Don't know about the design decisions, most of the ones I drive around in are broken. 3 month old vans with braking and bearing issues at 10k miles has put me off of ever buying one personally!Originally Posted by DJ Jules
Don't know about the design decisions, most of the ones I drive around in are broken. 3 month old vans with braking and bearing issues at 10k miles has put me off of ever buying one personally!
I have no problems with Android Auto, but it does need USB connected. I also have Bluetooth on, not sure if it would still work with that off but I have no reason to test it as it's always on anyway. AAWireless is coming soon, which claims to solve the cable requirement - very few new vehicles support Android Auto without cables, so this will fill that gap (if compatible).As far as I can see, having now got this lashed into the van, having had the foresight to purchase the correct remote cable for the steering column remote, and the annoyance of swapping the microphone, because Alpine use a TRS plug, and Sony use a TS, I can safely say that:
It ain't progress!Eight years ago, I could easily do much much more with an old Nokia and a sat nav. Apple Car Play seems to only function when connected by USB, and many things need use of the touchscreen to achieve, that I could do by voice command years ago.
I need to find out more about Car Play, I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface. At the moment, when I want the advanced features of Car Play, I can't use my USB stick playout. ( I think.More investigation required). As Roy Walker would say " It's good, but it's not right".
From what I have (briefly) just read - Android Auto stands a chance of working behind a USB hub (so you could plug in your flash drive, too), but Car Play won't, it needs the direct connection.
Car Play = Apple... isn't that supposed to "just work"?
Last edited by Marc J; 18-03-2021 at 12:33 PM.
Is waiting until the end of your journey when you have stopped driving to reply to a text message not an option?
Not another system? Grrrr.
But I'm still going to try a hub.( Which you'd already guessed anyway, I'd venture to suggest).
Oooooh, Miaooow!Car Play = Apple... isn't that supposed to "just work"?Marc, Android has had enough chances, I've decided that I officially hate it. I officially hate giving my wife help with her Samsung Android tablet, because it's a pain to understand.
Short answer, no. That requires me using my hamfisted fingers to type on my phone. When in the van, I can simply talk. Work smarter, not harder.
Long answer, having talked with my brother, I've worked out that twelve years ago, I could send or receive phone calls and/or text messages simply by pressing one button and then talking to a low spec bluetooth van radio, and a low spec Nokia phone. I baffled a colleague on the way to Coalville one year, as he and a colleague were in one van, on a motorway, and I was in my van on another motorway. His passenger texted me, and I replied as soon as I had it read to me. They couldn't work out how I was driving down the motorway, and texting at the same time!
I refuse to take more technological steps backwards than I absolutely have to.
This is what happens if you text me when I'm driving: -
I give up! I'm surrounded by people who want to pull up the drawbridge, and hide from the rest of the world!This is what happens if you text me when I'm driving: -
( Mind you, considering I'm one of the needy technophobes Marc deals with, hiding away seems logical).
I've seen it with my own eyes & heard it with my own ears, around the time I met a wise old DJ sort who swore blind he knew the way to Brewdog in Birmingham. GOBSMACKED, I was, guv.. Gobsmacked!
To the best of my knowledge, you CAN get a smartphone hooked up to an all-singing all-dancing in-vehicle thingy to read messages/emails or take dictation. I'm SURE of it. I just have no idea how
Every attempt I've ever made so far as resulted in having to resort to touch a screen or press buttons
In the ( Good) Old Days, one button press to warn the machine you needed to send something. No buttons at all to receive, just clear, stentorian vocal tones. Ah, how I miss those days.
I just want to know what is so important in these text messages that it requires such effort and cost to be able to provide an immediate response. If anyone needs my immediate attention, I get a phone call which can be easily taken by pretty much every Bluetooth device on the planet.
Is it really a step back, or is it just a case of manufacturers no longer supporting a solution to a problem that doesn't exit?
You kids have been spoiled rotten. In my day, we had to breed and train our own pigeons to carry little notes...
Pigeons? You were luck to have pigeons. We used to have to use 2 tin cans with a piece of string.
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