mik3vl

Just picked up a new android phone want want to get it connected to the car. but after looking around, it seems like there are no products for other phone/car integration like what the iphone has.

anyone know of any devices that will let me keep all car functionality (have XM), display artist/song title, and have steering wheel controls?

if not, i'm looking at some good a2dp adapters with a usb so I can charge my phone. i know isimple is coming out with "The TranzIt Blue" and "The Gateway USB", but want to know what competitors have

any suggestions?

ty!

jda123

You can use the headphone jack through the iSimple, USA Spec and many other, but nobody has developed a direct control solution for anything other than Apple, currently.

I hate cars

Good question, i'm interested as well. Though I can't wait to get rid of this POS. I'm on my 3rd since December and they're just unreliable terrible phones. I use my $25 work phone for most of my calls. I know this isn't what this thread is about but I don't think I've hated an inanimate object before this phone.

dzionny_dzionassi

i agree, very good question, right now i am streaming my music from T-mobile G2 via bluetooth audio, but i miss wheel controls. It is not fair that Iphone users have integrity for acuras and Android dont. But i think it will change pretty soon, since Android is beter and more flexible than Iphone. READ THIS

Sick TLS

iTrader: (11)

How are you streaming bluetooth audio to your tl?? i thought that our radios didnt have ad2p capability??

hoolagen1

bump, rooted nexus one, only using aux, kinda lame.

dzionny_dzionassi

i have Miccus BluBridge Mini-Jack Rx Bluetooth Music Receiver

wcurrin

how expensive/complicated is that miccus thing? That is the first I have heard of it....I am intrigued...

dzionny_dzionassi

i paid 25$ but i was lucky, got it on ebay. Usually it goes for 50-70$ .It is easy, just connect to your aux, press button on your miccus to connect to your phone and you are done. One bad thing, everytime someone calls you are disconnected, maybe it is just my phone.... But i am very happy with it. Very good sound quality, it is very small, and i am charging it with phones car charger.

mik3vl

so from what i gather, there is no real android car integration as nice as what they have for the iphone :-/, if a vendor is looking at this thread, you should jump on this market, it's huge and has no competitors!

but i plan to get the isimple Tranzit blu for the a2dp and hope it comes with an aux port as well.

jda123

It is also not cost effective.

Gonna be a little while before Andriod has support like iPod and iPhone has. Most vendors have a different physical interface on their phone even though they run a pretty similar phone OS.

There are just not enough users of a single kind of android phone to make it worthwhile. They need to standardize their hardware interface.

iPhone and iPod use the same hardware and the same SDK and the market share is huge (especially with iPod).

mik3vl

I agree that the iphone and ipod market is huge, but there are also a bunch of competitors.

Yet, nobody provides even a decent amount of support for the android ecosystem.

Android phones, while they may be plenty and various, the hardware isn't an issue imo as they all use micro-usb (or some type of usb connection). if anything, they can offer different adapter heads and make even more $$$.

i'd say the differences in the actual user interface and OS fragmentation could be a major problem. But even with those problems, the first vendor to the market will have sole access to the entire android user base which last i heard, is huge and still growing. they just need to have an interface that keeps steering wheel controls and possibly text display on the car. DONE !

jda123

I worked in the wireless industry and this is one of the main questions that we see from consumers is about the lack of peripheral support - the company that I worked with does not carry the iPhone. If it could be profitable, somebody and everybody could be doing it. For nearly every android phone, the physical access is different - I am not talking about the plug, rather the way that you access data through that plug. If there are 100 Andriod phones on the market today, you would have to write/test/support close to 80 different interfaces... instead of just writing 1 for Apple to handle every one of theirs.

For the next few years, or until the Android community standardizes on API/Access calls, if you want peripheral support, then buy an iPhone - they are getting cheaper every day... the plans and the device. The Android community might not ever agree on a common access and you might be stuck with the headphone jack forever.

Also, ignoring the sheer number difference, the common user for iPhone and Android is different. The hard core folks who are more likely to buy an iSimple, or USA Spec, are around 4.something times more likely to be on an iPhone according to some Gartner Research that we bought. These numbers are a year or so old, but the iPhone crowd is different and willing to spend money that the Android market was not. Of course, both markets are changing every day and the landscape will be different in a year or so.

If I was a manufacturer, I would develop an android phone with the Apple Dock connector and make the interfaces the same. That would be an instant success on the market for people who want peripheral support since it would, in theory, already work with everything designed for iPod and iPhone.

Sorry for the novel.

twentysided

I have a Droid Incredible, rooted 2.2 AOSP.

All droid AOSP based phones would be very easy to support. 2 layouts are possible: a phone with no extra storage with /Music on the root drive, and a phone with extra storage with /Music on the SD card. It's fairly straightforward to connect via USB (whichever your phone supports) and then simply have the unit look in those locations for music.

