[CDH]

Whatsapp suddenly appeared on CarPlay yesterday. Works reasonably well, a few bugs with notifications, but otherwise a welcome addition.
(Requires WhatsApp 2.18.20)

 

[SpinDoctor Mario]

I'm thinking of dedicating a used iPhone to work primarily as navigation and music source in my Boxster 718. Any drawbacks to doing this (I use an Android Note 9 as my actual phone). Any particular iPhone model I should avoid (i.e. do newer models work better with CarPlay and where's the cutoff)? An iPhone 7 is about $150 on Amazon, a X generation is about $450-500.

 

[DriveInHouston]

I just checked with my iPhone 8.

I have CarPlay and Nav.

I also pay for a data SIM card, so that we can have more than one device connected to the PorscheWLAN.

With these in mind, I turned the iPhone to the Airplane Mode and turned the WiFi on and told it to connect with the Porsche WLAN.

I then connected via wire to the CarPlay and lo and behold I got GoogleMaps (and Waze) with traffic updates via the WiFi.

I postulate that you can use an iPhone 6, or 7 with no SIM card, so that you don't have to have the iOS updates which will make it soon obsolete.

The downside is that CarPlay kills the Bluetooth, so that you cannot get incoming calls from your Android going through the car stereo.

 

[SpinDoctor Mario]

The downside is that CarPlay kills the Bluetooth, so that you cannot get incoming calls from your Android going through the car stereo.

Crud. Okay, so either I'll find an Android phone mount and forego integration or move to iPhone. Ick. Why can't we all just get along (and support iOS and Android). Thanks for the info before I ordered the iPhone.

 

[Barryng]

I'm thinking of dedicating a used iPhone to work primarily as navigation and music source in my Boxster 718. Any drawbacks to doing this?

I use a deicated iPhone 7 permanently in my Boxster. It is a $20/month addition to my "Family Plan" and, except for all the Apple Carplay annoying bugs, works great. It stays charged and, although always very warm, from a hardware only perspective, presents no problems.

For the most part there is no problem but two annoying bugs consistently rear their ugly head and the best I understand these two issues are the result of a buggy Pandora software. In my opinion Pandora just does not consistently play well with Apple Carplay.

First, I too frequently get "Identifier Not Found" when trying to select a Pandora station. Rebooting the phone, disconnecting/connecting the phone, or leaving the car parked for a while seems to resolve whatever the problem is with only partial success. When this happens, Pandora is essentially unusable as messing with the dedicated phone is just not a safe thing to do while driving and I certainly have no desire to stop my drive and park the car for a while just to get Pandora to work. It happens sufficiently frequently to be a real annoyance.

Second, although the dedicated iPhone 7 in the cell phone compartment is obviously a fully functioning phone with its own number, I rarely use it to make calls and I have not given its number to anyone. However, once in a while, I do make a call using it. When I do, more frequently than not, Pandora does not come out of mute when I end the call. I can see the music resume playing because the bar graph and times on the display are changing but just get no audio. One annoying method that sometimes works is to switch to another audio source such as a POD cast or the radio and then back to Pandora but this does not reliably always fix the problem. I also found pushing the wheel hangup button sometimes, but certainly not always, gets the audio back.

There are two reasons I rarely makes calls through the dedicated iPhone. First, the top has to be closed or there is too much noise to hear and be heard and, except for rain and the hottest summer months, the top is almost always open. Second, people have generally stopped answering calls (due to the many robocalls) unless they recognize the number so and nobody answers calls from this phone because I have never given the number to anyone.

Overall, using a dedicated iPhone is the only practical solution for me to facilitate using Pandora, the Apple Carplay app I almost always use. Plugging in/out my iPhone XS is just not something I can easily do everytime I get in/out of the car due to back issues. So both for convenience and practicality, in my opinion, even with less than reliable performance, a dedicated phone is the only real solution and will work well enough (barely) to make it worth it.

I am curious to know if the wireless systems, such as BMW uses, is more reliable than our hard wired system. I also wish Pandora would get off their butts and fix the thing so it works reliably with Apple Carplay.

 

[DriveInHouston]

@Barryng how do you deal with your personal phone when it rings? You have no BT connection and CarPlay will only play with the CarPhone.

Initially I did have a different number for the iPhone and kept my original number in the Android. My wife and son had my car number, but they never used it. They always called my Android and had no way to respond. Eventually I gave in and made the iPhone my personal phone and car phone.

 

[Barryng]

@Barryng how do you deal with your personal phone when it rings? You have no BT connection and CarPlay will only play with the CarPhone.

Good question. I use a Plantronics Voyager 5200 Bluetooth earpiece connected to my "real" iPhone XS that is always with me. It would be nice to not have to wear it but it is the only practical solution I have to fascilitate making and receiving calls. I could forward the XS number to the phone in the car but I would have to forward/unforward everytime I get in/out of the car and that easily exceeds the effort I am willing to go to to stay in touch. Since my Boxster is my daily driver it is a lot easier to just leave the earpiece on while I am driving. At high speed with the top open it is impossible to hear any telephone call voice through either system so I then just take the earpiece off and stay out of touch for however long I am driving. Surprisingly their is no associated anxiety staying out of touch. I am very tempted to buy the wireless Bluetooth adapter someone referenced elsewhere but its expense is too great for something I do not have confidence in.