Parrot MKi9200

Sometimes a firmware update is utterly transformative. iPhone and ipad users know what I'm talking about here: some updates make virtually no perceptible difference to the product, and some of them are like getting an entirely new device. The latest update to the parrot MKi9200 is firmly in the ,atter category.

A bit of background. In my last car, I had a Harman-Kardon Drive+Play hardwired in, because I hadn't (still haven't, truth be told) found an FM-based system for getting music from my iPod to my car's speakers that was satisfactory. When I got a new car, the Drive+Play was no longer available, and (here's the odd part) the Drive+Play 2 wasn't available in Australia because of some issues with GPS mapping. I didn't want it to be a GPS, but such was my luck.

Looking around, I found that there were very few such solutions on the market: something that doesn't replace your car's audio system but connects directly to it, and allows you to control your iPod without touching it, with a screen mounted on the dashboard. Most of what's out there is either a full replacement unit or an FM transmitter — I wanted that sweet spot in between.

That's when I found the MKi9200, made by French company Parrot (you may have heard of the AR.Drone helicopter toy that you can operate from an iPhone — that's also Parrot). Unlike the Drive+Play it has a colour screen, and sufficient resolution to display cover art — snazzy. Also, unlike the Drive+Play, it includes the ability to connect to a mobile phone with Bluetooth and act as a handsfree kit. Since it fit my needs, I had one installed.

That is the gotcha with this: it will more than likely require professional installation, so bank on a labour cost on top of the $A439 retail price. In my case, because my "new" car is actually ten years old, it required a fair bit of jiggery-pokery with wiring behind the dashboard and took over five hours to install. Thankfully I was only charged for one.

Once in, the device itself (the "blue box") is hidden in the cavity behind the glove compartment — though why this is necessary I'm not sure. It would be equally hidden from view sitting in the glove compartment, but ever so much more accessible when required. More on that in a sec.

Inside the glove box are attachments for an iPod, an MP3 player with 3.5mm headphone port, and a USB port. Any of these — indeed all, if you're adventurous — can be used as music sources. You can also get music from a phone connected via Bluetooth. In short, your connection options are pretty open. In my case, an oldish hard-drive-based iPod sits in the glove box pumping music while my phone sits mounted on the dash, being a phone.

That's the theory, anyway. For months after the installation, the MKi9200 would periodically misbehave — failing to respond to the remote control, choking on songs, suddenly cutting out, sometimes just refusing to turn on, all sorts of weird behaviour. Sometimes it would lie dormant for days, then wake up if someone called while I was driving. Sometimes it would turn on, play a few seconds of a song, then turn off again — never giving me quite enough time to turn the volume down. Gah!!!

All it required to get going again was a reset, but of course with the Blue Box hidden in the glove box there was no way to reset it short of removing the glove box, unplugging the Parrot and plugging it back in. In order not to void my warranty, I had the installer do this every few weeks, when the erratic behaviour got unbearable.

Just when I was thinking that the only option was to get the thing ripped out of my car so I could find something else, I found a firmware update online. Parrot's automated system for updating the firmware relies on you having a Windows PC, but doing it with a Mac is not difficult, just fiddly.

With the updated firmware, it's a different device. It doesn't crash, doesn't freeze, doesn't suddenly die for no reason. Shuffle play — sorry, Random (iPod) — actually works now. Tracks always show the correct cover art — another bug from before now resolved.

Using it as a handsfree phone is pretty cool, as the audio comes from your car's speakers. The microphone is mounted on the rear-vision mirror at installation and the answer/end buttons are on the remote with the audio controls. It's the first handsfree kit I've used where I didn't feel the need to yell at my phone.

(This is hardly surprising, as Parrot built its name on Bluetooth car kits before it ever went into the iPod accessory business. Aside from its own branded products it also provides chipsets to a range of other manufacturers under OEM license. It controls roughly 80 percent of the market for these devices in Europe.)

There are still a few little annoyances. Names in the phone book are sorted by first name, which is utterly illogical, and I haven't yet found how to change it. Artist names are correctly sorted by last name or band name, but when skipping quickly through the alphabet it goes by the artist's first name. Album and song lists, on the other hand, behave correctly, ignoring "a" and "the" and punctuation at the start of titles. But these are quirks, not deal-breakers.