It turns out that in the Audi system at least, Bluetooth is built in to the system if you have got a dash mounted GSM preparation, or a centre armrest version… as long as you buy the car with GSM phone preparation, it should work.

All you do to get your iPhone connected is switch bluetooth on and let it look for devices. The Audi appears in the list very quickly, and you enter the default password (1234 in most cases). Once done the phone will work through the phone system, allowing you to make and receive calls hands free and with no need for cables or cradles.

There is a delay in the system copying your phone book to the car, and in my case with over 400 entries it took simply ages – I believe three days went by before it finally completed. Voice dialling and voice control is not activated which is no big loss; the Audi system is pretty unreliable if you are driving at anything like normal speeds as it mis-hears almost everything you say. Using a multi-function wheel you can easily scroll through your contacts (which get displayed in your driver’s information panel in the centre of your dashboard) and make the call that you need. When the phone rings with an incoming call you simply press a button to answer it.

It couldn’t be simpler… but it took three years to find and only then through a chance conversation with the salesman who got my new car sorted (Stansted Audi, name of Bert Wildman).

I wish I had known before. In short, don’t buy a cradle unless you crave voice dialling features, use bluetooth instead.

However, one problem with having such lovely design is how to keep it looking lovely. For example, my 3rd Generation iPod has a shiny chrome back cover, which suffers enormously from smudges, scratches and generally getting bashed about. I keep it in the case it came in, but somehow even sliding it in and out of that has introduced wear and tear. Of course, it is a good few years old now, has had new batteries (see my article about replacing an iPod battery) and gets used almost every day. It is bound to suffer wear and tear, and I should expect no less.

The problem has moved on now though, as I also have my iPhone to protect. There are literally hundreds of cases designed to look after your iPhone, and some are remarkably expensive affairs by comparison to others. The ones I’ve seen or used include wallet type ‘fold over’ where you slot the phone in the top and there is a front flap which opens and closes like a book to reveal the phone controls, clear plastic cases that snap on, and various types of rubber or silicone rubber sleeves which you wrap around the phone.

The issue with the wallet type has been that the phone can easily slide out of the opening at the top since there is no strap to keep it in. Thus, casually hoding the case the wrong way up can result in a nasty fall to whatever surface is below. In Matt’s case that has been everything from carpet to concrete. Not good. They also require more manipulation to answer the phone and are much more bulky in your pocket. If, like me, you keep your phone in your jeans pocket then that’s not a good thing!

The clip on plastic covers also increase bulk somewhat, although not drastically. They do also protect the device, but they look, well, odd. It somehow destroys all of that lovely design work and you end up with something akin to a cheap underwater housing for a disposable camera. They are low cost, and they look it, too, IMO. The one exception for me *might* be the InCase ‘slider’ for iPhone and iPod touch.

So that leaves the silicone rubber covers, and at the moment that is what I’m using. There are lots on the market, some in funky colours, some with reinforced ribbing, some with built in screen protectors and so on. I’ve looked at most and discounted most. There’s even one made from a material designed to protect helicopter rotor blades whirring at high speed in a sandy environment. Nice. The one I am using is in fact very cheap and soft feeling that covers most of the phone, but not the front glass. This hardly affects the overall bulk, allows easy access to the controls and essentially is just plain black. It looks smart to me. I also cover the glass with a stick on screen protector (around £3.00) which is probably overkill, but I feel better about keeping my phone in my pocket with these sorts of things on. The touch screen operation is not affected in any way by such a protective cover.

The only downsides I can find are that the rubber material doesn’t slide easily over cotton and thus getting the phone out of a pocket invariably brings the pocket inside out with it! I also have two rather large holes on the iPhone itself – the headphone socket and the dock connector – and these are susceptible to that dreaded of all afflictions – pocket fluff. No matter how clean your garments, fluff collects in the pockets! The worry is that the fluff will lodge in the sockets on the phone and prevent them working as they should.

So far, one month later, that hasn’t been an issue, thank goodness.

Phone covers are pretty personal things, and different people will want different ones. I’ve found the rubber cases to be better for lots of reasons than the leather wallet types, but I guess you’ll have to make up your own mind. For what it’s worth, I spent less than ten pounds on a rubber case and a screen protector film. I’m happy with the protection, knowing I’ll never use the phone as a helicopter rotor blade, unless in some MacGyver moment I am thrown into a survival situation and that’s what I need to do to escape. Alernatively, I’ll just ring for help…

If anyone wants to send me the very latest Dension files I’d be pleased to add them to the list.

Dension have done a poor job in providing these files for their customers, in my opinion. As time marches on, more improvements to the firmwares will have been made, but a lot of folk seem to want to stay with a version that works for them. For me, that was version 2.05, but I removed my Dension ICE>Link a year ago in favour of the Alpine head unit and KCA420i iPod adapter – a far superior experience when playing your iPod in your car.

