Pioneer Brings Apple CarPlay to the Vehicle You Already Own | Business Wire Not sure if these would work but double DIN it seems and might actually finally give a good alternative although the Parrot seems like a great option as well.
or even the Alpine unit. The thing I don't like about the Pioneer system is that it's just the old system that they did a firmware patch on it. You still have to plug your iPhone in. Doesn't the alpine run via bluetooth?
actually correction. Both units require plugging in the iPhone. need to look at the features to see which one to go with.
I suspect all CarPlay solutions involve plugging in the iPhone. It's limited to lightning connector only phones (iPhone 5 onwards) and I think there's a lot of data going over to the head unit, too much for bluetooth.
Correct, the connection is lightning only. CarPlay over Wifi is planned for the future but isn't implemented yet.
Isn't it just connected via USB at the back or front of the device? Would think you could use any iPhone cable but don't know. I have the newer iPhone anyway but wanted to check.
It is just connected by USB but I think it is something to do with the lightning connectors throughput... or perhaps the iPhone 5+ processing power. I'm not sure but Apple specify that CarPlay is only compatible with iPhone 5, 5s and 5c. Perhaps just another way to encourage upgrades, or they don't want to focus any effort on dealing with the 30-pin connector.
I bet that's it. Has nothing to do with the connector but simply needs the more modern processors so iPhone 4/4S won't cut it.