Bluetooth Connectivity

The bluetooth system this AR3 has is such a pain and inferior.

I dont understand the failure of the system to not repeatedly try to connect to the phone if the first time fails (IE remote starting the car, then after a few minutes getting in and the phone WILL NOT auto connect)

Having to manually connect the phone this way makes it a very "un-livable" part of the AR3

Comparitively I Could start my F250 with the sony headunit get in at anytime and it auto connects the BT

Living with = Fail

Running Errands

Living with the AR3 means getting in and out of the car a time or two. To give an example, my morning trip to work means stopping for coffee and maybe a breakfast sandwich. Well after having had the BT fail to connect after remote starting the car and manually connecting the phone, i get to the gas station get a few things and head back out to the lincoln, and if the appradio app was working before it will not work again without shutting the app down on the phone and starting over completely. The exception to this is waze, that will auto restart.

I am concluding this is an issue with the pioneer app and not the headunit.

Living with = Fail

Car Media Player

This refers specifically to podcasts, first off the Appradio puts the podcasts into shuffle mode, and the podcast i listen to has 3 parts per episode, this would be fine if it didnt default to shuffle everytime i go to podcasts, pioneer why will my AR3 not remember my choices? and why are u auto shuffling podcasts in the first place?

Secondly, if i am listening to a podcast in the car in the morning, and 20mins of that podcast goes by, and i decide to finish listening to the podcast on the shop radio, it starts at the same part of the podcast that it did when I started off to work. (like that 20 mins never existed)

This can be an intermittent issue.

Living with = Livable if it is a rare occurance.

Handsfree Phone

I love the handsfree, but I dont understand why you have to press the call button after pressing the contacts name, if that contact only has one number.

The only thing that i am unhappy with, is my 2008 F250 6.4L Powerstroke with 650hp and a Sony Headunit has much clearer phone quality for the other end of the line than My 2005 Lincoln LS thats stock and seems much quieter inside compared to the window shattering full 5'' exhaust note the powerstroke emits.

I wish pioneer had better noise filtering on the handsfree, but its a good system.

Living with = Yes

Apps

I wont pay for an app, with in app purchases or without some sort of trial before i decide to give you money.

I have all the apps that are free and of those the common ones that i use are Waze & iHeartAuto, note that i am not jailbroken, and that would change app usage im sure.

But of all the Apps that are offered (besides the base pioneer apps) I use all of two...........So i paid $400 for iphone/ipod integration, Handsfree, and two apps

Living with = Hindsight, i dont know if i would purchase the AR3 again.

11/20/2013 Addition

Radio

Besides the horribly tiny arrows to tune a station in, I have noticed another annoying issue with the tuner UI.

The physical Volume Up, Volume Down buttons are directly under the BSM button on the touch screen, (facepalm) heaven forbid u try to change the volume  while on a road that isnt as smooth as glass, because you will be shortly reprogramming your presets with the horribly small tuner buttons shortly after.

Living with = yes, just set it and forget it lol

Please comment on my "Living With" Review and let me know if you have similar issues, and if you found a solution

Feeling better now, i m not the only one

Same trouble as you what a pain everytime i stop the car and restart i have to disconnect the iphone, put of the bluetooth , reconnect, turn on the bluetooth again

Getting worry about the iphone getting hot

i m ready to sale my AR3 to something else

Getting worry about the iphone getting hot

Yeah mine gets very hot as well, but i have yet to see the Temperature screen pop up. But it could be shortening the battery life span without us knowing.

ive seen a lot phones getting super hot, but its not just an app radio problem. a lot of new radios (none quite as bad the AR) are relying heavily on the resources of the phone instead of their own and are keeping them active, which really works out the processor, then if you add charging the battery at the same time and you can cook biscuits off of most of them. hell ive seen some powerful androids not even charge because the phone is using power probably slightly faster then it is receiving it.   

I'm sure this cant be anywhere near optimal for the life of a phone battery, but then again, I always use 2a rapid chargers all the time and find that I usually need to replace the battery a little while before its a year old. for this reason, I try to stay away from phones with non removable batteries.

Oh i am sure that all adds to the heat issue,

i honestly can say that there isnt 1 windows phone i would ever buy (even tho i run a windows computer) that windows 8 os and style is just crap imo.

I have considered android phones in the past but, there is a few reasons i always decide against them, i am to invested in iTunes with music etc to switch (im sure apple intended that) and google is one of thee most well known anti-privacy/data mining companies to ever disgrace the technology world, and even tho apple has issues in this area as well, they dont seem to be as bad as google. (yes the lesser of two evils)

Thats why i for the moment i wont switch phones. removable battery or not. 

for this reason, I try to stay away from phones with non removable batteries.

Oh ya just had to throw the iPhone stab in there didn't ya! 

Oh ya just had to throw the iPhone stab in there didn't ya! 

didn't even mean it like that (this time lol) there have been a few really sweet androids lately Ive had to steer away from because of non replaceable batteries.

Oh wow I wasn't aware anyone else were making phones built in batteries.

Which in saying the iPhone doesnt have a replaceable battery is non-sense, since they can be opened and replaced (not sure on the 5)

I'm pretty sure if you void your warranty if you replace your iphone's battery, that is what is meant by "non replaceable battery" in the phone world.

if there is a removable cover that somebody can pop off and swap out a different battery whenever they want, then the phone has a removable battery

if you have to open up the phone and replace internal parts then that is as "non replaceable" as it gets... of course the battery, screen, digitizer, speakers, mic... can all be serviced, some are just more difficult than others 

Oh wow I wasn't aware anyone else were making phones built in batteries.

haha, you need to get out more bud! lol, its all the rage in "premium" phones (a category apple all but created!). for one HTC has been doing it for a little bit now, makes a damn nice phone, just as sturdy and solid as the Iphone. 

I'm pretty sure if you void your warranty if you replace your iphone's battery, that is what is meant by "non replaceable battery" in the phone world.

 

 

if there is a removable cover that somebody can pop off and swap out a different battery whenever they want, then the phone has a removable battery

 

if you have to open up the phone and replace internal parts then that is as "non replaceable" as it gets... of course the battery, screen, digitizer, speakers, mic... can all be serviced, some are just more difficult than others 

Warranty? whats that? lol

In all honesty if the battery wouldnt last a year even due to heat, i dont want it anyways. Of course as with most things nowadays they are throw away items rather than well built items that are meant to last.

Thanks, good to know but also sucks that the DA110 has so many issues, ended up going with the DA210 which was also around $350.

I was originally going to get the DA110 since it seemed much more minimal (no DVD, mechanical parts, etc).

Thanks, good to know but also sucks that the DA110 has so many issues, ended up going with the DA210 which was also around $350.

 

I was originally going to get the DA110 since it seemed much more minimal (no DVD, mechanical parts, etc).

Is Da210 better that da110? if yes, in what ways?

Maybe it is the iPhone. The Android stuff seems to work a lot better. You can fix all the issues that the OP mentions with free apps for Android. Even things like the Bluetooth pairing I think can be fixed using Tasker.