Hi all,
My AVIC-X1's ribbon cable went wrong so rather than paying around £100 to get it fixed, I decided to get an AppRadio2 (SPH-DA100) instead for £200. As I have an iPhone5, I also had to get the ridiculously expensive AV adaptor.
After some initial problems, I've been fairly impressed but I can see a lot of room for improvement. I've read through these forums but in case I missed something, I'm hoping to get comments on my findings. It'll be a bit of a stream of consciousness so might not be in the best, logical order!
Firstly, a couple of things that would really improve the usability:
- Is there a way to set the radio mix mode to always be on when entering App mode? It's really annoying having to switch it on each time
- Related to mix mode, it would be really useful, if possible, for the AppRadio to detect audio coming from the phone and automatically reduce the volume of the radio for its duration
- Is there a way to get an app to automatically launch when entering app mode? I'm jailbroken so perhaps this is something that could be handled by the AppRadio Extensions although it would be better to handle it natively. I'd really like Waze to open immediately
Some problems I've found:
- The phone doesn't always connect via Bluetooth so I have to go into the phone menu on the AppRadio and click the phone
- The AppRadio app on my phone didn't always launch. I think I've solved this by installing the jailbreak tweak Plugged In which automatically unlocks the phone when connected to power. This seems to help the app get launched
- The first time I tried to type something on Waze, the onscreen keyboard didn't show and only came up on the phone. This is hopefully a one-off
- I have BiteSMS installed which brings up a quick reply window. This seemed to take focus away from an app in AppMode which resulted in a black screen. I've solved this by adding an action to Activator which toggles the alerts when connected to the power. Edit: this actually stops all alerts rather than just the quick reply window. Might have to find another solution...
- When in AppMode and I receive a phone call, the app disappears. This is very frustrating if I'm using navigation! I'm surprised the AppRadio app can't handle this. Or am I doing something wrong? Similarly, if I want to make a call, I should be able to switch back to the app when I'm connected. If I press the close button on the phone app (rather than the hangup button), the call stays connected but there is no audio
- I don't know if it's something to do with my phone or it's a known problem but sometimes, the AppMode just stops working properly. For instance today, every time I clicked the homebutton, it kept saying "Hello iphone" each time. Also, the Car Media Browser wouldn't show anything on the screen. A reboot of the phone solved this. I've had to reboot a few times over the last few days which is frustrating.
- Quite a few windows in Waze don't scroll (e.g. I can't scroll the navigation history or the incidents). I believe this is a Waze problem rather than Pioneer's and has already been reported.
Sorry for the length of this first post but I'm keen to find out any solutions quickly as I'm not fully decided on whether I'm going to keep the AppRadio. I like it a lot but it feels a bit cobbled together and hacky!