However, I believe the Dension product is brilliantly innovative, if somewhat poorly supported. I will continue to host these files as long as I can.

On further inspection I found that the iPod was able to charge, and did in fact reach a full charge after about four hours constant charging. It didn’t stay charged very long though, draining in about an hour or so when playing back.

So, I figured it was about time for a replacement battery and so I bought one from iPodworld.co.uk. It was a little more expensive from them compared to other places, but it did include some tools to help open the case up.

Looking at the iPod case it is hard to see how it all fits together. However, the tools supplied were excellent. Shaped a bit like flat headed screwdrivers with a bend in the end of them, the nylon tools are designed to help you prise open a side of the case and carefully release the catches therein. The instruction book that comes with the battery is small, so expect to get your magnifying glass out to read it. The content of the book is superb mind you and the details are very precise. I liked it so much I have got the .pdf version here! This is somewhat easier to read, and the pics are in colour.

Easing the tools into the crack along one side of the iPod is a bit tricky at first. I chose to get the angled tip of the tool pointing downwards into the silver back of the ipod. This seemed to be the easiest way in, at which point I slid the tool along the length of the iPod, looking for any of the clips holding it together. I then used the other tool the other way up to firmly but very carefully push inwards and lever the front white case off along the side. This was a lot easier than I had anticipated and the side came away fairly quickly, although I was quite surprised at how much force was needed – you don’t need much, but you do need to be firm.

Once one side was released the other edges came away easily. Aware of the ribbon cable connector attaching the two halves together I worked on a flat surface from then on.

The hard drive inside the unit is attached by means of a flat connector. Imagine two flat surfaces joined together by a connector between them – this is how the iPod drive gets fitted to the logic board. Removing this is a little worrying, since there is only a flat copper coloured piece of material indicating where anything is joined. Fortunately for me there was a small rectangle which looked a different colour and so I used the nylon tools to gently lift the connector ribbon and the connector itself just popped out.

Moving the hard drive to one side the battery is then revealed. There is a three pin connector which needs taking off first – this is a bit tricky unless you have got fingernails (I don’t) or tweezers (also, none available). So for me it was a case of looking carefully at the connector and seeing that it was only the top of it I had to hold on to when I pulled. Again, the force required was more than I had anticipated, but if you are looking for some pliers in order to get a better grip then you are trying too hard. Once released the battery could be lifted and then twisted around in order to free the cables which were underneath the logic board edge.

In good old fashioned Haynes manual traditions, reassembly is the reverse of removal. Carefully tuck the new battery wires under the same edge of the logic board as the original and lay the battery itself into the space for it. Re-fit the hard drive… for me there was a small click as the connector joined the logic board again. I was a bit sceptical that I had it all lined up correctly at first, but it went in easily when I had it in the right place.

The last part is to replace the cover – be very sure that the new battery wires are not sticking out at all as you will easily pinch them and damage it if they are. The front cover just snaps on to the base and that’s all there is to it.

Other things to watch out for are really to be very careful of the connector between the front and back of the iPod – this looks very fragile and you don’t want to be playing around with it – don’t try to remove it!

Once back together, cycle the power on the iPod (you know, flick the ‘Hold’ switch across and back then hold the play/pause and menu buttons for about 6 seconds), then put it on to charge. The new battery came with about a quarter charge on it, so now it is in the adaptor getting a full top up.

I reckon that I will fully charge and then fully discharge this battery before I then start the usual abuse of partial charges and discharges that it will receive for the rest of its life.

Replacing an iPod battery is not as scary as you might think. This one cost me ��18.99, but the cost for a service to do it for me would be nearer ��50 all told. I’m happy that I saved ��30 and would feel pretty confident to change an iPod battery in the future.

Thanks to iPod World for the supply of decent instructions and good tools to help make the job easy – and scratch free!

Click here to download them all – it is a 4.1MB download…

Edited – Feb 18th 06, Check out the page for Dension files – all versions in the updates library are now listed individually, along with the config files and a .pdf about how to run the updates. Hopefully this will help folk get to the exact update they want more swiftly.

Personally, I’ll be looking for a sat nav unit, such as this one which you will see from the link is only 975 Euros (or roughly ��660 at today’s rates), instead of the massively overpriced ��1500 that this lot quoted me (plus fitting… plus adapters, plus can-bus, definitely, before they have even looked at the car…) with a word of caution regarding my internet ‘find’ about ‘grey imports’, ‘not real Alpine gear’, and the best one… “You’ll pay a hefty amount of import duty on that, son”… followed soon by rumblings and grumblings about how they lost ��43,000 due to eBay and Internet sales. Well, that must have been careless of them.

The German company Caraudio-versand are very nice on the phone, speak English and are keen to do business… Oh, and if you pay the German rate of VAT there is NO IMPORT COST, according to the customs and excise folk, who I rang up to speak to about it all… almost impenetrable website, but excellent advice over the phone.

