Entune App drains battery

I definitely did have Entune set up correctly. I also dont see the need to connect it via usb or pay any extra for tethering.
I have AT&T with a samsung Infuse and it works just fine. I have traffic, pandora and everything else. However you need to have an account with Entune and SOS set up for it all to work. I dont see why you are telling people to connect via usb and pay more money for a tethering plan.

 

Because the person asking the question had an iPhone, not a Samsung Infuse/Android.

And if you go the Hotspot route on the iPhone you don't need USB cable, you don't need XM Data services for $15 a month, you save money on other devices as you don't need them to be cell capable, you have Wifi hotspot wherever you have cell service....lots of good reasons but most specifically to Prius...it makes the Prius/Entunes system work very well and fixes his specific problem of needing the Entunes app to be running on the iPhone.

 

I am still a bit confused here. Are we talking about about the phone providing a WiFi hotspot, or are we talking about it providing internet connectivity for the car over Bluetooth so the Entune apps on the car don't need the Entune app on the phone?

I thought that with the Advanced HDD system, the traffic info (like the overlay on the Nav map) came ONLY via XM data, and you didn't have the option to use your phone's Internet connectivity for this. Back in March, there was a lot of discussion here from some Advanced buyers being upset that they HAD to use XM in order to get the traffic data.

Is the functionality being discussed in this thread (Entune apps on the car not requiring the Entune app on the phone) something that came with a recent Entunes and/or iPhone update, and is applicable only for iOS?

On the Advanced, the Car Locator, Charge Management, and Climate Control functionality are provided via the Safety Connect cell phone in the car, and the Entunes app on the phone connects to a server over the Internet to get to it. These functions have nothing to do with Bluetooth, since their utility is when you are not near the car.

On the Advanced, the only thing I get with the Entune app beyond the above Advanced applications is Pandora, Bing, iHeartRadio, MovieTickets, and OpenTable. Other things like the traffic overlays, gasoline station locator, and stock prices come over XM data.

I apologize if I am "behind the times" and relying on out-of-date information.

 

Both. With the iPhone (the device in the thread topic) you need to get the Tethering option to get Bluetooth internet connectivity for the car. This allows you to have Bluetooth internet connection for the car without Entunes running on the iPhone.

 

So in summary, while Android (and Blackberry, for that matter) can run entirely over Bluetooth rather than USB, only iOS provides Bluetooth Internet connectivity which obviates the need to have the Entunes app on the phone (except for the Advanced Plug-in apps). And this is true for both the Display Audio and HDD versions?

 

I believe Android and Blackberry both provide the same Bluetooth internet connectivity to Entunes as the iPhone with the tethering/hotspot service.

 

Hmmm.. Interesting. My Blackberry has WiFi hot spot functionality (enabling it costs additional $$ to Verizon), but I didn't know that that would enable Bluetooth Internet connectivity. I'm tempted to turn on the feature for a while to try it out, even though it really is not a big issue for me (given the XM data) to just launch the Entune app manually on the rare occasion that I want Pandora or such.

Have any Android users turned on WiFi tethering to see if this works for them?

 

I still am wondering: For the HDD Premium unit, is it possible to use Bluetooth tethering for the Pandora/Bing/etc apps on the car and thus not require the Entune app on the phone? For iOS and Display Audio, this is possible, based on the experience of posters on this thread. But going through all of the Bluetooth device setup menus on the Advanced, there does not seem to be any way to configure Internet connectivity, and the long list of Bluetooth profiles shown in the device details don't seem to include those related to Internet connectivity (such as Personal Area Networking). I don't have an iPhone, so it is possible that other things would pop up when connecting an iPhone, but generally Toyota's user interface shows unavailable features by dimming the item, rather than omitting them.

 

Has anyone bothered to remember that the XM data services are free for the first 3 years? While I can see the cost benefit of tethering/Hotspot on the iPhone, it's not something that needs to be done until 2015 at the earliest if you have an advanced model. I've got a base model, and having to plugin the USB cable every time is a pain, but I'm not sure giving up my unlimited data plan is worth it to avoid having to plug in. That and it'll cost me more per month. I'm hoping iOS 6 fixes the bluetooth data issue on the iPhone...

 

You might want to check it yourself as the same Prius Team says you can only connect an iPhone via USB when you can, in fact, connect the iPhone via Bluetooth.

 

Toyota website says XM is three months complimentary and it is Entunes that is three year free subscription.

Let XM date service expire and I think you will find that Entunes provides traffic and weather for the 7" unit as well as it does for the 6" unit.

 

Got my PIP April 23rd still got NAV/Traffic and NAV/Weather

 

There's the XM radio service, and then there's the XM data services. XM radio services are free for 3 months. XM data services are free for 3 years. Just as the Entune subscription is free for 3 years.

 

I've never been able to get my iPhone to do data over the Bluetooth connection. Music sure, phone yes, data no. I'm on AT&T and don't have hotspot capability.

 

It turns out that the 3-year XM data service is part of the 3-year Entune service on the HDD Premium package. I went around and around with Sirius/XM customer support (such as it is), and they insisted that there was no such thing as a 3-year complimentary data package, and implied that I was trying to con them. When I called Toyota Entune customer support, I found out that, unlike the radio subscription, which is between the customer and Sirius/XM, the XM data subscription is actually between Sirius/XM and Toyota Entune; when it comes time to renew it, you would renew with Entune, NOT SIRIUS/XM. And if there are problems with the XM data, you go through Entune customer support, not Sirius/XM. One needs to think of the XM data subscription as simply the underlying transport Entune uses on the HDD Premium package, much like there is a contract between Toyota and Verizon Wireless for the Safety Connect cell phone, that the end user is not party to.

 

Is this possibly an iOS 6 feature? Apple added a lot of stuff in this area in iOS 6, including support for the Message Access Profile, so you can see incoming e-mail and text messages on the car.

 

I'm hoping that iOS 6 fixes the bluetooth data problem. The e-mail and text message feature is not a critical new feature for me, but it'll be nice to have.