Alpine Introduces $900 Infotainment System With Wireless CarPlay

[ToroidalZeus]

My question is the 2v preouts....does that support faster charing for an iPhone like the iPad charger does?

2v preouts are RCA jacks to amplifies.

 

[_Refurbished_]

I'm interested in this, but also very confused even after reading the Amazon description. I hope you don't mind answering some basic questions.

If the radio itself is an Android phone, how does it get Internet data for streaming, maps, etc. Does it have its own SIM and plan? Use WiFi tethering with your iPhone?

What integration does an Android radio have with an iPhone? For example, a frequent use case for me would be someone sending me a location via iMessage or SMS and I can just tap to map it. How would I get that onto the radio's map?

Do you find it to be stable and well supported with bugfixes? My experience with off brand hardware is that it's buggy right from the start and is never, ever fixed. Even my Kenwood brand radio had some problems, but there was a firmware patch that fixed it.

1) You can either purchase a USB hotspot thumb drive or tether from your iPhone. I tether. When the radio is booting, I turn on my hotspot and it connects almost instantly upon boot. There's also an SD card slot for up to 32GB of data to put offline maps from Google Maps or store music. You don't "need" a hotspot for it to function, but you get more functionality if you have one (YouTube / GPS Traffic Data / web browser).

2) Don't know of a way to do what you're trying to do via SMS. I connect my iPhone to Bluetooth to stream music, download my contacts to the radio, and make phone calls. The rest is handled through the Android unit and its own App Store (Google Play). There is no Siri support, but there is Google Voice built-in. You can say "take me to 3500 Cupertino Blvd" and it will start navigation without having to manually type in your addresses.

3) I don't own the joying I linked, so I can't comment about its stability. I wish I would have purchased it, though, as my radio has 1GB of RAM and suffers because of it. I've only read good things about joying radios. Additionally, it's easy to install custom ROMs that are updated regularly by committed individuals to fix problems the manufacturer doesn't fix. For example, my steering wheel controls wouldn't change tracks on the stock ROM, but on the custom ROM they work fine. The stock ROM can "learn" steering wheel controls if they don't work automatically, however. I could have resolved that problem myself, if I wanted to. If steering wheel support is important to you, check with joying support to make sure your car is compatible. Most are.

 

[Defthand]

Help me out here. I had a rental car, (a Ford compact, base model) while my car was in a body shop that I was able to bluetooth connect to the Ford/Microsoft whatever it was in-dash and play music and podcasts. I wasn't making any phone calls. It was pretty nice that I'd start the car and my podcast would just auto start playing.

So I've been thinking a CarPlay receiver was going to be something I needed to put in my Nissan but then I started seeing everything about wired connection. I already wire to play music/podcasts so none of that for me but seriously there isn't an alternative that allows me to CarPlay wirelessly??

Currently, Bluetooth allows you to transfer a phone’s audio output to a car’s infotainment system, including some basic controls and content metadata. It won’t transfer video/graphics.

CarPlay replicates your phone’s UI on the car’s infotainment display. From there, you can use the car’s touchscreen to control the [compatible] apps and see their UI. Apparently, to achieve this functionality, the connection needs to be more sophisticated than Bluetooth.
[doublepost=1483809203][/doublepost]We’ve been test-driving new cars recently and were disappointed in the quality of the OEM infotainment systems. Some, like Nissan’s, had graphics that were dated looking or cheesy. Compared to Apple Maps, most OEM NAV systems involved extra steps, were cluttered with overlaid graphics, had misaligned street labels, poor contrast, etcetera. I would rather use Apple’s elegant maps app than struggle to decipher the garbage I’ve seen.

Car manufacturers charge handsomely for their infotainment and NAV systems—$900 up. By the time a new car hits the market, the infotainment system is typically two year old technology. You’re stuck with the system’s capabilities; whereas a phone and its apps evolve or update much faster.

 

[HiVolt]

Not necessarily. Subaru still hasn't implemented CarPlay in any meaningful way (1 or 2 models). My dealer said it's because they buy their crappy dash hardware in advance and are very slow to get new hardware and do the software for it. Because they suck at tech, basically.

I agree, Subaru has always had the worst interiors & infotainment systems. They have excellent drivelines, decent looking cars on the outside, but interiors are just cheap and the infotainment is horribly outdated.

 

[mthombs]

Car play itself is designed poorly. It's limited due to safety and you have to switch between apps to use GPS / music simultaneously. Not to mention, it only supports Apple Maps.

Android Auto is, for many reason, the superior product. Apple's UI choices in recent years (CarPlay / Apple TV) leave much to be desired.

Since I have an iPhone and not an Android, I am purchasing an aftermarket Chinese Android radio, which offers WAY more functionality than any name brand radio does:
Waze / GMaps / YouTube / Apple Music / Spotify / Pandora / Weather Radar / Web browser / Shazam / Rear Camera support....the list goes on.

Steering wheel controls work, they're cheaper, sometimes they can be fitted to look stock, and have larger, higher quality multi-touch displays that can be seen clearly in the daytime. They also self-dim at night.

I was excited about CarPlay, but Android has won this battle for my money.

Could you share what head unit you are choosing? The things you describe sound incredible and if true would be worth me switching out my kenwood.

Thanks!!!

 

[ActionableMango]

Like I said, though, I'm going to return it and get the Joying radio I posted up top because the Joying radio has insane performance for a car radio (view below)

Now that you've had it for a while, can you provide a followup? Happy with it? Any serious issues? Would you recommend that model still today or a different one now?