Bluetooth stereo transceivers” but they usually include the transmitter and receiver.

For the Car

Motorola T605 – a small device to add to your existing car stereo that will answer calls and stream music from your Bluetooth device. I can’t tell if it actually has any device controls.

Parrot MK6000 – a similar device from Parrot. This one definitely has the remote controls on the device.

Pioneer DEH-P810 Car Stereos – some car stereos are starting to come out with native A2DP support. Check out the related products at the bottom of the linked post.

For Linux

Advanced Audio Support for the BlueZ Stack – Some details on the official Linux Bluetooth stack’s A2DP support. “4. Emulating a headphone” looks like a software version of the Motorola DC 800 above. I’m eager to try this out.

On a Mission to Disambiguate the World