Dear Priuschat, I recently posted about not finding dealers-installers for this unit you all highly recommend in the LA/OC area. I was unable to reach Eugene at VAIS yesterday but received an email from him today saying the following: "We are discontinuing current products and will release the new version in the middle of November, so please wait until that time and I will get you in contact with our dealers in California." I have no idea why this is being discontinued or how the new version will be different. I may have found someone in my area that has a unit to sell, but I will have to find out more about this change before buying it. I understand many of you are on a batch list to get the unit at a discount price...not sure what effect that has for you....just posting this FYI. Joel
Not any different from buying a product from Apple Computers. I'm getting used to (and expect) buying obsolite electronics. Like my new iPod Photo that now has more storage, smaller and displays video for the same price I just paid.
Could this mean a photo, video compatible system? I can see it now a "young person driving down the street while talking on the phone, watching "Desperate House Wives" and doing mascara and painting toe nails".
whew!! when i saw the post title, i was thinking Great!!, killed another Prius vendor... first it was Coastal now, VAIS... but glad to hear that its just an upgrade. bummer... i bet its gonna come with something that will make me regret buying version 1.0... but it does tell me that a company always looking to improve their products is a company i want to do business with
I'd assume in a company of VAIS's size, the engineering resources and manufacturing resources tend to be shared. Thus, while coming up with the "next model", production tends to come to a halt. I don't know, of course -- that's just a guess -- but that explains a lot. (If I had a wish, there'd also be an "upgrade" option so that current AIC-100i owners could have their units upgraded to contain the features of the newer model. However, that's both unlikely and often difficult to do.)
Eugene has said that he would do free firmware upgrades, of course you have to send him the AIC-100i. Bob
geeus...even in its primitive state, i have come to love and depend on mine...dont know if i could give it up for any extended period of time.
hmmm i thought the 2nd group buy was already a done deal...werent they working on #3...either way, i would guess that if you have not received dialogue from VAIS that something is on the way, i guess we will have to wait until AIC version 2 is released
Do you know the benefits of this "upgrade" any details?? I rather wait to get mine when it gets upgraded.
They were supposed to call the 2nd group after the 19th of Oct. I haven't recieved a call but I know they have meny calls to make. Has anyone been called yet?
It is still on, but it is going to require a good amount of your (and my) continued patience. I haven't gotten a call yet, either (and I assume I am first on his list), but I know Eugene is working on this for us.
Short of what has been posted here, I don't know of any new version at all. I was the first to try the AIC-100i on my Prius. I have the firmware 3.3.1. I think the latest firmware is 3.4.5, someone correct me on the latest firmware. Mine has a max of 12 playlists, where the new version has 99 playlists. I'm OK with 12 right now, but Eugene will upgrade my firmware, for free, to the latest version if I send it back to him. Bob
Would be nice to download a firmware upgrade and place it on the iPod so the next time it connects the upgrade auto installs. No modification needed to the hardware.
I respectfully disagree. I don't want to make it easy to mess with the software built into my Prius (or its interface). The AIC-100i sends data in one direction, and it is asking a lot to build a back door and leave it open.
