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koneill

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Posts posted by koneill

  2. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    I may be crazy, but am I the only one who thinks that the delay may have something to do with the Beats purchase? That would be a great app to ship with CarPlay, if done right. So, perhaps the delay is to get a Beats CalPlay app ready before launch.

     

    I can almost guarantee there will be no Beats app for CarPlay, because I can also almost guarantee that the Beats brand will slowly go the way of the Dodo. Apple isn't going to buy a company and continue to market its products or services under the original brand -- not for very long, anyway. While Beats has become a big name in audio, Apple will likely make moves to quickly roll it up under its own brand.

     

    Personally, I hate Beats. It's the brand that came to market with the philosophy that everyone's music should be inordinately bass-heavy, be it hip hop, classical, metal, or jazz. Give me a pair of Sony (studio monitors) or Audio Technica headphones any day of the week!

  3. Motor Trend article that covers CarPlay

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    If apple were to launch Carplay unfinished, It will never stop getting bad press about it. (See Apple maps). Considering how slow it takes automakers to implement changes, and how small the aftermarket audio market is, apple has little incentive to rush this launch when most users won't see carplay in action for years. Think about it. Most users won't see carplay until they but a new car that has it. How often do people buy new cars? Not anywhere near as quickly as iPhones.

     

    It's not like CarPlay doesn't have any competition just around the corner. Google typically moves a bit faster than Apple, so I'd say they've got more than a little incentive to get it out there. It's not just about winning the battle in the automotive marketplace but the implications of winning it, which will have an enormous affect on the futures of their respective platforms (iOS and Android). The race is on, and Apple knows it.

  4. Motor Trend article that covers CarPlay

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    I found it interesting that there were zero icons for third-party apps on the screen (with the exception of the Pioneer icon). This is clearly different from all the demo units that were shown off several months back. Could point to a lack of third-party app readiness. If that's the case, I'd rather they just say, "Screw 'em" and release it, but they'd probably see some unwanted backlash for overpromising and underdelivering.

  10. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    Consider this:

     

    http://community.spotify.com/t5/forums/mobileforumtopicpage/board-id/Bugs/thread-id/1812/page/1

     

    I recently switched from Rdio to Spotify. With Rdio, I was ALWAYS able to use my car's SWC to skip tracks (backwards and forwards) and my HU ALWAYS received and displayed meta data. With Spotify, two thing happen consistently and randomly: 1) loss of SWC controls and 2) no meta data sent to/displayed on HU screen.

     

    Pandora and iTunes Radio worked as consistently as Rdio did (and they still do), so between this point and the 100s of long-running reports of SWC and meta data not working consistently with Spotify for iOS, I'd say it's highly likely that critical issues with 3rd-party CarPlay launch apps are also contributing to release delays.

     

    I'm not suggesting it's all Spotify's fault, as I'm sure there are similar issues with other apps (both 1st- and 3rd-party), but I stumbled upon the above Spotify thread and thought about how something like this could make for a disastrous CarPlay launch.

  13. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    Even brought up a good question about moving the icons. Strange that you would not be able to rearrange them. Something tells me that will not ultimately be the case.

    Certainly not while moving. I can see something like this as one of the many last-minute "Oh, shit!" things that Apple may have caught and is working to address before releasing CarPlay. There are just so many little things/use-case scenarios to consider as part of the integration process that overlooking (at least) a few of them is bound to happen...

  14. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    it sounds you really want carplay. i think it cool but i want my deck to work as advertised! i have had the deck installed for a few months. i purchased it because of features that were on the box but no where to found. Pioneer mislead its customers and now Pioneer is using carplay as a vehicle to sell units! with advertising that makes think it has all these great feature but it doesn't! not even Carplay which Apple could decide it needs another 6 months before its ready. early summer release day to xmas 2014.... we will still be waiting!!!!

    Only asking because I don't have mine installed yet...which features are advertised that aren't available?

  15. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    Assuming the firmware that Pioneer submitted to Apple for release is a "bug fixes and core feature additions + CarPlay" update, I'd prefer they let Apple do it's thing. If they separated the two, that would only push the release of CarPlay even further out, as they'd have to validate two separate firmwares as just that...two separate firmwares. By validating a single, unified firmware, they're actually accelerating things. Again, assuming the above is the case. Given CarPlay is probably (maybe) more highly anticipated, I'm thinking they would opt to validate once and ship somewhat "late," as opposed to validating twice and shipping CarPlay even later.

  17. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    VBLUE42 is probably at least partially correct. It's likely that integration will be one of the most challenging aspects of CarPlay, for both the head unit manufacturers and Apple. Integration is/will be tough to get just right. (Look at AppRadio -- a disastrous end user experience). This isn't just slapping a firmware onto a piece of hardware and calling it a day, and getting it right goes well beyond playing music from the head unit while using Apple Maps (though that's a great example). There's so much more: Using a NEX unit's navigation while listening to iTunes Radio or Spotify in CarPlay, how a message should be handled when listening to HD radio, etc. Also, they could be working through scenarios such as the handling/hand-off of CarPlay features while listening to music from a USB2-connected iPod. The list goes on. When you think of all of the things one could do with either a NEX unit or CarPlay, each taken on its own features/merits, and then considering how each of those features could possibly interact together, well...there you go. Huge task, indeed.

  18. Car Play Demoed Today at Media Event!

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    It should be but I didn't see it in this video. I have seen it when iTunes Radio is playing in other videos.

    It's there, but you do have to really look for it. Depending on the artwork itself, it may be less visible, as its faded with everything else (controls, metadata, etc) displayed as a layer on top of it.

  23. Anyone gonna play wait-and-see with Alpine?

    in NEX Series

    Posted

    I've read that Alpine plans on having CarPlay-ready head units available later this year with a price range of $500 - $700. While I know full well that those are wild guestimates, I'm really on the fence about and may consider waiting for two primary reasons:

     

    1) I've been in the electronics development biz long enough to know that the "first-to-market" is often times not the best. I'm not saying that Alpine's units will absolutely be better than Pioneer's, but sometimes, when a company develops a product from the start with a particular feature set in mind, it's often more optimized for that particular feature set. Likewise, when a company tries to bolt a particular feature onto an existing product that, theoretically, is fully capable of supporting said feature, the total experience results in something just shy of "what could have been." I'm not saying this will be the case with Pioneer, as it's impossible to say that the NEX units weren't designed from the start with CarPlay in mind. I'm just saying...

     

    2) Personally, I would prefer a unit that's a simple FM/AM tuner with good stock amplification, a decent EQ, bluetooth equipped, and backup camera enabled. Everything else? iPhone. Just give me a great, responsive screen with a ridiculously simple, clean industrial design, and walhalla! I really don't need HD Radio (though nice) if I've got Spotify, Stitcher, iPod, and iTunes Radio available via CarPlay. I've had a stereo with HD Radio and a DVD/CD player in it for years and have rarely (if ever) used either, so there's my other "don't need it" feature: an optical drive. Delete it. That's just me. The only other thing I could think of possibly wanting would be a second USB port to allow another iPod or mass storage device (stuffed with high bit rate music) to be connected and accessed in some way via the CarPlay interface. Just a really nice-to-have. I'd rather pay "less for more" than "more for stuff I don't really need." It'll be interesting to see if this is the road Alpine chooses with a less expensive unit (at $500). Could be tempting.

     

    Thoughts?

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