Parrot Asteroid Integrated Android Car Receiver
—In 2009 Parrot came out wit their iPhone compatible car receiver, the RKi8400. Now, they’ve announced the Asteroid, a single DIN car receiver running the Android platform.
The front panel is composed of a 3.2-inch LCD that is not, from what we can tell, touchscreen compatible, but is controlled by the adjacent buttons and knob. There are 3 USB ports for adding your MP3 player of choice, even an iPhone or iPod touch.
The Asteroid can provide Internet radio as well as GPS turn-by-turn directions, provided of course a 3G dongle and GPS receiver are plugged into the USB ports. Apparently, the Asteroid can receive Android updates, but you’ll probably need the 3G dongle to receive them.
Aside from the USB port, media playback can be obtained by inserting an SD card, Bluetooth or AUX input. If you opt for Bluetooth with a compatible phone, the Asteroid will be able to route calls through your car’s speakers and can be controlled with voice commands.
Unfortunately, there is no price or release date yet, but you can probably expect it to launch sometime later this year.
Posted 1/13/11
