AAPL OOPS

Problem
For the record, an upgrade of an Apple iPod Touch to version 4.0 of the OS does cause incompatibility with car stereos, that is, for all intents and purposes, your iPod stops working. (Or it keeps working. It kind of depends...)

Earlier this year, I replaced the stock CD/AM/FM radio in my car with a nice, new JVC unit that plays MP3 and plain CDs, has an AUX IN port, plays MP3s on USB drives(!), and connects to iPod via either head-unit or iPod-mode control. And, of course, it has AM and FM.

Within the last few weeks, any time I try to play the iPod, it fails (e.g., song stops, goes silent, won't change track). Coincidence: Within the last few weeks,I upgraded the iPod to iOS 4.0.

There is a plethora of similar observations on the Internet, from folks with all kinds of car audio units.

Solution
In 2 e-mail responses, JVC told me to reset both the car unit and the iPod. That only resulted in massive inconvenience as I lost all kinds of tweaks on the car unit. (Yes, I also tried a brand-new cable. I've been troubleshooting electronics since car radios had vacuum tubes, thank you.)

I tried playing the iPod through the AUX IN port as an interim fix, but the sound quality was lousy, and I wasn't going to waste time troubleshooting what was only an interim fix.

Apple does not "let" you downgrade to any previous versions of the iOS. On the Internet, I found workarounds. No step-by-step recipe worked exactly as advertised, but I finally got back down to 3.1.2 and it works again. I spent 10 hours in the car recently with nary a hiccup.

Some Observations
On a variety of Internet sites, I came across many instances of what I call the "Sloan-Kettering" effect: If you are not experiencing any of the difficulty that those around you are, no one wants to hear it. If your car radio works fine with iOS 4, and you're really proud of that, then the next step is to grab a bullhorn, go into the nearest cancer clinic, and shout "I don't know what's wrong with you people! I don't have cancer! Cowboy up, people! Get a life!"

Next Observation
This is about beta testing. If you make thingies that a lot of people are going to play through their car stereos, each time you make a change that could possibly break that function, how about testing them (more than you did)?

Last Observation
If you make thingies that a lot of people play through their car stereos, and you make a change that breaks that function, and your attitude is that you won't "support" the only logical thing that people can do -- the downgrade -- (buying a new thingie or a new car stereo won't help; virtually nothing else will), then please stop telling yourself what a great consumer-oriented miracle you are, where "Everything Just Works", because, well, not everything does.