Pioneer AppRadio review
If you drive, and if you read Engadget (which...you do), there's a good chance you've spent some time using an iOS device in the car. You've probably also spent some of that time wishing there were a better way to integrate your phone or pod with the car itself. There have been devices to help you bring Pod and vehicle together in an unholy union of distraction since that first physical scroll wheel hit the scene, from maddening tape adapters and FM tuners to more integral solutions like Ford's Sync system. The whole time, we were kind of just wishing they'd figure out a way to let us mount the thing directly in the dash, and have our way with it as we do in all other situations. Pioneer's AppRadio approaches that — it looks unapologetically like a bigger iPod in landscape mode, complete with minimalistic physical controls and a laid-back, no-nonsense look about it. Does it, in fact, make the iPhone more useful while you're in the car? Turns out, it's a yes and no kind of thing.
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Design
The double DIN (180 x 100 mm) module doesn't require an iOS device to work — you can still use the radio and phone portions without it — but the real newness here comes when you plug in. Once you've installed the free AppRadio app, your phone or pod becomes the real brain of the system. Almost all of the storage and processing take place on the chip inside your device; the 6.1-inch capacitive in-dash display actually maps its face to that of the iDevice. But the AppRadio app takes control of your device, rendering all other parts of it untouchable.
To browse through your music, you'll have to navigate using the built-in iPod software, which we have big issues with. Instead of being able to flick through the familiar polished lists of songs and artists, you're forced to navigate with big, ugly buttons that make navigating a relative pain — especially if you're trying to find something while you're driving.
The radio functionality is fairly straightforward, and we like the autoscan / favorites management tools. We do not like the EQ controls, which are buried a few menus in from the home screen, and are far too complicated to adjust on the go — a must if you're listening to a wide variety of music on shuffle, for example. The Bluetooth functions as it should, automatically pairing with your phone, interrupting music if a call comes in, that kind of thing. If you've seen similar systems in newer Lexuses (Lexii?), it will all seem very familiar.