For those ones that are on the fence of getting Connect ($830 Option) or Connect Plus ($1300 Option) because of CarPlay, Engadget just released a review of it.
CarPlay Review
CarPlay Review
CarPlay Review
jimmy
81 - 100 of 285 Posts
Hint Granted
I don't think Google Maps was ever banned on the iPhone. Google was the default maps database on all iPhones up until IOS6. When Apple released their own maps in IOS6 Google released their own independent app on the app store shortly after.
Joined
·
1,309 Posts
Sorry I wasn't being too precise.
The way I remember it: Google maps appeared on the iPhone since it's first iteration in 2007. A couple of years later (2009?) friction developed between google and apple over turn by turn directions - worked on android, but not iOS.
Google maps contractually remained the default mapping software, but they refused to port turn by turn to iOS.
In ~2012 iOS6 launched and Apple announced it was ditching google maps and would replace it with apple maps, which would have turn by turn. At this point google still had a year to run on its (default mapping) contract, but the relationship disintegrated over googles unwillingness to relinquish turn by turn.
Apple maps was a disaster. Apple went cap in hand back to Google. Google appeared to take it's own sweet time (several months) to port google maps to iOS6.
I suspect Apple would like to be rid of google maps, maybe they see carplay as an opportunity to make a clean break. .
Not quite.
Apple had been frustrated by Google's refusal to allow it access to its voice-directed turn-by-turn navigation and vector graphics for mapping; Google kept that for its own Android to give it an edge. Google, meanwhile, was frustrated that Apple would not let it offers its Latitude service, which in effect tracks users over the maps. Apple could point to Google refusing to give it the functionality it wanted to give users the best experience; Google could say it was treating Apple equally with every licensee (none of whom could get voice-directed turn-by-turn or vector graphics via API at that time)
Arguably, the arrangement became impossible as soon as Google became a direct competitor to Apple in the smartphone space through Android, but the cracks only really showed once Android began offering better map services (voice-directed turn-by-turn, vector graphics) than iOS from the beginning of 2011.
Google released it's own maps app on to the App store in Dec 2012 a few months after Apple had dropped them in favour of their own mapping solution in IOS 6 which was released in Sept. 2012.
Arguably, long term, Google made a strategic mistake as it has lost the default position as Apple's mapping provider and all the revenue that went along with that. Google gets little to no revenue from Maps on Android. Google did release the voice directed turn by turn in their IOS app but it was too late.
Apple never went cap in hand back to Google after IOS6 was released despite Apple's poor showing out of the gate.
It forced Apple to put resources into a viable competitor to Google Maps and although they are not at par yet Apple Maps has taken a lot of marketshare/revenue away from Google by virtue of being the default. Apple will catch up in a couple of years. Given the head start Google had it's quite amazing how fast Apple developed the product. Apple has had the street view vans roaming the earth for quite a while now.
It was an obvious business decision for Apple as Google would have leveraged Maps over Apple in favour of Android to the nth degree.
Joined
·
66 Posts
As an ex-Apple employee, Nylon nailed it. Tim Cook (CEO) even apologized and offered suggestions whilst Maps was reworked (and yes, some heads rolled, but I had nothing to do with the product and had left a couple years earlier.)
Tim Cook Apologizes For Apple Maps, Points To Competitive Alternatives | TechCrunch
iOS 9.3 Update for CarPlay
Perhaps discussed before, but I read this tidbit in a tech article today regarding updates to iOS 9.3:
"CarPlay - iOS 9.3 now syncs the Apple Music tabs ‘For You’ and ‘New’ for CarPlay users as well as adding ‘Nearby’ to Apple Maps which brings up handy local POIs including restaurants and cafes."
Apple iOS 9.3: Should You Upgrade?
Perhaps discussed before, but I read this tidbit in a tech article today regarding updates to iOS 9.3:
"CarPlay - iOS 9.3 now syncs the Apple Music tabs ‘For You’ and ‘New’ for CarPlay users as well as adding ‘Nearby’ to Apple Maps which brings up handy local POIs including restaurants and cafes."
Apple iOS 9.3: Should You Upgrade?
Joined
·
4,205 Posts
Got a chance yesterday to try out Carplay on a 2017 911. First off, I am a HUGE Apple fan for those that haven't noticed already.
I was less than impressed overall. The new PCM seems much better than 3.1, but I didn't find everything, so still not as user friendly as it needs to be.
As far as Apple Play itself:
1. Maps-Just not great-LOW resolution view, "traffic" not as granular as I would like, colors not distinctive enough to differentiate things. Carplay Maps did NOT find all of the Costcos (specifically the closest) in my area, which is strange since doing the same search on Apple Maps directly on the attached phone showed them all when I did that a minute later?!?!?!?
2. Music-Works pretty well, but no cover art???
3. Messages-Why can't I see messages when not moving? Why only read them?
4. Pandora-Same as Music
5. Spotify-Same as Music
It's ENTIRELY possible that I just missed some features/functions. My SA was busy, so I just played with it myself for about an hour. But most Apple products are just so intuitive, that I was surprised. I understand that the idea is to use Siri for most things, BUT I would still like to use my hands when stopped, as it is much faster.
