iPad as a car stereo? A steering wheel control solution is here.

Have a really cool iPad installed in your dash as your car stereo, but totally bummed out you can’t use your factory steering wheel controls with it?

Estimated read time:2 minutes 10 seconds.  Want to read later?

Well bum no more.  It was only a matter of time.  Installing an iPad into your dash as your car stereo is pretty cool, but it does (or did) have a few limitations:

• No Bluetooth interface (for handsfree calling)
• No reverse camera input
• No steering wheel controls (for the most part – depending on your installation technique you may have had volume control, but that’s it)
• Can’t see shit when the sun is glaring (consider a Moshi iVisor anti-glare screen protector)

Thankfully, someone was smart enough to come up with a solution for the steering wheel control conundrum.

NAV TV recently announced the release of their StreamBlue iPad car stereo interface, also known as an NTV-KIT510.

For $499.95, NAV TV has provided an interface that will work in conjunction with popular steering wheel control interfaces such as PAC Audio’s SW-IRC, Metra’s ASWC-1 and iDatalink’s Maestro.

This kind of makes me wish I had steering wheel controls in my Honda Element.  Yet I also wish I kind of had a dash in my Honda Element.

Our Honda Element is one of those continual works in progress.  It was coming together really nice and it was sounding pretty awesome (using Alpine’s PXA-H800 and RUX-C800, Morel Elate Hybrid Components, JL Audio 12 W6 and Audison Amplifier), but John wasn’t happy with how the HVAC controls were sitting and decided to start from scratch, again.  This poor car is like the cobbler’s kid who goes shoeless.  And I am also not unlike the cobbler’s kid, check out these babies.

Back to the iPad car stereo interface at hand.  NAV TV tells us:

“StreamBlue is a super high-quality Bluetooth 4.0 with EDR (extended data rate) audio streaming interface that provides a seamless and secure bi-directional wireless connection with your tablet or smart phone.  

The included and selectable analog RCA or digital S/PDIF (electrical coaxial) outputs allow the StreamBlue to be used by directly connecting to a factory or aftermarket audio input, aftermarket amplifier, or to a third party audio processing unit with either analog RCA or digital S/PDIF input.

StreamBlue supports pairing of up to 8 different devices and provides a 12 volt, 1 AMP remote output whenever a Bluetooth connection is active. Additionally, when used in an application where a tablet or smart phone is used to replace the factory radio, the StreamBlue, coupled with a vehicle-compatible steering wheel control interface from PAC©, Metra© or iDatalink©, allows steering wheel control functionality for safety.”

Pretty cool, right?  Now I just need a car with steering wheel controls to try this in.  The NTV-KIT510 can be purchased through an authorized NAV TV dealer.  Contact NAV TV to find a dealer near you.

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