Entunes Apps Question

I don't see any value in entune at all. And Pandora only plays music "similar" to what I like (according to their web site, anyway). What am I missing? I just don't "get" these two things.

 

According to Toyota Entune website

All apps are available on Premium HDD Navigation with Entune.

iHeartRadio, Opentable, Movietickets.com will be available Spring 2012 at no charge on Display Audio with Navigation and Entuneâ„¢.

 

The point of Entune, it seems, is to provide other things for drivers. For instance, OpenTable is sort of a little more 'helpful' way to help locate a place to eat. From what I saw of the OpenTable, it tends to be for more upscale type restaurants or ones that made an effort to register themselves to the OpenTable website.

Movietickets.com, again, more of a situation for people who want to look for movie theaters and movies as well as purchase them before you reach the theater.

iHeartRadio is more for tuning in on radios outside of your usual local areas.

Bing is just for general search.

Strangely enough, I think it was setup to be convenience for people to access things without whipping out the phone as well as probably link it to the nav so you can get directions to where you need to.

Just a guess on my part.

 

Basically, Entune just tries to be a convenience by bringing Bing, Pandora, sports, weather, etc. on the larger screen on the dash. There seems to be nothing that I couldn't already see on my phone's screen. I like it for Bing, but I wish Toyota would have included Google. I wonder how far Toyota can extend this. Could they possibly show video from youtube, etc.?

 

There is a lot of hype about entune. I am a little upset about the greyed out non avaialble "features" on my cheap 30K non ATP car. I cannot find one reason I would ever pay for it. I hope Toyota is reading this forum because it is the ONLY thing I am not 100% satisfied with in this car.

 

I agree. I was told they'll be available in Spring 2012. I just want Bluetooth data and I will settle down. W

 

I agree with this post 100%. I couldn't write it better.

 

Couldnt agree more. Everything Entune does, apps on the Iphone do better, with much better designed UI's . You cannot operate Entune while the car is in motion. If you do pull over/stop, why would you want to mess with the car screen when its easier to just do it directly on the iPhone?
The point seems a bit antiquated.

It seems to be the weakest link in an otherwise really sweet hitech car!

 

There is a new update for entunes in the app store. I haven't checked it out yet.

 

I grabbed the update but don't see any obvious changes. No new apps at least. W

 

Yeah. I'm sitting in the car wondering what enhancements they are talking about. Nothing to see here.

 

I hope it is connecting to Internet through bt now. Can't wait to test it first thing tomorrow morning.

 

Nope. No luck. Couldn't resist and went out to test it and it is still not working through bt. Had to connect it through USB. Not sure what updates were made.

 

Me neither. They made it sound like we were getting some kind of enhancement.

 

Someone in the app store wrote a review that it is now working over bluetooth with iphone 4s. I tried with my wife's iphone 4s and it still did not work. .. If only they would mention the list of enhancements they made with this..

 

Main functionality of Entunes is linking internet search (Bing) to nav and phone.

Entunes also provides a traffic link for the nav both display and re-rourting.

Those are useful applications.

Pandora ads a music option for a radio to create your own "channels". That's popular with a lot of people and an alternative to subscription XM.

OpenTable is for making reservations but that is not typically done if you were driving to the place. Mostly done prior to driving and social networking the reservation and reminders to those attending. Bing search and a hands free call would make more sense in the car vs. OpenTable.

So overall Entunes is a good concept and execution, Traffic, search/nav and search/call work well.