Automakers have been pushing ahead with smartphone integration and bringing apps to the dash while the aftermarket -- once a prime source of car electronics innovation -- has largely watched from the sidelines. With its new AppRadio, Pioneer Electronics hopes to get into the game by providing a high-end head unit without a bunch of bells and whistles, but rather a simple in-dash platform for plugging in an iPhone and transferring access to apps to it.
For now, the list of apps available for the Pioneer AppRadio, which will be available next month for under $500, is a short one: Pandora and Rdio for music, Google Maps and MotionX-GPS for navigation and INRIX for traffic info. But Pioneer says that the potential list of apps is unlimited, although for now AppRadio is limited to only using apps designed for Apple's iOS 4 and the devices that run it.
The design of the AppRadio also follows Apple's minimalist aesthetic. The sole physical controls are a home button and a volume up/down toggle switch. Everything else is controlled via a 6.1-inch high-res WVGA capacitance touch screen. The AppRadio also has a built-in AM/FM tuner and Bluetooth for hands-free calling (but not wireless music streaming) and comes with a 30-pin connector cable for an iPhone or iPod, a GPS antenna and an external Bluetooth microphone.
The AppRadio uses Apple's iPod Out spec to transfer the GUI of a connected iPod to the head unit's screen, and all other functions and features center around the apps on a connected device. Unlike past Pioneer head units, there's no voice activation, although an optional steering-wheel remote is available. Pioneer reasons that access to apps via the new head unit beats drivers having to look down at the small screen and controls of an iPhone or iPod Touch. And the AppRadio's screen uses the swipe and pinch controls familiar to smartphone users.
Pioneer claims that other apps will be available before the product launches at the end of June. And as new apps become available, AppRadio will use its own native app to alert owners. Pioneer also hinted that the AppRadio could support other mobile-device platforms like Android and BlackBerry in the future.
And further proving that the aftermarket now takes cues from car makers -- rather than the other way around, as in the past -- like some of the latest OEM infotainment systems, the AppRadio's software is upgradable to accommodate future compatibility.
streetsidestig says:
10:28 AM, 05/26/11
Needs moar Android support.