bobpenn

1.07 not for USA yet.

not on USA site.

It's not out yet.

By the way: here is the text regarding CarPlay for the 8000 from the Pioneer site: The AVIC-8000NEX will be one of the first aftermarket radios to feature Apple CarPlay (firmware update required, coming summer 2014). NO more early summer reference. Fine with me. I want it right, not quick. And I am sure that Apple is the holdup. They need to have their apps work 100% with CarPlay or the press will eat them up.

Try playing with the "mix" on/off setting.

No, I don't believe you need to do that. I didn't and it worked fine.

No, the upgrade worked for me.

App Radio will work the same way with the NEX8000. But the 8000 will have CarPlay, if you have an iPhone and the 150 won't. Also, the 8000 has better navigation, a better touchscreen, and many UI improvements. I have a 150 and intend on selling it when the CarPlay firmware upgrade comes out this summer.

The need to disconnect from App mode to use bluetooth was also in the previous generation.

I've never experienced this issue with my radio.

Definitely. Pandora did not work properly until the Jan 2014 firmware update. With it, Pandora works as expected. You can get the firmware here: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/GPS-Navigation/AVIC-Z150BH then click the Firmware and Software button to get to the file and the instructions as to how to install it. It's very easy to do.

I just installed the update. It did fix the Pandora problem! Good news.

Is the latest firmware the one Pioneer has on the web site, posted March of 2013? If there's a newer version, where do you obtain it?

You must have the phone plugged into the USB to make app radio work. It will NOT work only via bluetooth at all. There is a reason Pioneer was forced to use HDMI to pass the video and sound, rather than via the USB connector, but the reason eludes me at the moment. I remember reading that the reason bluetooth must be used is because the USB cord will not pass along control codes to and from the Pioneer unit to the phone.

The video and sound goes via the HDMI. The lighting cable is only for charging. It uses Bluetooth to communicate between the phone and the head unit for touches, etc. So be sure to pair it via bluetooth to make it all work. Also make sure that the iPod setup is correct for the iPhone on the head unit.

This is a known bug. Pioneer says there is no fix for it at the moment.

Waze, I feel, has the best traffic information there is. If I have to really be concerned about getting somewhere on time and traffic will determine whether I make it or not, I always use WAZE. They not only use the usual traffic sources but also crowdsource traffic so they have information not only on freeways and highways, but on surface streets. It's direction to places has been amazingly accurate and is almost real time when it comes to traffic. No other GPS system I've used seems to have this level of accuracy with traffic.

Many of the apps don't work properly with the iPhone 5S and iOS7. For example, gMusic and gMusic2 don't recognize the Pioneer unit anymore, Stezza won't scroll through lists, EC Touch crashes when you try to use their various built in apps, Mixtrax doesn't recognize iTunes Match music, making it useless for me, and Motion-X GPS Drive doesn't recognize the Pioneer unit. Pandora hasn't worked since the firmware upgrade last spring ... it hangs when you search for your stations. There seem to be as many apps which don't work as do. I assume that this all happened with the iPhone 5 and iOS7,so

This is probably old news, but I have a 150 and Pandora freezes up when I hit the search button. It's mentioned in the notes of the 1.03 firmware update but I called Pioneer to see if was fixed in 1.04 (which is what my unit came with) and that this is an isolated issue, or whether it's still a known bug. It's a known bug. He didn't know if Pioneer firmware, or a new version of Pandora would address it. The workaround is just to operate Pandora as though it's a non AppRadio app, which works.

Thanks. I am switching installers and will tell him your advice. Update: sure enough, it was the Alpine unit turned way too high. Now even with the Pioneer at volume 40, there is no BG noise at all! Nice. They also did the bypass, so I can finally use my head unit while driving, not to watch videos, but to have full functionality of the settings, etc.

Just had a 150 installed with an Alpine ktp-445u universal head unit amp. When I turn on the Pioneer, I hear a hissing noise from the speakers. This happens when the sound is set to zero. It's faint, but it's there. When I turn up the volume a hissing noise gets louder and louder. By the time the unit is at 14 it's pretty loud. Could this be the Alpine? Is this just "normal" for the Pioneer. Also, there is a slight buzzing sound every 30 seconds or so. This happens when the engine is off or on. Finally, I am having no luck getting the video bypass to work. I purchased

Thanks to all. I can live without on screen control (I have a Pebble watch, so I can pause/play apps from my watch!). It's a feature lost as compared to the Pioneer, but the pluses of the Pioneer far exceed the Kenwood 990/770 twins. But one last question: I understand that you can mix audio with an app mode app. So I suppose you could hear FM radio or Sirius while running Waze onsceen in app mode. But ... can you run an unsupported app like Audible's sound and still have Waze, a supported app on screen, too. Does this mix work in this case? I hope so.

So for unsupported apps,like Audible for example, what happens when you use app mode? Will it play? Do you have any control on screen or do you use the iPhone to do all the control? Once I understand that, I'll get it all. I just don't want to use bluetooth audio, which is inferior in quality to USB digital.

Problem is: I have Sirius and I want to keep it. Yes, I could use it as an app via the iPhone I suppose, but then I have to pay for the 4G data and am at the mercy of the cellular network's speed and reliability. So I think that eliminates AppRadio 3 from the mix. When you say there are issues regarding the consistency of app mode with AVH, could you elaborate? I think I get what the Advanced App Mode, which I think is called AppRadio, is and that it differs form the standard app mode. My understanding is that Advanced App Mode, or AppRadio, requires the Pioneer iPhone app to work, and

I have a Kenwood DNN-770HD, the flagship head unit from Kenwood. It's a piece of junk. Buggy software, slow to turn on, you name it. So I am thinking of switching to a Pioneer AVH-X8500BHS. But I have a very basic question. On the Kenwood, when you plug in the iPhone 5 via the USB on the unit to 30 pin cable to the 30 pin to Lightning adapter, it will play any audio you can play on the iPhone digitally via the USB cable. You don't have to use Bluetooth to hear the iPhone's audio output. You won't see any album art, nor any on screen information at all, but it will play the audio di