I've had the 4000NEX in my car for a month now. Love it. Choose it over app radio 4 mostly cause of the screen. Capacitive sounds awesome but glare sucks since its a glass front.
You need to wire in an ebrake bypass or tap into the car's ebrake signal or you won't be able to do much with the unit. I couldn't upgrade the firmware to the CarPlay enabled software until I took action. I chose a bypass so the install is much cleaner.
I wrote down some observations about CarPlay to date if anyone was curious. I predominantly listen to my playlists and podcasts from my phone.
Quote:
Apple seems to do a very good job of giving a car friendly interface with keeping Safety in mind. You can do most everything using voice so you can keep your eyes on the road.*
Initial observations:*
Everything is driven by the phone. The head unit is pretty much just a screen.*
CarPlay isn't a full replacement for the head unit. CarPlay just sits over whatever interface the manufacturer provides so you will still have HD Radio, DVD player, XM whatever. You just have to switch out of carplay to access them.
When you take a screenshot using the phone, it will take a screenshot of whatever is on the head unit.*
When messages come in or when I make a new one, I wish a text transcript would show on the screen in addition to Siri reading it to you. Yeah it would not make for a safe driving experience, but I want to make sure Siri captures the dictation correctly. She talks too fast sometimes to understand*
Siri isn't perfect but in the car she does well enough you can use voice for everything.*
Thank goodness for a proper iPod interface. Finding songs and searching through playlist is exactly like it is on the phone. Alpine and bespoke managed to screw it up. Haven't played with this pioneer's native player enough to make judgement.*
It has support for iTunes radio which is cool.*
It does not lock you out of your phone when plugging it into the car. You can still use your phone as normal. If you do decide to go to music, or maps. It will be reflected on the head unit display*
Maps works well, looks great on the head units 7" display. Easy to read. Plus is that I don't have to update maps on the head unit. Only gripes: POI makes maps look cluttered, and you can't scroll on the map by swiping. Have to use Direction arrows. Last, maps won't work without a cell+data signal
While the main navigation is on the head unit, the phone has a companion mode where it shows you the entire route step by step. The compass on the screen is a nice touch*
I wish pressing buttons in carplay would make a beep so you know the presses registered
You can make it so when you press the now playing or music button on the radio that the phone shows you a playlist so you can quickly choose another song.
Kinda stinks that it can't remember what playlist you were playing from when you get back in the car. Yes it does resume what was last played, but when you press back on the CarPLay, it goes to*the*main music menu, not the playlist you are actually playing music *from. Correction: it sort of does but not always. I think if you don't use audio/YouTube in between driving it will pick up where it left off. But the playlist thing is always true. You always have to re-pick the same playlist if you just got in the car and wanted a different song on the same playlist that is currently playing.
I wish the music/maps whatever would stay up on the HU when you use hte phone. If you aren't on a carplay app, it just goes to the home screen and sit there. Kinda frustrating if you want to change the song.
Lately i'll be playing music and the whole thing cuts off. I have to unplug the phone and replug it back in for it to work. Sometimes multiple times. Have to use an official iPhone lightning cable or my microusb Lightning adapter went bad
PHone sometimes goes black when you unplug and is not responsive for a few mintues. It always comes back
When you are using the phone sometimes the status bar is always white so its hard to see the time etc
Carplay popup splash screen sucks EVERY TIME! It gets in the way if you are trying to text or whatever. I'll be in the middle of something while firing up the car, then i plug in the phone to get the radio going, and the splash screen just steals my thunder. I have to navigate back to where i was a few times.
Talk slow and precise to Siri or she'll get your messages wrong while you drive. I have a loudish exhaust so it makes it hard for her to hear. My mic is located right above the A-pillar airbag. save the texting for when you aren't driving anyway.
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