[chriscu1]

I understand there is a difference in things like battery life, sound, brighter screen, etc. But what I cannot seem to find out, are the 2 identical from a software/firmware/drivers perspective? Like, does your computer know whether you put in a 1G or 2G touch, or just thinks it's a touch? I mainly ask this because I'm thinking of getting one, and my car stereo supports the 1G touch through its USB port (very nice feature to access playlists and whatnot). If there is something in the 2G that would cause the stereo to not recognize it, I'd probably be swayed to get the 1G instead. I'm not sure if anyone can give a concrete answer to this, but any suggestions/opinions? I realize if they are different there will be a firmware update to the car player to support it at some point. But that would not help me if I bought today. Thanks.

 

[Cheule]

My understanding is that there were lots of problems when people upgraded from the iPhone 2G to iPhone 3G with regards to auto kit compatibility.

The reason was that Apple finally removed the legacy firewire charging mode from the iPhone. This meant that any auto kit that was using the USB charge mode was unaffected, but anything using the legacy firwire mode was rendered incompatible with the new iPhone 3G.

I experienced this myself when attempting to buy a car charger unit on the day of the iPhone 3G launch. Some of the off the shelf chargers were incompatible, but some were. I can to buy units and return them until I got a brand/model that worked.

I have no certain knowledge if this legacy mode was removed from the new iPod Touch 2G, but I would assume it was.

Sorry I can't give you specifics, but hopefully my little post will point you in the correct direction.

 

[dvessel]

Have you contacted the manufacture or checked their website?

I don't think you'll get a definitive answer here.

 

[chriscu1]

I've sent Kenwood an email, and they are usually good about getting back to me in a reasonable amount of time. They haven't this time yet, but they did put a firmware update a few months after the last generation came out for all their units, so their track record is pretty good. I may end up getting a 1g anyway since the prices are good right now are I know for sure it is supported.

 

[chriscu1]

I found my answer (from Crutchfield's updated research, Kenwood support was still clueless), so I am updating this thread in case anyone else has the same question as me. The current Kenwood head units automatically support all gens of touches (as well as all nanos including 4G, and all classics, and all iphones including 3G) out of the box with no further firmware updates. This includes charging and communicating through the USB port on the unit.