Thank you.  That pic doesn't give me much hope that we'll see much of an improvement.  

Yeah..that doesn't look too ugly. Ugh...

I'm not sold that this is a Carplay issue.  Rather, it's a Pioneer issue.  The reason I say that is that I saw a video from CES 2015 showing Carplay in a stock 2016 Buick.  You could see the album art really well.  Maybe I need to adjust my setting some more but I just see the album artwork faintly.  My brightness and dimmer are maxed out and my contrast is just over halfway.  If I go any higher on the contrast the apps are blurred and streets on the Maps app don't show  up.  

I'm not sold that this is a Carplay issue. Rather, it's a Pioneer issue. The reason I say that is that I saw a video from CES 2015 showing Carplay in a stock 2016 Buick. You could see the album art really well. Maybe I need to adjust my setting some more but I just see the album artwork faintly. My brightness and dimmer are maxed out and my contrast is just over halfway. If I go any higher on the contrast the apps are blurred and streets on the Maps app don't show up.

Agreed. I think the low quality of the Pioneer display plays a big part in this.

This is the response when I brought up the issue to pioneer customer support: "No settings for that, try a different USB able and if possible another iPhone." Lame! I've tried multiple USB cord and I have an iPhone 6 Plus You can see the album art better when the lights are on. Is there anyway to make the dimmer settings permanent to lights being on? In other words can I make pioneer settings the same at night and for during the day rather than changing my lights turn on and off? When the lights are on just seems I can see the album art better

Its a problem with pioneer carplay units.  the alpine carplay unit displays the artwork (via carplay) just fine with no dim issues.

I've been playing around with the settings will that more and I think I've narrowed it down to two issues. First, The album art work is really affected by sunlight. If There's a lot of sunlight on I can't see the album artwork well or at all. I can see it real easily at night and pretty good in cloudy conditions. Second, I think Apple's part of the problem. The album artwork is stretched and blown up rather than just filling the screen .

Yes, Apple is THE problem. When CarPlay launched the album art filled the screen. There was no fade around the controls. It was still dim be viewable. Someone must have thought the art was a distraction to drivers, especially if it meshed with the the onscreen controls and added the fade making it almost pointless to be there. This new "solution" is even worse.

I have to take back what I said earlier about the Album Art implementation in iOS 9. I downloaded the beta and I think this may be the best release yet. No, you don't see a a sharp rendering of the album art, but you do get a fullscreen blur of the art that is very tasteful and "artistic". For the most part, the ugly banding is gone from Carplay trying to fade the image to black from top to bottom. The entire screen is now filled with color so it doesn't look like half your screen is broken. The brightness also seems to be much better. Yes, I am still cranking the Brightness a bit but before I also had to mess with the contrast. I no longer have to do that. I'm very happy!

I can't wait to see what iOS 9 does for CarPlay.  Maybe we'll get some more compatible apps too.  We've got about three to four weeks before the final version goes live to everyone.  

One remaining issue is that there is still no Shuffle Artist control. I hope they fix that for the final release. I was hoping for some more apps as well..Come on Slacker! 

I have to take back what I said earlier about the Album Art implementation in iOS 9. I downloaded the beta and I think this may be the best release yet. No, you don't see a a sharp rendering of the album art, but you do get a fullscreen blur of the art that is very tasteful and "artistic". For the most part, the ugly banding is gone from Carplay trying to fade the image to black from top to bottom. The entire screen is now filled with color so it doesn't look like half your screen is broken. The brightness also seems to be much better. Yes, I am still cranking the Brightness a bit but before I also had to mess with the contrast. I no longer have to do that. I'm very happy!

Sure. Here's a few of the better ones.

Thanks for the screen shots.  That's definitely an improvement.  

That really does look a LOT better. Thanks for the pics!

Here is what I see in iOS 9 (14a4325c), pretty accurate compared to AVIC 5000 screen.

I get some album art to show up and some won't using my sd card. I'm not sure why though.

Can you actually use an SD card through Carplay? I would think it has to be all sourced from the phone. Also, if you want album art through the head unit it has to be embedded into each file (song).

Can you actually use an SD card through Carplay? I would think it has to be all sourced from the phone. Also, if you want album art through the head unit it has to be embedded into each file (song).

CarPlay only works wth music stored on the phone, not the SD card.

Can you actually use an SD card through Carplay? I would think it has to be all sourced from the phone. Also, if you want album art through the head unit it has to be embedded into each file (song).

I use an app to tag the music on my phone

I just noticed that it looks like they changed the font, too. Not sure I'm a fan of that.

I just activated the iOS 9 beta program on my 6+.  The album art is improved as you can see it full screen and see it better.  It's still blurry and stretched though.  However, with the 4100 you still have the issue of brightness.  The screen looks good in cloudy or night conditions but the album art tends to fade away as the sun gets brighter.  Maybe the higher end versions with the different screen are more resistant to light and thus the art doesn't get washed out.  I have my brightness and dimmer maxed out.  What also helps is going to -3 on the temperature.  The biggest help to clarity is maximizing the contrast.  However, when you do that, the app colors and the apple maps are washed out.  I'm leaving my contrast set to 0 because I do use the maps.  If I didn't use maps I might bump the contrast all the way up for better clarity.  The app icons get so washed out though.  As with the iPhone, I barely notice the new font.  Siri is a little more colorful on the screen now as well.  The voice ripple/line is multi-colored instead of white now.  

Just installed the IOS 9 gm and am NOT impressed with the CarPlay changes. The artwork is so light and blurry that it might as well not even be there. Very disappointed.

This is how it now appears for me. Maybe I need to play around with the settings?

I just activated the iOS 9 beta program on my 6+.

Why bother with the beta?