Given the ever increasing popularity of Apple's portable devices (whether we're talking about the iPod or the iPhone), it's actually no wonder that everyone's scrambling to come up with certain devices designed especially to work with these products, including here the manufacturers of various car audio accessories. Thus, Alpine, one of the biggest names in the specific segment mentioned above, has also come up with several products of this type (showcased at this year's International CES in Las Vegas), two of the most impressive being the iDA-X305 and iDA-X303 receivers.

According to Alpine, these two receivers are dedicated 1-DIN iPod Digital Media Receivers, which will provide drivers with a fully integrated iPod/iPhone experience in their vehicles. Since they've been designed specifically to work with the two devices from Apple mentioned above, they don't support CD/DVD playback, but instead rely on a 30-PIN connector for hooking up the iPod/iPhone, as well as a USB interface for connecting either USB flash drives or MP3 players. Additionally, they offer users access to all of the iPod's navigation tools, including here search by Playlist, Artist, Album, Song, Genre, Podcasts, Audiobooks or Composer.

Besides the iPod and the USB interface, Alpine's new Digital Media Receivers can play AM/FM and can also connect to and control a variety of digital media sources and playback formats, such as satellite radio, MP3/WMA players and Bluetooth connectivity for hands free calling and streaming audio support. Of course, in order to enjoy all these features, drivers will have to spend a little more on the required adapters, but the possibility of actually adding the respective options is indeed note-worthy.

There are also several differences between the iDA-X305 and iDA-X303, one of the most visible being related to the screen size and features. Hence, the iDA-X305 features a high-resolution 2.2-inch color TFT display that shows artist, album and track information and when (or if) the iPod displays album art, this also will be showed on the iDA-X305’s screen, along with multiple display options. On the other hand, the iDA-X303 boasts a 2.2-inch, three-color LCD display with two available lines of text and three different screen view options, with easy visibility even in direct sunlight.

Both iPod-dedicated receivers from Alpine are scheduled to arrive in stores over the course of January and will sell for 350 US dollars (the iDA-X305) and 250 US dollars (the iDA-X303), respectively.


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