Blaupunkt and miRoamer will announce a partnership at CES that will put internet radio into car dashboards for the first time. Blaupunkt prototypes pictured here show the technology in action.

"miRoamer’s development with Blaupunkt is the first seamless
Internet radio solution," said miRoamer founder and CEO George
Parthimos. "With the simple push of a button, users can access
AM/FM stations or Internet radio’s thousands of music, entertainment, news and talk stations from around the world, all from the same car stereo."

MiRoamer dipped its toe in these waters last year, but the requisite hardware deals apparently didn’t materialize. Now that Blaupunkt and miRoamer have formed a partnership, we could see in-car internet radio enter the mainstream.

"The first model will connect to a 3G/HSDPA/HSPA device via Bluetooth for Internet connectivity," explained miRoamer spokesman Ryan Greives. "When connecting to the Internet via an external device (such as an iPhone), the customer’s existing mobile service provider is the default network," adding, "various models are in the pipeline which may have an internal modem."

With the radio connected to a smartphone on an unlimited data plan, these prototypes (the New Jersey 600i, pictured above, and the Hamburg
600i, below) will provide in-dash navigation of tens of thousands of miRoamer stations, already available via computer and available for access by car starting on January 1, 2009. Beyond that, the availability (and pricing) of Blaupunkt’s internet car radios are unclear at this point, although Grieves confirmed that they will be available on original equipment in new cars, although surely the dedicated gadget head could find a way to get one installed.

Source : wired.com