So, I may have a car in the near future. I have an iPhone 4. I’d like to use it as a navigation aid; I found several apps for that, plus dashboard mounts. I can also plug it in for charging.
What I’m wondering is about other audio integration, especially the phone. Can I use it to control the car’s stereo? Everything I’ve seen seems to point to some stereos being able to control the iPhone.
What about receiving phone calls? Can I have a mic connected and have the phone’s audio on the stereo? I do not want to take my hands off the wheel. Should I just have all calls go to voicemail while I drive?
My car (2007) has the “bluetooth” option. This allows me to use any bluetooth enabled device with my car. I can make and answer calls while driving without taking my hands off the wheel.
If you want to plug your mp3 device directly to your car, I believe (as of 2007) that this is a separate option than bluetooth, and won’t control your phone.
A GPS unit works independently of the car and only uses the DC plug.
Handsfree Bluetooth is available on a wide variety of vehicles these days and will allow you to make calls without using your hands. You will have to push a button to answer the phone, but this is usually located on the steering wheel.
iPod/iPhone ready cars are less common but not unheard of. My vehicle (2009 Infiniti G37) has an iPod connection in the center console that allows me to control the iPod function of my phone from my stereo, but the phone calls are still routed through the Bluetooth.
So you’re really looking for two different features. In some vehicles, the bluetooth stereo feature of the iPhone may be available, but it is even less common.
The iPhone has GPS and supports navigation apps; I think routing its voice prompts to the car’s stereo would be similar to routing music playback. It would be easier to do the car controls iPhone music playback then.
(I don’t even know what kind of stereo the car has; I’m assuming the factory unit. Which in a five-plus-year-old car probably doesn’t do any of this.
Is it possible to retrofit the button to answer the phone? We’re talking about a used car here. It might be easier to forgo the phone capability while I drive…
Oh, I was under the impression you were going to be shopping for a vehicle and not getting a predetermined vehicle. In that case you will probably need to buy a new stereo that supports both handsfree bluetooth AND iPod controls.
Here is a model at Best Buy which is iPod and Bluetooth capable (requires additional adapters).
My car (2011 Kia Sorento) has Bluetooth that allows me to answer and talk on the phone wirelessly, all the audio from my iPhone 3G is also routed through my stereo and can be heard wirelessly if I press the button for it on my stereo.
Hmm, I would recommend against going with an aftermarket bluetooth device, but rather pick one based on manufacturer options. The reason is that more and more places are requiring hands-free operation of cell-phones while driving, and it’s much harder to get an aftermarket stereo with integrated controls in the steering wheel.
While I’d like to be able to get a car to match my phone, I don’t quite have the budget for it.
So I’ve been digging around on Kromer Radio’s site (Kromer is a well-known Toronto installer), and looking at verious options. I found, for example, this Bluetooth-enabled receiver, which can apparently control a phone. Presumably it has an external microphone and passes phone audio to the car sound system.
Here are the Ontario rules regarding “distracted driving”. Looks like controlling the iPhone audio from the car’s controls is a must.
Dalton says that any device for navigation must be mounted in dash. The fuzz can give you a large fine if you have it mounted after market style with the suction cup gripper.
Even though you are only using it for both the GPS and the ipod music app, you could be having to explain that no, you are not texting and you have this jawbone bluetooth gizmo for hands off operations.
Other than that, if you purchase an aftermarket stereo deck, that has the bluetooth symbol, enquire if it comes with the actual transmitter. When I got the 3g , this is what i was advised on.
Lastly, keep an eye on what the iPhone currently supports out of the box. OS 3 point something was the update that enabled some bluetooth functions that were advertised at launch, and OS four point something will be a patch to fix the iPhone 4’s BT capabilities.
Eh? The link I provided says only that it has to be mounted securely and not touched while driving. I was thinking of using a mount like one of these, not a suction-cup mount.
