Although they're still a rather new concept on the audio and home entertainment systems' market, the popularity of Internet radio receivers steadily increased in 2008. Given the fact that they'll most likely hit it big mainstream over the next couple of years, Blaupunkt has decided to start early in this field and launched at CeBIT 2009 what it touts to be the world's first in-car web radio receivers, the Hamburg 600i and New Jersey 600i.

Similar to their desk-bound counterparts, these radios also permit in-car reception of thousands of radio stations from all over the world for unlimited music enjoyment covering absolutely all tastes. However, Blaupunkt has not obtained this impressive achievement on its own, but has enlisted the help of the global Internet media platform specialist miRoamer.

As the manufacturer informs us, the reception of over 20,000 radio stations is made possible by a connection to the Internet that is established using a 3G-capable mobile phone via Bluetooth. Selecting the Web radio stations is intuitive thanks to the clear menu navigation without having to go to the trouble of entering URLs. Furthermore, the mi-Roamer Web portal allows users to pre-configure additional settings, such as music genre and favorite stations.

As you can see from the photos (which, sadly, were only mock-ups on display at the company's booth from CeBIT 2009), the Hamburg 600i is a 1-DIN device, and will sell for somewhere around 300 Euro. On the other hand, the New Jersey 600i will occupy 2 DINs and will retail for close to 400 Euro. However, users will have to wait some more for these things to actually arrive on the market, since they're slated to be released at a yet undisclosed time in the second half of 2009.

Besides the aforementioned devices, the company also launched at CeBIT the TravelPilot 600i portable navigation device, a PND that offers users the benefits of Web radio reception. This navigation device is scheduled to arrive on the market in the second half of this year, but pricing details have not been provided yet.


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