New Toyota Accessory Kit for iPod / iPhone $299

A bit more info on Toyota's adapter (again while using the iPhone (2G) in our 2009 Prius.

The ipod's music will mute when a call comes in (as expected) which is good. Music comes back on when the call ends (although I wasn't paying attention enough to tell if the music resumed from a paused state, or whether the music was playing through the entire conversation but was simply muted).... will let you know...

 

I have questions for the new owners of the Toyota 09 ipod/iphone accessory kit:

1- Can you change songs, playlists, etc from the MFD while in motion?
2- Can you change playlists using the steering wheel?
3- Does it reorder the songs you put in a playlist to alphabetical?

 

I just bought my Prius yesterday, 2009, and it came with the iPod kit and I am extremely dissappointed so far. I have an iPhone and when you plug in your iPhone it says the device is not campatible with iPhone. It charges the phone and you can play your music from it however, you can't see your playlists, songs, artists, albums, etc. on the navigation screen. You can press a button and it shows you what current song is playing, but who cares about that when all you can do is shuffle and can't see any of your music.

The other problem is that I can't see my contacts from my iPhone on the navigation screen. And as far as I know, it is not even possible to pull your contacts from your iPhone into your Prius address book unless you enter them by hand.

The iPod/iPhone accessory is in the glove compartment, which would be fine if everything on the phone was visible on the navigation system, but it is not. So while it is hooked up to the accessory, you can't reach your phone to make calls or to look at the songs, playlists, albums, etc. on your phone.

Ugh, am I making sense?

If anyone has any ideas about how the accessory can work with the iPhone, please let me know.

 

Supply picture if you can!

 

omg, you can see your songs from your iphone 3g on the nav screen? Can you see your contacts too?

I just bought my '09 prius yesterday with the feature installed and when i plug in my iphone is says the device is not compatible.

it charges the phone but i can't see any of the songs on my nav screen nor the contacts.

how did you get it to work?

 

I have also this iPod kit in my new prius.
When i put in the connector the iPhone says it only works in airplane mode.

Everything is working fine then.
I see the Album, Tracks and artists.

Only problem i have is, that i only see 6 cd's.
But there are over 100 on my device.

Anyone knows how to select or see my other cd's on the device?

Tnx

 

Ibby, the cd's most likely indicate your different search options like "by artist", "by album", ect...

So I am very curious if anyone has figured out all the options on their Toyota version of the iphone hookup. After getting frustrated with the dealer at wanting to sell a $299 installed MSRP item for $299 parts and $150+ installation, I went to the guy who has done a few other custom stereo installs for me.

He recommended the "Vais Tech Ipod interface for Toyota" item # SL21up. $355 out the door.

It works basically flawless. 6 search options, steering wheel control, shows playlist/album and songname. The only problem is in file mode, none of the titles show up. It's like when you enter a cd with no title names.

The installer is calling the manufacturer in the morning to see if he has an answer. But my question is... Does the toyota OEM one work better than this? Can you list the titles in file mode like you can with a cd?

If it does, I will have the guy pull this one out and throw a fit at the dealer to give me at least the listed price.

 

You can get the DICE Electronics I-Toyota-R from the DICE electronics website or from the priuschat shop and it will charge the iPhone.

The website only goes up to 2008 but I know it will work for the 2009.

 

Hmn. I'm not really happy with my DICE. From what I've read of the VAIS solution I'm not really impressed with it either. So far this Toyota effort seems to fall short.
Best thing I've seen have been 3rd party head units with iPod integration, many of them come in under $200 too. Spend a little more for included Bluetooth, Satelite, HD radio, etc. I think I may have to start looking seriously in that direction.

- D

 

Hi Don,
I would really like to see if I can help you with your DICE kit.

We are very committed to making sure all of our customers are happy with our products.

Please call our tech support at 888 DICE 999.

Or you can pm me.

 

If you have an iPHONE, I highly recommend you ask your dealer about "BLU LOGIC" which is also a $299 option from Toyota. Once "paired" with your iPhone, it automatically connects to the iPhone everytime you start your Toyota (um, assuming you have your iPhone in the car) for hands-free calling, including voice dialing, AND full ipod functionality (e.g. high-quality hi-fidelity music through your stereo).

Note: BLU logic plays through your stereo, but bypasses your stereo's controls, including volume. BluLogic has it's own volume control on the dash. Other functions are controlled from the iPhone.

I have both features in my FJ Criuiser, and as best I can gather, the iPod option discussed in this thread, works for IPOD functionality, but disables PHONE functionality on the iPhone. That option would be useful for someone who wants to put an IPOD with however many GB worth of music in the glovebox and let it "live" there. Sound quality is excellent using either option.

Neither option is well explained in any Toyota documentation that I've been able to find, which is why I bought bouth (in hopes of one or the other being what I wanted). In my case, I could have saved $300 by just going with the BLU Logic option, since, with my iPhone, I don't practically need the other.