Prius v Two and iPhone 4S

To my knowledge, there shouldn't be problems. Although I do not know if Siri actually works through the car system. One thing that is known is that the Internet linking will not work through the Bluetooth connection for the iPhone.

But since I don't have an iPhone, you can take what I say with a grain a salt.

 

The internet Bluetooth connection will work with the iPhone. You must purchase the "Personal Hotspot Tethering" option from your service provider. About $30 a month from ATT.

So $400 a year for Bluetooth internet or plug the iPhone into the USB port which will provide the Prius internet connection. I had to go the $400 route because Toyota went with a non-standard USB port and the Mophie battery case for the phone causes the undersized USB port to shutdown.

 

On Siri, be interesting (and surprising) if that worked via the handsfree on the Prius. You should try it out first.

 

We couldn't get it to work but didn't try very hard. The steering wheel "off hook" button talks to the radio and not the phone. I don't think that there is an equivalent to holding down the iPhone "home" button to engage Siri.

 

Tethering has absolutely no bearing on how the Prius audio system connects to the internet. You MUST use the Entunes app on your smartphone to allow the car to connect to the internet for Pandora, traffic, Bing, etc... This at least applies to the v3 with the standard Display Audio... I'm not 100% sure about the v5's audio system, but I suspect it would apply as well.

What Keiichi said is correct in my experience with my iPhone 4 (and likely with the iPhone 4S). To use Entunes and allow the car to connect to the internet, you must have the phone connected via USB cable. I have not successfully gotten it to work with a BT connection.

 

Sorry, but as ProximalSuns stated, if you have tethering capability on your iPhone (i.e. paid AT&T their money or use a jailbroken phone), you can use Bluetooth for Internet connection and don't need the Entunes app running or even installed on your iPhone. You authenticate into Entunes through the MFD screen.

If you choose not to pay the extra $20/month to AT&T (for a feature that should be free), then you must use USB and the Entunes app on your iPhone. I have a v3 and an iPhone4 with tethering and my wife has a iPhone4S without tethering.

But this is not what the OP asked about.

 

Sorry, I had no idea the Prius v Entunes system could talk TCP/IP and hop onto the internet with tethering. The way it was explained to me by the dealership was it needed the Entunes app as a middle man protocol to connect to the internet.

But yeah, we digress, this wasn't what the OP was asking, thanks for the heads up though!

 

No worries. It's annoying that Bluetooth tethering works fine with Android but not the iPhone unless you pay the AT&T their ransom. We also tried a jailbroken 3GS with the MyWi app (I think that's the name) installed and it also worked fine with BT tethering.

 

Prius V Two comes with the hands free phone control. Prius V three comes with both hands free phone control & voice commands.

On Prius V two
- play music/podcasts from iPhone to Prius over Bluetooth YES
- able to accept incoming calls using controls on steering wheel YES
- able to use Siri without any limitations with redirection to car's audio: call to numbers, texting, asking about traffic, direction, weather and so on. NO Through Bluetooth But YES through USB and 1/8" audio jack.

Remember, the difference between two & three is $765. Is it worth $765 to have the NAV and Entune? For me, no because I use my iPhone as my Music and Navigation source.

 

1. Tethering provides Bluetooth internet connectivity with a Prius III/Solar/Nav package. This is the 6" nav display.

2. Entunes app is not running on the iPhone.

See 1 and 2 above.

For most folks, I would recommend just using the iPhone/USB internet connection. I only went the extra expense of the $400/yr Personal Hotspot Bluetooth tethering because I use a Mophie Plus battery case which is not compatible with Toyota USB port and I do not want to be bothered taking the phone out of the case every time I want Traffic or Bing interface for the car.

 

What Internet connectivity not running entunes are you talking about. If entune is not running on you iPhone, then Entune is not going to run on a Prius. I'm not aware of any Internet browsing on the Nav display, so please tell us what this (expensive) tethering gives you on your Prius?

I have good Bluetooth connectivity between my Prius v (wagon) 5 w/ ATP and my non-tethering iPad. When I'm running the Entune app on my iPad it provides the Entune on my Prius Internet access via bluetooth to stream music on pandora and search on Bing and I think I checked the weather forecast once.

And now back to the topic "Re: Prius v Two and iPhone 4S"
I found this very enlightening "and music streaming via Bluetooth® wireless technology (Prius v three and five only)" from toyota press release here:
http://priuschat.com/forums/attachm...lease-materials-2012-prius-v-product-info.pdf This would indicate that in Prius v 2 (wagon) you need to plug your iPhone via USB to listen to music that is on your iPhone.

But 12Get12 has a Prius v 2 and posted "play music/podcasts from iPhone to Prius over Bluetooth YES" so I'm unsure again.

 

Traffic, Bing, Weather, Pandora are all running on the Prius.

Entunes is not open on the iPhone.

Since the internet connection is via Personal Hotspot tethering, it may be the Prius accesses the Entunes data services directly via the Bluetooth connection and does not use the iPhone's Entunes app as intermediary.

 

From Nav system owner's manual here:
http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omnav/OM47675U/pdf/08-1.pdf

On the 4th page under information:
“Apps” can only be used when the Entune application has been down- loaded to your cellular phone and the application is running.

In the last bullet under information:
The system uses the connection method that was used last.

Could it be that you used Bluetooth connection last and it is still using Bluetooth even after you tethered. Im still puzzeled that you say Entunes is not open on iphone. Is it running? When I don't have Entune app running on my iPad and I touch "Apps" to run Entune on my Prius I get "To use this service, an active application needs to be running on your phone." When you are using Entune on your Prius tethered to your iPhone, try running off Bluetooth on the iPhone and see what happens (when you have the time).

 

FYI - I have a Droid Bionic, bluetooth on and the Apps screen will do exactly as what Chazz8 says. While I am not using my phone as a 'hotspot', I don't believe it does what you think it does with the Android either.

 

If you pay AT&T for tethering (iPhone users), you can have the radio establish a BT internet connection to your smartphone. The first time you use an Entunes app on the radio, you will be prompted on the MFD screen for your Entunes userid and password. The is taking the place of having the Entunes app running on the phone. The manual you are referencing is describing the normal scenario. Probably a very small percentage of iPhone users choose to pay extra for tethering unless they need it for something else.

My experience is the same as ProximalSun's. If you can Bluetooth tether with your smartphone, you don't need the Entunes app running on your phone. We have an iPhone4 and an iPhone3GS that support tethering and they work fine using Bluetooth Internet. The 3GS doesn't even have the Entunes app installed. My wife's iPhone4S does not have tethering and needs to be plugged in to the USB port and have the Entunes app installed and running on the phone.

 

When connected via USB, I've found you start with Entunes up, but once the "Connected for Internet" pops up on the Prius display, you (or for safety reasons your passenger) can use your phone as usual and the Entunes app does not need to be running as you stated in the foreground.

The tethering concept is interesting, but I guess it makes sense. I might look into jailbreaking my iPhone just for this reason. AT&T doesn't deserve more $$$ from me each month just to use the data that I'm already paying for!

Oh, and the little bit I've used Siri (really it's just a marketing gimmick at this point) seems to be successful. It appeared on the Prius screen as if it were calling my voicemail, but Siri did respond over the car speakers as it normally would over the iPhone speakers. I believe I had it plugged in the one time I tried this.

 

Jailbroken last weekend and successfully tethering to Prius with my iPhone 4S using TetherMe ($4.99 - One time, NOT per month).