Overall, not what I was expecting. No live traffic has been my biggest gripe with the 3.1 NAV. I could see myself continuing to use Waze on my phone instead of Carplay, as the implementation is just so much better. Heck, I could see using Apple Maps on my phone instead of Carplay Maps, the graphics are so much clearer, and search results are accurate.
No idea if the 9.3 update released yesterday changes the visuals within Carplay display. The screen is obviously capable of much more.
I was less than impressed overall. The new PCM seems much better than 3.1, but I didn't find everything, so still not as user friendly as it needs to be.
As far as Apple Play itself:
1. Maps-Just not great-LOW resolution view, "traffic" not as granular as I would like, colors not distinctive enough to differentiate things. Carplay Maps did NOT find all of the Costcos (specifically the closest) in my area, which is strange since doing the same search on Apple Maps directly on the attached phone showed them all when I did that a minute later?!?!?!?
2. Music-Works pretty well, but no cover art???
3. Messages-Why can't I see messages when not moving? Why only read them?
4. Pandora-Same as Music
5. Spotify-Same as Music
It's ENTIRELY possible that I just missed some features/functions. My SA was busy, so I just played with it myself for about an hour. But most Apple products are just so intuitive, that I was surprised. I understand that the idea is to use Siri for most things, BUT I would still like to use my hands when stopped, as it is much faster.
Overall, not what I was expecting. No live traffic has been my biggest gripe with the 3.1 NAV. I could see myself continuing to use Waze on my phone instead of Carplay, as the implementation is just so much better. Heck, I could see using Apple Maps on my phone instead of Carplay Maps, the graphics are so much clearer, and search results are accurate.
No idea if the 9.3 update released yesterday changes the visuals within Carplay display. The screen is obviously capable of much more.
Joined
·
530 Posts
Bummed to hear that. Well, one can only hope it gets better with future updates and hopefully those updates are just dependent on Apple and not an update on the Porsche side. Not that I don't trust Porsche - just easier when you can download the latest from Apple and be up and running.
I use Waze as well - love it. It's taken my wife on some pretty sketchy paths through LA (dangerous hoods) so I have changed it's name to "Waze (ways) to get shot!"
I also got the Nav module with Connect+ so we'll be triple redundant with maps. I'll be happy enough if we can finally get my wife to use Apple music and ditch the compressed and muffled satellite radio.
Thanks for the review! Ecco much of my findings and unfortunately also find Car-play to be quite useless in the current implementation. I ordered connect+ for the google stuff on the PCM and will use that since I quite like the built in nav. Will probably not use carplay at all right now since I like to put things in with my fingers instead of talking to Siri. I'm a huge apple fan though so the problem is not there... Had also wished more from carplay even if it is just in the early days of its development.
Let's hope that Apple make some major improvements in iOS 10 when released this autumn. If they make more apps available, like Waze and google maps without downgrading the number of features I will start using carplay more. The Apple maps low-res implementation is quite dull, unfortuantely. One would have thought that it would be at least as good as on the phone.
Joined
·
5,329 Posts
"The new PCM seems much better than 3.1, but I didn't find everything, so still not as user friendly as it needs to be."
Well, not much improvement is needed to be better than the old PCM
Joined
·
530 Posts
Well in order to convince the auto world that this will work, Apple is going to have to show that they can keep the 100 or so models that offer Carplay current with their updates. Apple's interests are aligned with ours. Fortunately Apple launches major updates once a year so hopefully by September we'll be able to see improvement.
Joined
·
4,205 Posts
@fincher It asked me if I wanted to connect as iPod OR Carplay when I plugged in the cable. So you could go the iPod route and get the artwork, but then Carplay Navigation would be unavailable, and you would need PCM Nav. At that point, why order Connect or Connect+ at all?
Well that is disappointing. But hopefully there is a more useful version of CarPlay on the horizon with the fall updates. To be honest I was hopeful there were going to be some more updates with the recent iOS download but I guess not. Thank you for taking the time to post @RJMcInnis
Joined
·
1,309 Posts
Nice write up!
Could the low resolution display of Maps be due to the inability of the carplay software to detect and adapt to the screen resolution of the in-car display?
Maybe carplay always outputs at the same resolution, and this 'minimum' resolution (to run carplay) was provided in the specs to manufactures some time back by Apple.
I know some of the early aftermarket carplay screens contain only 800 X 480 pixels, maybe this is all we're going to be able to display, until there's a major software upgrade?
I remember reading a write up in 2014 - it said that when you save an image of your iphones display - while it's running carplay maps - the phone actually saves 2 images to the photo library, and these 2 images are at quite different resolutions.
That seems like a reasonable answer. Man, I cannot believe no album artwork though. Come on Tim Cook
Joined
·
4,205 Posts
@Fatherof5 Like I said, it's entirely possible I just missed how to turn it on.
If you look at this link, there is tiny artwork next to the playlists. But no pics of the "Now Playing" app shown there.
CarPlay - Apple
And this says there is artwork, just layered. If so, it was so subtle I didn't even see it.
iOS 9: The state of CarPlay in 2015 + what?s new | 9to5Mac
81 - 100 of 285 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
