CarPlay Ultra Solves One of Regular CarPlay's Biggest Limitations

[DribbleCastle]

Who listens to Radio? CarPlay has many limitations. You can't even pinch and zoom in mapping apps. I love apple but CarPlay is pretty bad. I have a dedicated Android phone in my EV9 that is just for Android Auto. Only pay $15 for the line via Visbile.

 

[nathansz]

Who listens to Radio?

“88% of Americans listen to terrestrial (AM/FM) radio on a weekly basis. This is approximately 293 million Americans.”

Radio Statistics in [y] (Listening & Advertising) - Musical Pursuits

Despite the common belief that radio is dead and not relevant to younger generations, radio...

musicalpursuits.com

 

[DogHouseDub]

PLEASE - Can we have a scaled-down version of CarPlay that appears on the iPhone screen when connected to the vehicle?

 

[turbineseaplane]

I'm willing to bet I haven't listened to anything on a radio since 2005ish. I don't even know call letters or frequency for any station in the area where I've lived for 25 years.

RIP Radio.

A good example “n of 1”

You are not necessarily an accurate representation of the overall situation.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Who listens to Radio?

If you take a moment to actually read the thread, you’ll see plenty of us have chimed in with our continued use and enjoyment of radio.

 

[bradman83]

I've always found the audio quality of SiriusXM (in the car, actually streamed from the satellite) to be extremely poor compared to streaming apps like Apple Music and Spotify. I would assume that the SiriusXM CarPlay/iOS app streams it via the data connection instead, so I'm curious if that means it might have better quality/higher bitrate.

 

[0049190]

Who is still listening to AM/FM radio? Don’t you have DAB in America?

 

[EugW]

I've always found the audio quality of SiriusXM (in the car, actually streamed from the satellite) to be extremely poor compared to streaming apps like Apple Music and Spotify. I would assume that the SiriusXM CarPlay/iOS app streams it via the data connection instead, so I'm curious if that means it might have better quality/higher bitrate.

Yes, Apple Music typically streams at 256 Kbps. From what I understand, SiriusXM typically streams at less than 128 Kbps, and usually much less, like 48-64 Kbps, and even less for talk channels.

 

[nathansz]

Who is still listening to AM/FM radio? Don’t you have DAB in America?

No.

Canada tried and it didn’t take off.

Canada and the US use HD radio instead, which broadcasts on the FM band.

 

[AppleEnthusiast1995]

What a waste of resources, Apple is really not firing on all cylinders lately.

 

[0049190]

No.

Canada tried and it didn’t take off.

Canada and the US use HD radio instead, which broadcasts on the FM band.

I’ve got about 50 DAB radio stations to choose from on my car radio. Do you get the same with HD Radio?

We ditched FM Radio in the UK several years ago because of the limitations on how many stations it can transmit and frequency interference.

 

[nathansz]

I’ve got about 50 DAB radio stations to choose from on my car radio. Do you get the same with HD Radio?

We ditched FM Radio in the UK several years ago because of the limitations on how many stations it can transmit and frequency interference.

where I am there's probably less than 30 stations within range

North America is much less densely populated outside of the metro areas than UK/EUROPE, so number of stations and interference isn't much of an issue

like I say. DAB was tried in Canada and there was no uptake

HD radio does add sub channels, so you can cram more channels in, but there isn't much uptake even on that, mostly just media companies piggybacking their am channels on to the FM frequency

 

[AppleTO]

I listen to FM radio everyday, especially for morning shows. I can’t stand trying to stream internet radio stations (or radio stations via the internet). They either don’t play, buffer for long periods, or randomly cut out. My car has SiriusXM but it sounds like trash due to their satellite bandwidth limitations. Also, I’m in Canada and it’s mostly all American stuff. Apple Music and Spotify are fine, but I usually don’t feel like having to pick songs, playlists, etc. Everything on FM is instant, so there is no waiting, loading, etc which drives my nuts.

 

[CarlJ]

iPhones should get an AM/FM radio app

Weren't there some iPods that had at least an FM tuner?

 

[CarlJ]

Why would I listen to the radio in 2025?

Immediate coverage of some breaking event? News / updates / important information in a disaster situation (especially when cell service is down or heavily overloaded)? Being somewhere with no cell towers but still within AM radio range?

I don't listen to it much, but it still has its uses.

 

[CarlJ]

Huh? Why would anyone care for the temp when driving? Wouldn't the weather conditions be way more informative? I would like to know if there's rain, gale, thunder et cetera along my route.

My car (which isn't remotely new) displays the outside temp and the desired/intended inside temp - I find both useful. I'd be happier if it also displayed the current inside temp. As far as weather conditions go, I can look out the window (something I do quite a lot while driving) and see if it's raining or not. But I can't see the temperature by looking outside (is it 75° or 85° out there?).

