Kenwood Bows Wi-Fi Music Keg
By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 1/19/2004
LAS VEGAS— Kenwood unveiled at CES one of the first Wi-Fi capable car audio systems.
The company displayed a DIN-sized upgrade to its Music Keg system that will offer a CompactFlash (CF) slot and USB port on the front face. The CF slot can accept a Wi-Fi 802.11b card for allowing scheduled transfers of music or information from a home PC to the car, said the company.
The Music Keg is a removable hard-drive cartridge system produced by PhatNoise that can store music files recorded from a PC for playback in the car.
The Keg can be hooked up to a car's video system to display maps that can be stored on the CF card for navigating.
This latest version of the Kenwood Music Keg was shown as a prototype but it could be available this summer from Kenwood at a target price of $699, the company said. Kenwood also showed a home audio component that will accept the same Keg cartridges. A similar home unit under the PhatNoise brand is available on the Internet at $349. No shipping date or price was given for the Kenwood version.