Click here for a 3.5MB .zip file.

I understand that version 2.10 is due to be available very soon – and if you see it or hear of it first, please let me know and I’ll add it here, too.

This file contains firmwares 2.03 through to 2.06 – as soon as I locate the v2.07 firmware I’ll add it… I understand the 2.1 firmware will soon be out too.

The download also includes all of the head unit configuration files for OEM and aftermarket units that Dension had on their site, plus the files to clear the head unit configuration and the instructions about how to upgrade.

Please click here to download it all.

Many thanks to Andreas Harder and Palos Brontu Saure for their input to this all.

I had a moment of sheer panic when my ICE>Link stopped working… I think it was because I plugged and unplugged it in too swiftly, causing the device to hang. I upgraded the iPod firmware (kindly supplied by Apple and it started working again after the iPod restarted, but in for a penny in for a pound – I went ahead with the v2.05 firmware for the ‘link’ too… so all back to normal – upgrade worked well.

Why don’t iPods have a power on/off switch? It would have saved a headache on this occasion!

I can report (happily) that the update went smoothly, that functionality seems fine, but that the head unti display is still not right when I use the iPod UI for the ICE>Link in my Audi A3 with Concert radio.

However, here it is less than two months later and Dension in their wisdom have closed the support forum at their site. The latest firmware version is 2.05 but I am working happily with v2.03.

But that’s not the point. The forum at Dension was generating a lot of good questions and answers – perhaps too many for the good folk at Dension to handle in such a public way, but now we find that a message placed on the forum (or rather, where the forum was) directs us to hackmycar.com. I don’t know about you, but this is hardly a professional, product centred name for the ICE>Link! In fact it feels as if fitting the product to your car is in fact some kind of grubby activity, hacking into an otherwise good car.

Of course, not all hacking is bad… but it feels as if Dension have abdicated responsibility for their own product – they do maintain a standard email based support system, however.

But hold on… what’s this we see… hackmycar.com is in fact a domain that is registered to Dension Audio Systems, specifically Bela Markaus himself. So what gives here?

Anyway, despite all of that, the ICE>Link is providing hours and hours of brilliant music in my car – I wouldn’t be without it (unless a better product that does a similar thing comes along).

Fitting the ICE>Link is simple – the hard part is getting the stereo out of the dashboard. Once clear of the dash you basically unplug a single connector and replace it with the Dension wiring loop. You then re-plug the original connector into the Dension wiring (which is now attached to your stereo head unit) and add the different pieces of the Dension equipment one at a time to the new bit of wiring.

The head unit connects to the link piece, the link piece connects to the cradle (feel a song coming on yet?) and the cradle gets put where you want it.

There is a stray black wire with no label on it on the model ICE>Link that I bought. This turns out to be an earth wire and just needs attaching to any metal part of the head unit. Until you do the ICE>Link won’t power up. As soon as you have got it installed and powered, put the stereo back in the dashboard, careful not to trap any wires, and get to your computer. You need to go to install.dension.com to download the correct file to load to the ICE>Link, identifying the type of head unit you have. In my case, despite the radio being a ‘Blaupunkt’ I used the ‘Audi’ installer file – the unit is in an Audi after all and will have Audi firmware in the radio.

The next thing to download is the latest firmware. There is an instruction .pdf to read too – essentially you load the car config file (which is an .mp3 file) into your ipod, then play that file as you plug the iPod into the cradle. This programs the ICE>Link to be in the right format for your car. You then follow the instructions for the firmware – again it is a set of .MP3 files which you load to your iPod. You find the ‘set up’.mp3 and play that, and the string of many small files will play one after the other. The counter goes up to 99 on your head unit, but there are many more files than that… wait until the iPod display gives you the message that the firmware update has been successful.

Then unplug the iPod from the cradle, turn off the ignition on the car and turn it back on again. You should find that the ICE>Link is now seen as your CD changer. Most CD changers hold 6 discs, but in this case discs 1-5 relate to the first five playlists on your iPod – set them up as you want! Disc 6, if selected, enters you into the Dension menu on the iPod where you get to set up some parameters. It is here that you can ask to use the iPod UI (User Interface) which I strongly recommend. Be aware that you move between the menu items using the buttons on your head unit, not the iPod (the iPod buttons will be disabled at the moment). Set it up as you want, and you should see a message telling you to remove the iPod from the cradle, or similar to that. When you place it back, it’s all done.

I use the iPod interface because I am familiar with it, but also because it lets me access ANY of the playlists I have, and also set up backlighting, etc which is handy when driving at night.

So, all in all I am still really pleased that I got this product – it is the best way to listen to iPod music in your car if you can get it all working. Shame on Dension for closing their support forums – it makes it look as if they don’t care or even wish to support their own product, but we’ll see how the new forums shape up.

HackMyCar.com… whatever next?!!