Now, having a navigation app that tells you that 20 minutes ahead on your route there's a thunderstorm would be cool, but that also requires that you've "filed a flight plan". I don't always tell my phone/car my destination when I drive somewhere. But that's not required for it to tell me the current temperature.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Weren't there some iPods that had at least an FM tuner?

Yeah, the last generation nano that I use for the gym works wonderfully for FM if you have wired headphones plugged in

 

[Velli]

I fully acknowledge the desire for FM radio for some, but:

So we have all the cool kids in here who
1. Hate ads and at the same time still want content

Correct. I pay for lots of ad-free content. Where I live, it’s not even a choice… the best, ad-free radio is tax-funded. And available in an actually good iOS app, which includes most of the content available as podcast.

On top of that, I pay for ad-free for several of my favourite podcasts. I’m not asking anyone to give me ad-free content for free. I just value listening to/watching ads higher than most - because that is what the advertisers do.

2. Never go anywhere remote enough that they won’t have internet and never forget to download songs or pack a usb stick with music on it

“Forget”? I have enough music on my phone to last me a year, at least (because I listen to things more than once…). It’s not like I need to remember to download something every time I go to my car. But in my car, I mostly listen to podcasts, which get downloaded automatically.

And 99% of the time, where I live, I am never outside 4G coverage long enough to outlast the buffer anyway. Netradio works perfectly fine, and sounds so much better. For that one time per year where we drive abroad, downloads works perfectly fine, and I don’t want to listen to foreign language radio anyway.

3. Listen to only their curated music never discovering any new music.

That’s probably me, yes. At least in the car. Most of what I listen to is old music. There is enough of that around to last me ten lifetimes. I can count on one hand the amount of albums (remember albums?) released the last ten years that I would want to put on.

But, just because I don’t need it doesn’t mean I don’t understand the significance for others.

 

[Velli]

My car (which isn't remotely new) displays the outside temp and the desired/intended inside temp - I find both useful. I'd be happier if it also displayed the current inside temp. As far as weather conditions go, I can look out the window (something I do quite a lot while driving) and see if it's raining or not. But I can't see the temperature by looking outside (is it 75° or 85° out there?).

Now, having a navigation app that tells you that 20 minutes ahead on your route there's a thunderstorm would be cool, but that also requires that you've "filed a flight plan". I don't always tell my phone/car my destination when I drive somewhere. But that's not required for it to tell me the current temperature.

If it’s a long enough trip to care about weather reports, I *always* have maps on, to redirect if there are traffic issues.

 

[Velli]

The main app for a car is still the maps app and apple is just not up to par with google on that.

First, you can still use Google maps on CarPlay. Second, I prefer Apple Maps in everyday use. Google is better for finding restaurants etc, but I prefer the style of Apple Maps for navigation. I did try Google for a while recently, because people around me were telling me how much better it is, but I didn’t see any improvement in navigation accuracy. Different, but not better. Both had misses, but in both cases much less than five years ago. I’d argue it’s more about preference, than one being “better”.

 

[philip456]

In the United Kingdom and Europe, all car radios use DAB, not FM, AM or satallite.

No mention of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting).

I hope it is supported, otherwise the Radio function of CarPlay Ultra will be 100% unused over here.

 

[nathansz]

In the United Kingdom and Europe, all car radios use DAB, not FM, AM or satallite.

No mention of DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting).

I hope it is supported, otherwise the Radio function of CarPlay Ultra will be 100% unused over here.

I'm going to guess someone at apple is aware of this and the article mentions AM/FM simply because it's an American author writing for a mostly American audience who would have know idea what DAB even is

 

[JohannesO]

Why should I listen to the radio nowadays?
Maybe because there is a station with the craziest, wildest and broadest ad-free music mix?
My favourite station is only available online, but for free.

They played this a moment ago:
Fleetwood Mac | Crystal
Vruno | Murio El Pescador
Johnny trunk | sister woo
Vitalic | Bells (feat. Linda Lamb)
Framix | The mistake (Mekkas remix)
The Sequence | Sequence_Simon Days
About Luke | Only Silence is Crazy

La Grosse Tambouille
lagrossetambouille.com

 

[icwhatudidthere]

Who listens to Radio? CarPlay has many limitations. You can't even pinch and zoom in mapping apps. I love apple but CarPlay is pretty bad. I have a dedicated Android phone in my EV9 that is just for Android Auto. Only pay $15 for the line via Visbile.

Ooh do Android Auto maps have pinch and zoom? I agree CarPlay UIs have a lot of limitations.

 

[lovehateapple]

That’s not the same thing

I never said it was the same thing. It is however a work around if you want to listen to the "radio" on your iphone.