Apple Car Play Kit

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DavidSG

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Not sure you needed to f bomb the Ford on this one but I get where you're going. I drove two different carplay enabled 2017 cars last year and found the experience infuriating. If you run an app that isn't in carplay it bails out on the main screen in the car. The experience to get back to the radio is a mess. It didn't support Spotify (because Apple wants you to use their Apple Music)

Yeah - my experience with Carplay is similar. It works ok if you don't try to do anything else with your phone. But if you pull up Waze or something (although I hear Waze will now be supported), the system bucks like crazy to the point where you have to deactivate it (fortunately it's quite easy on BMWs to activate / deactivate Carplay).

With that said, I'd still prefer to have it than not - but only if I could easily toggle between using it and the factory system.
 

ryanjl

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Not sure you needed to f bomb the Ford on this one but I get where you're going. I drove two different carplay enabled 2017 cars last year and found the experience infuriating. If you run an app that isn't in carplay it bails out on the main screen in the car. The experience to get back to the radio is a mess. It didn't support Spotify (because Apple wants you to use their Apple Music)
Why not just get a mount and use your device as the main system? Are you really gaining that much by having carplay embedded vs. bluetooth? I think you're getting more if you don't have carplay because you can run all your apps on the phone vs. the limited ones that run on carplay. Especially now that you can pick up a 6.5" iPhone Xs+ you're almost at the same size as the built in screen with better resolution.

The mount isn't an optimal solution because having a device mounted and in my face is inelegant as hell when I'd prefer to just have the original, in-dash screen do all the work. The inelegance only rises when you get a screen that is actually big enough to use (such as an iPad), and it covers half the dash, rattles around when off-road, and otherwise looks like you're nerding out when I'd prefer to have things look as clean and OEM as possible. I also like using the 4x4 screen on the Land Rover system when off-road, so having anything in front of the screen just doesn't work for me.

I don't use Spotify, so it's not a factor for me. I've used CarPlay with maps, with iTunes and with TuneIn without any issues whatsoever, and it's just really easy to go through my music catalog or stations to get what I want. The UI on the factory Land Rover navigation is absolutely worthless, and it infuriates me that it could be as simple as a software update to allow Carplay to work. The only app I'd miss on a Carplay system is Gaia, and I'm sure it's probably coming sometime.
 

TheWidup

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if that's the case I see two options here:
1: risk the $550 and let us know how that goes
2: Trade in for a carplay enabled LR (I think all the 2018 have carplay by default)
 

cperez

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If the $550 unit featured BT connectivity for iPhones, it would be a nice upgrade. So far that seems to be the drawback of all CarPlay solutions I've seen. I get along fine for now with my $9 MPOW CD-slot iPhone mount and my 7+ running iOS12.
 

TheWidup

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I have a hard time with the lack of "user review" on this solution. It looks cool and I might be interested but the majority of youtube videos are made by the Navtool company. The only real reviews I could find were in a Corvette forum and they were raving about it. (I don't think it's hard to impress exotic chevy owners) I found one video of it being installed in a Jag and it looked super clunky but I'm not sure the guy that recorded it was really focused on that experience.
 

AdventureTim

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These guys seem to provide a very generic CarPlay integration solution. It doesn't look like it uses the factory touch element of the screen - you have a separate physical controller. It also connects via standard RCA plugs, which means you're not going to be utilizing the full resolution of the factory screen, and may see aliasing artifacts. It really depends on how OEM a solution you're looking for. I suspect this is reasonably clunky.

There was another company making a device that connected directly into the screen and touch controller. It was basically an Android tablet minus the screen, but it was twice the price and I don't know that anyone had ever tried it.
 

ryanjl

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If the $550 unit featured BT connectivity for iPhones, it would be a nice upgrade. So far that seems to be the drawback of all CarPlay solutions I've seen. I get along fine for now with my $9 MPOW CD-slot iPhone mount and my 7+ running iOS12.

The aftermarket stereos I have seen with wireless Carplay do it via a wifi network and not Bluetooth. My guess is that it's too much data transfer for Bluetooth? Not sure.
 

ryanjl

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if that's the case I see two options here:
1: risk the $550 and let us know how that goes
2: Trade in for a carplay enabled LR (I think all the 2018 have carplay by default)

Or 3, not do either and ***** about it, and wait for a better option to come along. That's what I've selected.
 

cperez

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The aftermarket stereos I have seen with wireless Carplay do it via a wifi network and not Bluetooth. My guess is that it's too much data transfer for Bluetooth? Not sure.

Hmmm, I wasn't aware of this. Good to know. I think you're right about the data capacity of wifi vs BT.
 

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