Manufacturers need to get off their proprietary interface junk (Sense, etc). You usually don't gain all that much for the sacrifice of fragmentation. Easy enough to root them at any rate.

My opinion more related to the topic though - is that none of this would be worth it.

A2DP streaming is junk. At least in my last car - a Corolla with Kenwood KDC-X993 and Hertz components up front and a sealed 15" sub, it was very easy to exceed the sound quality of the A2DP protocol with a few relatively inexpensive aftermarket parts. Honestly, A2DP is a gimmick imo. Not useful for music appreciation.

The X993's USB connection supported FAT32, and a $60 32GB memory stick later, I was pushing high-bitrate mp3s through the head unit - with full text display support - and my phone was free to connect for calls over Bluetooth. No extra battery drain for playing music, no waste of phone storage space for music that I hardly ever use on it, and practically my entire library in the car at all times.

If anything, I would push for NTFS support, and better codec support - like FLAC over USB as the new standard all vehicles should adopt. FLAC is free (and always will be) on PC and Mac, and NTFS supports huge storage.

I was excited about the TL Nav and built-in HFL, but since the HFL failed I am seriously considering some aftermarket options for both BT and music. REALLY would love to just go back to the memory stick!

My .02.

Kevito87

I have a 07 TL, would the Kenwood KDC-X993 be a good fit for my car?

DEman19901

Android user here. I have no desire to want or need Android integration for my TL. All you need is to get an Ipod Classic. Now you have 160GB of storage for music. This is what I use. You can't get this much storage on a phone. I have all of my music on it and it stays in the console. Out of site and out of mind. The only time I touch it is when I have to add more music. I will take this set up over using a phone any day.

Actrite04

iTrader: (2)

Check this out.... http://www.cablejive.com/products/Un...Converter.html They have more than that , just browse the site

twentysided

I only have the nav and this is my first Acura so it's hard to say.

What I liked:

I used a test tone disc and the 5-band EQ on the X993 to get very good sound.

It has fairly powerful pre-amp outs, which is great if you plan to upgrade other aspects of the system. I found it to work fine in my car on the 12 watts or so...

The crossover controls, sub out, and other aspects were outstanding. You can set each pair of speakers to have different crossovers, and also the sub. Loved that.

Bluetooth audio - once I got it working (and it takes a few tries) was very good. The mic controls allowed me to get very clear sound for people I talked to, according to them. I assume it would be even better in an Acura, since a 2006 Corolla is about 6x as loud when driving.

5-line display was cool and it scrolls through long artist/album/song names so you can read what's playing.

What I didn't like:

The face was too shiny and hard to read in the daytime. Frustrating on sunny days. I live in WI so that's only half the year

It limits you to 256 folders or so over USB on FAT32. You'll be surprised how quickly that happens. I ended up putting some artists' music into a single folder and renaming the tracks to keep the albums together and in order. Was a small annoyance for me.

With a large library, it takes awhile to find music. Again - small annoyance.

The remote is not optional. IT IS TOTALLY NECESSARY. The controls on the head unit are useless unless the car is stopped. They are twist, ROCKING up/down/left/right (that's impossible to control when driving), AND pushbutton - which haphazardly sets off a rock instead of a push. I would look to see if they've changed the control scheme on their newer units. HATED IT.

Sound-wise, it was brilliant. Interface-wise, could use some work. Hope that helps.

FWIW - I pulled my HFL today and it's not broken due to capacitor or moisture - looked fine but it's just plain toast. I will be putting aftermarket aux audio and bluetooth in my TL.

lahma

Some of you fellow android users may find this interesting, it uses the car's Bluetooth phonebook storage feature to launch apps, navigate music, setup custom commands, etc: http://www.android.net/forum/android...mirroring.html . I just posted a reply to see if there has been any progress made so hopefully we'll find out something soon!

hoolagen1

lahma, great find.....that dude is awesome...

DiamondJoeQuimby

iTrader: (2)

pretty sure here would be some patent/copyright/etc issues there

You are in the minority. Most people are wanting to not only support music, but apps through the car. Things like pandora, mobile video apps (HBOGO, Uverse, etc), nav apps, all will be more integrated than less. And people want to to this via 1 device.

bad_intentions

Would love android support but I may take the idea of an earlier poster on this topic and just get an iPod for use in my car...i'm tired of CD's and there is so much peripheral support for idevice integration. I'm tired of waiting. Still love my android as a phone though, but they have too many different hardware designs out there to expect a large increase in peripheral support any time soon.

Hell, I am even having a tough time finding a gym arm band for my Droid Bionic.

Aamir Baksh

Hey everyone Im going to be buying a 04 TL in a couple of months and I must change the head unit (no screen) and want to utilize the stock location for a double din and not below I understand that some custom work has to be done and it will be in time. I currently use a Nexus 6p and i want to be able to use Android auto. I've done some searching and found the Alpine ilx-007 reasonably priced. It says it can work with Android auto and I just wanted to know if anyone has use one

TY