USB and Safety Connect Are Almost Here!

Could someone with some techno-savy please explain how BT streaming with the iPhone and iTouch will work, but a direct connection will not? I don't own either, but was considered buying the iTouch.

Also, does using BT with the iPhone or iTouch provide the same controls and nav screen menu images that a direct connection gives?

Thank you.

 

The BT streaming works very well, I was highly impressed with the sound quality. However, unlike the manual illustrates, the controls don't work on the NAV screen with the exception of pause and play. We all need to start making phone calls to the iPhone/iPod support team to request that they incorporate the controls described in the manual in a future software release!

 

sounds cool, but the inability to scroll by letters will be an inconvenience. i have an 80 GB ipod with around umm... heck, i dont know... 3-4,000 songs or so. (still have about 15 GB of empty space)

but then again...is it the Pri interface or the i pod?? since the i pod does not have the ability to jump to any letter on the list either, its simply putting up with the limitations that we have always put up with.

now that thing about playing the song at the top of the scroll list...that is a bit different

 

Nice job--thanks for the vid & owners manual.

Given the limitations, I'm going to pass. I have ~80 GB of MP3s, and it would be painfully slow and annoying to select, say, an artist half way through the alphabet.

Plus the owners manual says the you can't use the folder select function (with USB drive) when the car is moving--is that correct?

Thanks again.

BTW--I noticed your system is set to automatically revert to the nav screen--you can cancel that functionality in the set up menu.

 

OK--after reading the owners manual and watching the vid, one question:

If I copy music to a USB drive using the following folder structure:
root --> artist --> album --> track

and if I use the select function for folder, does it just list all albums by all artists (alphabetically, but not sorted album within artist), or does it utilize the folder hierarchy? Since page 3 of the owners manual shows ROOT FOLDER as the first folder choice, it could imply that I could select ROOT FOLDER, then artist, album, etc. Probably wishful thinking on my part, but I thought I'd ask.

 

Disappointing to say the least. Its all software so hopefully Toyota will hire someone that can improve the interface.

 

Hopefully they will IF there is enough negative feedback and/or lack of sales of the iPod connection kit.

 

I'm happy with the BT Streaming from my iPhone, and after looking at the installation instructions would never want my car torn apart like and end up with a crappy interface.

 

Seems like for me, Bad Things come to those that wait. For me, I'm not really sold on the whole Solar Panel, I just really wanted a Sun Roof, but was willing to take the gamble on the panels, get The Nav, and hopefully be happy with the whole deal. Now I find out that to get a sunroof on my Prius I'm looking at $4280? An additional $680.00 for additional things I really don't want.

"We're studying unbundling Nav from Solar Roof, but if it ever does happen, it won't be this model year. We know some people want that, but it introduces a couple problems. First, as we've mentioned, there are supply limitations on SR, so increasing demand for it isn't what we need right now. Second, it introduces complexity of the product offering, which we abhor. All that said, it's still on the table for the future."

How Odd that a automobile company finds itself in a situation where they don't want to increase demand. If you don't want to increase demand why do you keep running the commercial that features the Solar Roof option?

It's a personal decision, but I don't know if I want to go an additional $680.00, -$4280.00 for the entire package, just to get the sunroof.

I know this is off topic, feel free to move, destroy,whatever the post.

I'm just wondering given the information if Toyota is purposely trying to increase the price of the Solar Package just to curb demand.

While Toyota might abhor "complexity of product offering", I can speak as one consumer and say, I'm frustrated by Toyotas inflexibility in Package Offerings. The large jumps in price, and the take it or leave it, all or nothing, packages..."suck".

 

it does suck, but its a pretty common business practice.

 

It's actually the Nav package. You're just required to get the Nav package to get the SR. I'm not getting the SR and I may still feel the cost increase if my heretofore unknown vehicle had not been manufactured before Aug. 1.

While I'm not happy about the prospect of paying more, in fairness (which is hard to do right now!) to Toyota, they were planning to have the iPod interface and Safety Connect as part of the IV and V Nav package all along.

But still, I am empathetic.

 

My bad...the iPhone and iPod Touch are both supported, despite what the manual says (at least the iPhone 3GS is). I've added a new and improved demo video to my previous post that shows the iPod Touch being used (I also verified that it works with the iPhone).

I tested it with the iPhone last time with the volume on zero! I apologize for the confusion.

 

Did you all notice that slider to the right that indicates the amount of albums the OP had in his collection? Toyota needs to make that slider a little larger so you can put your finger on it and FAST scroll. For example, move that slider half way and you end up with albums starting with the letter N, etc. Make sense? My Alpine aftermarket has a very similar interface to what is being displayed in the video but with the slider that I mentioned. How do we go about suggesting this feature to the Toyota team?

 

3 Interior colors makes it 210 combinations.

 

OK, I take it all back Toyota... Still looks a tad funky. If Apple would get on the stick and support the higher level bluetooth controls, I wouldn't have any interest in the USB. Let us know if there are any lockouts while driving. Thanks.

 

Good question, but someone else is going to have to answer it since I don't use USB drives.

 

This is exactly correct. The newest iPods's support a feature that when you scroll fast enough a big letter comes up and you can jump to a letter then return to scrolling through individual files. So the software calls/programming is there in the iPod, no reason Toyota couldn't build that into a firm/software release which I suspect they will do when enough people bring it up.

 

There are at least 3 simple things that Toyota could do to fix, or at least alleviate the problem:

- Implement switch2mac's slider solution
- Allow fast scrolling by pressing and holding the page up/down buttons (the longer you hold, the faster it should scroll)
- Allow faster scrolling with the File dial

I'm guessing that part of the problem is that the kit does not preload a list of songs/artists/etc. from the iPod but rather fetches them each time you scroll and this is a big part of the delay. It's worth noting that using a flash-based iPod is no faster than using a HDD-based one, and that using the File dial to scroll through 344 songs as quickly as possible took me 70 seconds. This should give you an idea of exactly how useless (and potentially dangerous if you're driving alone) the interface is to navigate through a large collection.