So, after hearing all the negativity, I finally gave it a slight workout this past week. While it's definitely no iOS/Android device, it wasn't that bad.
Observations:
iPhone music streaming works, but isn't always intuitive as to how it works. I connected to my gf's iPhone 5 and started playing music. We then wanted to play music via Spotify instead but while it showed the song and album art once opening the Spotify app, it didn't play the audio stream. I then unplugged it, had her start Spotify, then connected it again. Voila -- Spotify working perfectly and could be controlled from the iPhone or IRIS. I didn't try all the different possibilities some I'm not sure if there is some order or issues with switching sources in the iPhone itself which doesn't totally jive with IRIS without reconnecting.
I was actually shocked that it worked and really didn't expect it to, but had the urge to try after someone reported that the Sirius App worked.
Accessing music on her iPhone worked as well with no hiccups.
I don't have a micro-USB cable for my Galaxy Nexus right now, but I'll get one tomorrow and see how that works. I don't expect it to be as seamless and well integrated as iOS, but who knows.
My experience with the iPhone made me look at this whole IRIS/smartphone integration thing from a different angle. The fact that I got album art and functionality from the iPhone itself, Spotify, and Sirius makes me wonder what we can really expect from this system, or any system really, as far as non-iOS integration. I have a feeling that there is probably some rigid API for iOS that everyone uses and that makes all these things interact consistently. I'm less hopeful when it comes to Android. There are so many different versions and devices that I have my doubts as to just how good it will/could be.
I also wonder if stuff will just stop working. It's probably tedious enough to keep integration working well when iOS/Android are changing, let alone individual apps changing their programming and functionality all the time. I mean, there are no shortage of comments/reviews that say "this app doesn't work on my HTC whetever," or "crashes on my iPhone 4S." Should we all just find a working device, download all the working apps we can, turn off automatic updates, and just leave it in the car till we sell it?
I think the best we can hope for is that there are standards for certain features that everyone follows and that will work universally for a while. Whether there is or not, I don't know. I'll have to ask my mobile developer friends about that.
Anyways...
Navigation worked fine for a while, but at one point the location was incorrect and not updating the distance to the turn, causing me to miss it. Obviously that shouldn't happen, but it wasn't the end of the world and could live with it. Eventually it recalculated the route or maybe I just restarted the route; i forget. Nowhere near as good as Google Maps or dedicated GPS units, but it worked good enough.
The touch sensors sensitivity would definitely be improved, but it wasn't terrible. It sometime required a harder press than expected.
Touch accuracy could be improved as well. Not sure if it's the case, but I found accuracy worse in some areas than others. The EWRSAD area of the keyboard gave me some accuracy issues, though it's not like I am 100% using a phone either, so hard to say if it was just me or the device. I'm leaning more towards the device though.
Overall I'm OK with it. I really only listen to music, and only occasionally use navigation, both of which it did OK with for the most part. Could it be better? Yes. Is it still better than every other system I've used in cars? Yes. I don't change cars enough to have experience with all the latest and greatest every year, so as far as I'm concerned it's better than anything I've ever used in-dash.
That said, I have very high expectations and huge amounts of hate for OEM systems, IRIS included, given the sheer power and ease of use of pretty much every phone in the last few years. It seems ridiculous to pay thousands of dollars for something less useful than a $99 phone.
I'll have to see what changes are made to the new version. I'd love to see Android implementation, but I wonder what that would mean for iOS, and vice versa. I've never really thought about that till now, but I'm thinking that expecting solid integration across both types of devices might just not be in the cards. No idea how licensing works or how easy/possible it is to get good integration for both Android/iOS. If it comes down to solid functionality for one, and limited for the other, I'm inclined to believe that McLaren will go for more feature-full iOS integration while viewing Android devices more like flash drives with music.
Guess we'll have to wait and see. I'll test my Nexus integration tomorrow.
Observations:
iPhone music streaming works, but isn't always intuitive as to how it works. I connected to my gf's iPhone 5 and started playing music. We then wanted to play music via Spotify instead but while it showed the song and album art once opening the Spotify app, it didn't play the audio stream. I then unplugged it, had her start Spotify, then connected it again. Voila -- Spotify working perfectly and could be controlled from the iPhone or IRIS. I didn't try all the different possibilities some I'm not sure if there is some order or issues with switching sources in the iPhone itself which doesn't totally jive with IRIS without reconnecting.
I was actually shocked that it worked and really didn't expect it to, but had the urge to try after someone reported that the Sirius App worked.
Accessing music on her iPhone worked as well with no hiccups.
I don't have a micro-USB cable for my Galaxy Nexus right now, but I'll get one tomorrow and see how that works. I don't expect it to be as seamless and well integrated as iOS, but who knows.
My experience with the iPhone made me look at this whole IRIS/smartphone integration thing from a different angle. The fact that I got album art and functionality from the iPhone itself, Spotify, and Sirius makes me wonder what we can really expect from this system, or any system really, as far as non-iOS integration. I have a feeling that there is probably some rigid API for iOS that everyone uses and that makes all these things interact consistently. I'm less hopeful when it comes to Android. There are so many different versions and devices that I have my doubts as to just how good it will/could be.
I also wonder if stuff will just stop working. It's probably tedious enough to keep integration working well when iOS/Android are changing, let alone individual apps changing their programming and functionality all the time. I mean, there are no shortage of comments/reviews that say "this app doesn't work on my HTC whetever," or "crashes on my iPhone 4S." Should we all just find a working device, download all the working apps we can, turn off automatic updates, and just leave it in the car till we sell it?
I think the best we can hope for is that there are standards for certain features that everyone follows and that will work universally for a while. Whether there is or not, I don't know. I'll have to ask my mobile developer friends about that.
Anyways...
Navigation worked fine for a while, but at one point the location was incorrect and not updating the distance to the turn, causing me to miss it. Obviously that shouldn't happen, but it wasn't the end of the world and could live with it. Eventually it recalculated the route or maybe I just restarted the route; i forget. Nowhere near as good as Google Maps or dedicated GPS units, but it worked good enough.
The touch sensors sensitivity would definitely be improved, but it wasn't terrible. It sometime required a harder press than expected.
Touch accuracy could be improved as well. Not sure if it's the case, but I found accuracy worse in some areas than others. The EWRSAD area of the keyboard gave me some accuracy issues, though it's not like I am 100% using a phone either, so hard to say if it was just me or the device. I'm leaning more towards the device though.
Overall I'm OK with it. I really only listen to music, and only occasionally use navigation, both of which it did OK with for the most part. Could it be better? Yes. Is it still better than every other system I've used in cars? Yes. I don't change cars enough to have experience with all the latest and greatest every year, so as far as I'm concerned it's better than anything I've ever used in-dash.
That said, I have very high expectations and huge amounts of hate for OEM systems, IRIS included, given the sheer power and ease of use of pretty much every phone in the last few years. It seems ridiculous to pay thousands of dollars for something less useful than a $99 phone.
I'll have to see what changes are made to the new version. I'd love to see Android implementation, but I wonder what that would mean for iOS, and vice versa. I've never really thought about that till now, but I'm thinking that expecting solid integration across both types of devices might just not be in the cards. No idea how licensing works or how easy/possible it is to get good integration for both Android/iOS. If it comes down to solid functionality for one, and limited for the other, I'm inclined to believe that McLaren will go for more feature-full iOS integration while viewing Android devices more like flash drives with music.
Guess we'll have to wait and see. I'll test my Nexus integration tomorrow.