#330500 - 25/02/2010 20:33
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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The iPhone doesn't need any type of data connection for its Nav apps. At least not for the good nav apps. The iPhone doesn't come with a "Nav" app built in. "Maps," the built in app is hardly what I call a nav app.
TomTom's software includes Map data and so do all the other big names and popular apps.
A-GPS doesn't strictly need any data connection. It just uses one, if available, to obtain information from an AGPS server to help acquire satellite signal. You can read about it on Wikipedia, though they do claim that some products need the data connection. I believe they fail to mention any and I've certainly not heard of any current products that fall into that requirement.
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#330503 - 25/02/2010 20:57
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Fair enough. The Android navigation app definitely is a navigation app. It's at least on par with other GPS units I've used, and has both voice prompting and voice recognition. (I think the VR is piped back to Google HQ, though.)
_________________________
Bitt Faulk
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#330511 - 26/02/2010 00:19
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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I thought I mentioned this earlier, but I guess not. Getting back to Chris's original request, have you looked into Bluetooth audio receivers for your car stereo? That would eliminate the need for worrying about wiring in audio, and leave open a few other dock choices. The iPhone (3G/3GS) will route all audio over BT, and auto connect when you get in the car. Been using this myself for podcasts in the car lately. Mine integrates with the CarPC, but a friend of mine picked up some generic kit that hooked in via the CD aux in connector on the back of the stereo.
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#330515 - 26/02/2010 01:28
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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I don't think there's any issue getting the audio connected, but rather in being able to control playback.
And, I'm pretty sure you had mentioned the same thing I did about the GPS previously.
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#330516 - 26/02/2010 02:23
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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The iPhone also supports control over Bluetooth (AVRCP), so a bluetooth audio solution that includes a remote for the steering wheel would work.
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#330517 - 26/02/2010 02:35
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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That sounds like it would do the trick. I didn't run into any such products while searching, but I probably wasn't using he right terms for it. Here's a device that attaches to the steering wheel: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.28835You'd still need to connect something else for audio, the above is a remote only. I suppose using the headphone output would still work. Or, if hacking is desired, I'm sure it would be a lot easier to hack audio outputs from the dock connector on the TomTom mount than it would be to merge it with that Parrot device. Provided there are still pins in the dock connector used for analog audio.  But here comes Kensington again: http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-LiquidAUX-Bluetooth-Remote-Phones/dp/B0011UIX2KAnother LiquidAUX product, this one all about BlueTooth, with the same steering wheel mounted remote as the previous one I linked the other day. The first potential caveat to check is to make sure the current iPhone OS supports all the required commands over BT, including Next/Previous tracks. Apparently version 3.0 of the software didn't. The Kensington solution is even cheaper than the first product from DealExtreme. At least on Amazon right now (at $29 you save $70 over "regular" price). But it doesn't have a display on the steering wheel to show caller ID. Of course the benefit is that the remote is nice and small, as opposed to the somewhat hulking mass of the first link.
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#330520 - 26/02/2010 06:12
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: hybrid8]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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Hmmm this was looking good until I found that the iPhone only lets you play or pause over AVRCP. Missing the skip track function I was looking for. Someone has developed an app called Bluetooth Helper that allows you to double click the play/pause button to skip tracks, but that means having the app open the whole time so I couldn't use TomTom.
It really does surprise me that the iPhone doesn't have a solution for this. I would have thought that pretty much everyone with an iPhone and a car would want to use the two together.
Cheers
Cris.
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#330522 - 26/02/2010 07:33
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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Fair enough. The Android navigation app definitely is a navigation app. It's at least on par with other GPS units I've used, and has both voice prompting and voice recognition. (I think the VR is piped back to Google HQ, though.) But unlike TomTom it doesn't store its maps locally, so needs a data connection. I'd love to know how well that works in areas with no or poor data connections ?
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#330528 - 26/02/2010 12:22
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: andy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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From what I remember when Android 2.0 came out, the Google Nav program downloads the route and relevant information at the start. So it can deal with minor interruptions in the connectivity, but would likely suffer an inability to reroute if you go severely off course while out of cell phone range.
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#330530 - 26/02/2010 12:53
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Apple's product vision is usually pretty focused, that is to say, narrow. They rarely execute to satisfy what sometimes are even very obvious use cases. OS update 3.2 still lacks AVRCP, so you may have to wait until 4.0 sometime this summer to see it. Or, it may never appear at all. I wouldn't hold my breath.
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#330549 - 26/02/2010 17:03
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Hmmm this was looking good until I found that the iPhone only lets you play or pause over AVRCP. Missing the skip track function I was looking for. I'd always assumed it was my Bluetooth HU that didn't support that.
_________________________
Cheers,
Andy M
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#330917 - 09/03/2010 22:02
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: andym]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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So, I went for the TomTom app and matching TomTom cradle kit as they have just release a proclip that allows a permanent mounting solution.
I've used it over the past couple of days for the first time for some serious driving and have been quite impressed. It's certainly nice to have everything in one tidy package that I take everywhere with me.
I am surprised however that 10 years after the empeg that car integration of technology is so bad. There are a few annoying things about this combination, some I feel are down to TomTom and others seem to be just the nature of the iPhone itself. One annoying thing is that if you are listening to music via the dock and you pull up and switch the ignition off the music continues to play though the internal iPhone speaker. Other things are TomTom problems, like not having the track skip buttons on screen the whole time, you can see any track info either and the quality seems somewhat worse than via the headphone jack.
