Couple Questions from New Owner

[tombonneau]

So first off, just want to give a big thanks to whoever the folks are who maintain and run this site. This forum was extremely helpful in my decision-making process. If only there was an Amazon affiliate link I would have clicked it to give you the referral fee.

 

(BTW, anyone looking to buy this unit immediately, it's currently $919 with free shipping at Amazon via 6th Ave which is an authorized reseller i.e. you get manufacturer's warranty.)

 

Anyway, I watched some demos which were very helpful and pretty much answered all my questions, just have a few more:

 

1. Mileage Info -- I have a 2007 Nissan Sentra SL which has Miles To Empty, Miles per Gallon, etc. on the head unit. Will this data still be available via the Z110? A demo I saw looked like that info was there, but was grayed out as maybe the person's car didn't have that feature?

 

2. MSN Direct -- Is this worth the ~$80 for the receiver? I understand it's defunct 1/31/11 that's not what I'm concerned with. Is the traffic data and other info actually useful? I live in LA so having traffic was critical and I ended up buying it, just curious as to what other people's experience has been with it. Have found lots of talk about the cancellation of service, but not many reviews of the actual service and I'm curious.

 

3. iPhone Music via Bluetooth -- I saw this in demos. Kind of cool for when people are in your car I guess. Is this feature only available in the iPhone 3GS though? I have a 3G and didn't think it was capable of connecting via Bluetooth to play iTunes audio. Maybe I'm wrong?

 

4. Speed Pulse -- This was in the demo but was disabled. What does this do?

 

5. Rate Songs -- Can you rate songs on your iPod/Phone directly from the unit?

 

Anyway, that's about it for now. Thanks again to this forum.

[VBLUE42]

1. This info is available on the unit regardless of which vehicle you have. The data is entered in to the unit be you and the unit calculates the results.

 

2. This service is available till 01/2012 and has recently come down in price. And yes, it is quite useful.

 

3. BT audio streaming is available on the 3G. However the 3G has a slower processor that can cause skipping in the audio. The 3GS does not have this problem.

 

4. It compensates for areas where sat signal may be blocked. Like tunnels, large cities with sky scrapers, and heavily wood areas.

 

5. No.

[tombonneau]

Thanks. Figured rating songs would be too much to ask but I suppose I can still do it on the phone. (I use a lot of Smart Playlists based off of song rating.)

 

Another quick question:

 

With the SD card, what type of media can it read? I've got a 16GB card and I'd like to be able to just dump a bunch of video files onto that. I'm assuming it can't read iTunes video files from the card, but I'm guessing it does standard video files that you'd download from Amazon or elsewhere?

[VBLUE42]

With the SD card, what type of media can it read? I've got a 16GB card and I'd like to be able to just dump a bunch of video files onto that. I'm assuming it can't read iTunes video files from the card, but I'm guessing it does standard video files that you'd download from Amazon or elsewhere?

 

I dont know off the top of my head sense I don't use the SD card for media. The info is in the manual though. I will say that there seems to be a lot of people on here that don't have good results with video on SD though. You might want to consider something else for video.

[tombonneau]

Yeah, good point, SD probably not the most reliable video source anyway.

 

So another thing ... in looking around and reading up on the bypass, is this something your recommend doing? From what I can infer, it seems like it allows you to watch video while driving and to enter addresses, etc?

 

What exactly are the limitations of the unit while driving? I didn't know that you can't watch video, which I guess makes sense, but wtf are you realistically going to do? Watch a video while parked?

 

Is the only other limitation that you can't type while driving? Or is there anything else?

[VBLUE42]

The lock out of the unit affects using the BT phones features to use the dial pad to make calls, affects most of the plot route options, and affects the ability to watch video. All of this is while driving and the lock out is intended to force you to be stopped and have the parking brake engaged in order to utilize these functions. The bypass eliminates the lockout and I do recommend it for the navi and phone features alone.