If you look at the image above you can see the little "LTE" on the receiver. I imagine most are ota, but if the unit has USB that may be an option also.
the image above is NOT an actual product shot. it's a conceptual image of CarPlay (which is your cell phone piped to an external display) that apple produced and doesnt represent the units like these pioneers.
pioneer's head unit firmware upgrades are often performed via memory sticks you punch into the front of the unit.
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Are these all LTE enabled?
no, not at all. they are offline head units. the beauty of CarPlay is that your phone is what drives the unit and has the connectivity. the head unit becomes an external monitor + touch when in CP mode. it should mean dumber head units which = cheaper head units (such as the AppRadio). that sounds good to me.
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Solves it for me. Although I love Pioneers interface over Alpine, I prefer Alpine brand. Hoping Alpine keeps prices low and doesn't gouge consumers like Pioneer by forcing you to buy NEX line when I basically just want AppRadio with Carplay.
it makes sense theyre giving it to NEX line first -- the owners of NEX paid over a grand for these things, whereas AppRadio is their $300+ low-end line. membership has its privileges. me, id rather invest in two AppRadios than spend $1000+ for one. shrug.
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OR, I could buy a $300 iPad Mini and Velcro it to the dashboard.
I must be missing something here.
yes -- good taste.
ok joking aside, besides being less inviting to a casual thief than an ipad velcro'd to the dash, an in-dash unit can run a bunch of equipment in your car like HD radio, external subs, external GPS antenna, in-car mic, rear parking camera, integrated steering-wheel controls, etc. may not be your cup of tea but for anyone w/ a bit of car audio enthusiasm, the features are worth it and produce value.
but again, this is their top-tier product line. of course CP as a feature will trickle down to the low-end lines, like the popular iOS-compatible, touch-based AppRadio, which goes for $300-400.
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