I took a call today while using TomTom, the handsfree is just about ok, barely. It's too quiet in the car, but I am too loud to the caller. They did comment that even though my voice was a bit thin and swarky they couldn't hear any road noise and could hear me just fine, just too loudly. The volume control seems to work both things at the same time, annoyingly. The worst thing is the app quits to take the call. I knew it was going to do this, and I look forward to Apple allowing multitasking sometime in the future, or making taking a call like playing music, something that can continue in the background.
I also hope that bluetooth remotes are supported sometime soon, it would be a very neat solution if it did.
Cheers
Cris.
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#330918 - 09/03/2010 23:59
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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The audio not stopping seems strange. Mine stops if I pull the headphone cord out, or if the bluetooth connection closes. Odd that it wouldn't do the same over the dock connector too.
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#330919 - 10/03/2010 03:58
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: Cris]
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addict
Registered: 24/07/2002
Posts: 618
Loc: South London
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So, I went for the TomTom app and matching TomTom cradle kit as they have just release a proclip that allows a permanent mounting solution.
I've used it over the past couple of days for the first time for some serious driving and have been quite impressed. It's certainly nice to have everything in one tidy package that I take everywhere with me.
I am surprised however that 10 years after the empeg that car integration of technology is so bad. There are a few annoying things about this combination, some I feel are down to TomTom and others seem to be just the nature of the iPhone itself. One annoying thing is that if you are listening to music via the dock and you pull up and switch the ignition off the music continues to play though the internal iPhone speaker. Other things are TomTom problems, like not having the track skip buttons on screen the whole time, you can see any track info either and the quality seems somewhat worse than via the headphone jack.
I took a call today while using TomTom, the handsfree is just about ok, barely. It's too quiet in the car, but I am too loud to the caller. They did comment that even though my voice was a bit thin and swarky they couldn't hear any road noise and could hear me just fine, just too loudly. The volume control seems to work both things at the same time, annoyingly. The worst thing is the app quits to take the call. I knew it was going to do this, and I look forward to Apple allowing multitasking sometime in the future, or making taking a call like playing music, something that can continue in the background.
I also hope that bluetooth remotes are supported sometime soon, it would be a very neat solution if it did.
Cheers
Cris.
The TomTom cradle only uses the dock connector for GPS information, audio goes over bluetooth to the cradle. The cradle does not pull any power from the iPhone, hence when you "pull the plug" the cradle (GPS and audio) stops working. Just to throw a spanner in the "navigation works". Aura
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#330920 - 10/03/2010 10:43
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: sn00p]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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I find the fact there is no good integration solution for iPhones and cars quite puzzling. It's very much a heath robinson feel to the TomTom solution, another TomTom related problem is the volume on the cradle. It doesn't remember the last volume setting, so when you power it down, or even just remove the iPhone the next time it is back to near minimum volume. annoying.
The bluetooth audio explains the poor quality, maybe I will have to rethink this whole solution.
I have tried the TomTom app both with and without the cradle for navigation and the GPS in the cradle is clearly much better than the one built in the iPhone. It gets a lock amazingly quickly and never lost it once during the few hundred miles I did yesterday. The standard GPS jumps about a bit and seems to lag behind causing the voice prompts to be given quite late on some occasions. So I need the TomTom cradle for GPS and the mounting solution, and the parrot for just about everything else!
Cheers
Cris.
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#330921 - 10/03/2010 10:50
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: Cris]
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addict
Registered: 24/07/2002
Posts: 618
Loc: South London
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...another TomTom related problem is the volume on the cradle. It doesn't remember the last volume setting, so when you power it down, or even just remove the iPhone the next time it is back to near minimum volume. annoying. That one irritates me too, I can kind of understand that behaviour *if* they'd provided an option in the car kit tool to set the default level, but they haven't, it always reverts back to the "this is what we've deemed default to be" level. I always jack it right up.
I have tried the TomTom app both with and without the cradle for navigation and the GPS in the cradle is clearly much better than the one built in the iPhone. It gets a lock amazingly quickly and never lost it once during the few hundred miles I did yesterday. The standard GPS jumps about a bit and seems to lag behind causing the voice prompts to be given quite late on some occasions. So I need the TomTom cradle for GPS and the mounting solution, and the parrot for just about everything else!
Thats the same result I get on my 3G, without the cradle the GPS is not reliable at all in the car, although it seems that YMMV with regards to whether it works acceptably or not. TomTom did make me smile friday night on the way home, as I came out of the limehouse link tunnel it got a little confused (it had picked up a lock straight away and was showing me on the map in the right place) and told me to follow the limehouse link for 3 thousand, eight hundred and eighty miles. Bit extreme I thought! Adrian
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#331648 - 02/04/2010 14:09
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: sn00p]
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old hand
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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do you guys have any pics of your setups? has anyone on here tried the Magellan premium car kit? it is overpriced of course...
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#331657 - 02/04/2010 15:26
Re: In-Car iPhone Solutions
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/06/2001
Posts: 2504
Loc: Roma, Italy
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[quote=hybrid8]It doesn't have to be on the steering wheel, just a button to skip tracks without having to touch the phone and take it out of sleep would be great. If TomTom did that I'd already have one I think.
I may be late, but have you considered Alpine head units? I have been using an Alpine iPod X100 "receiver" for a year now, and supposedly it also works with iPhone. You will control the iPhone from the head-unit to listen to music, and if you are happy with basic controls as skip, pause, on/off, you'll be happy. Audio quality is good as well. But, after 1 year, I decided that browsing my music collection is way to slow and inefficient. Nothing comparable to the empeg, of course, but also slower than the iPod wheel itself. While your player is plugged into the head-unit, howevwe, I am afraid it will not be controllable from the player itself, which means that the navigator will be unaccessible.
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