“After the technology made its debut at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January, Alpine has now put the iLX-107 on sale, which is the first Apple CarPlay receiver with support for wireless connectivity,” Agence France-Presse reports.
“So, if your car’s audio system doesn’t support CarPlay but you use an iPhone,” AFP reports, “you no longer have to wait for your manufacturer to do an update or buy another car to enjoy the full level of connectivity.”
“The Alpine iLX-107 receiver is compatible with the iPhone 5 onwards, and allows CarPlay to be accessed through the touch screen as well as by Siri voice control,” AFP reports. “The best thing is that there’s no need to connect a cable as the receiver simply connects your phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Look, ma, no wires! Finally!
I used to want wireless CarPlay in my car. A lot! But then I got Air Pods, and they’re absolutely perfect for the car (and everywhere else). In almost every way they’re much better than using my car stereo system.
If I were to buy a new car and it came with wireless CarPlay, I’d probably use it now and then, and enjoy it.
But, I’m not going to spend $900 on wireless CarPlay when my Air Pods are awesome!
On a side note. Before the Air Pods came out, I had other high end bluetooth headphones I would use. (Jay Birds Blue Buds, if you are curious.) They are considered high-end bluetooth headphones, but for 95% of my use cases, the Air Pods blow them away. If you don’t have Air Pods, just order some today. You’ll thank me later.
Totally agree, just bought new bmw with wireless CarPlay and it works well, the big advantage is CP uses GPS signal from car not phone. Obviously this is redacted from spec sheets, ads, etc, but apple maps respond so much quicker and greater accuracy. Nevertheless hearing directions through an intimate non-obstructive voice inside your ear takes much stress out of anticipating directions. Bad news airpods do not work when carplay is active, wish the automotive lawyers could figure this out, what happens with apple glasses for example?
Is it possible to have multiple audio devices connected simultaneously to the same device via bluetooth? If not maybe there can be an option on CarPlay to select your audio ‘destination’ device. Saying that however I wonder what would happen if you wanted to listen to the radio and you had your Airpods selected. Would you be the only person in the car able to enjoy the station?
Driving with AirPods on is reckless as hell.
Agreed, another example of foolishness.
I sort of doubt many state police have caught up with wireless in-earphones. But my sense is that they’re just as illegal as regular headphones while driving. Being able to hear sounds from outside the car at all times is a requirement.
IOW: Check with your local and state police before using them.
I even see idiots on bicycles without helmets doing this, natural selection running its course.
We regularly have bike riders pretending they’re pedestrians, either riding on sidewalks or better yet, riding in the street TOWARD oncoming traffic. Helmet? Pedestrians don’t wear helmets.
The challenge while driving around here is to not be the inexorable force that enacts natural selection. Even stupid can file a spurious lawsuit.
I see that where I’m living too. There should be a law requiring bike riders to dismount and walk their bikes in crosswalks or sidewalks. If they are in the road you must consider yourself a vehicle and follow the same rules.
It’s common for bike riders around here to entirely ignore street lights and stop signs. If they see an opportunity, they just go. Sometimes I swear such people are looking to get hit so they can collect off someone’s liability insurance. Either that or they’re just plain…
That’s worse than here. I feel for you. Hopefully it won’t get that bad anytime soon here. A new bike sharing program “Biku” just started here a month ago.
The fellow who wanted to start a bike sharing program here recently was hired by New York City, where he will be attempting the same. *sigh*
The person riding a bike against traffic without a helmet yesterday was a kid of maybe 12. *double*sigh*
There is a specially made bike bypass next to the Stanford golf course where the road narrows (no bike lane). Bicyclists ignore it 90% of the time of course. The guard rail was mangled there more than once. The police could stop this easily, maybe ticketing bicyclists is less lucrative than drivers?
*sigh* Bicyclists are lucky to have special lanes and paths/bypasses just for them!
I believe the key is education. Where you have lots of people together at one time is at schools and public meetings.
It’s more common to have police ticket bicyclists around universities that have a lot of bicycling students, or rather to have the university police do it. I also remember champaigns where you could have your bike registered and physically stamped with an ID. Then if it was stolen (very common where I live) the real bike owner is easily identified and notified when the bike is found or offered to a pawn broker, etc. The program definitely cut down on robberies.
Unfortunately there’s an ideological aspect to it, many bicyclists consider themselves superior to drivers (even if they themselves drive their car to point X to go bicycling). Bicyclist on motorist attacks are a common occurence in San Francisco, especially during “Critical Mass” events.
🙁
That could explain why some bicyclists think it’s ok to switch between riding on the sidewalk and entering traffic mid-crosswalk.
or blowing through stop signs and signal lights, riding 2-3 abreast outside the bike lane onto the road, not using hand signals when turning, not checking blind spots, not having lights or even reflectors at night, etc.
VW was ready to demo wireless CarPlay at CES in January, but Apple told them not to. Neither ever gVe an explanation as to why.
Hopefully we will get a SW update to enable it .
If I were to guess… Apple has an agreement with Alpine that they get to be the first to release it.
I too hope that the VW I JUST bought has a SW upgrade to enable wireless CarPlay
The VW system works well wirelessly with iPhones even without CarPlay. The voice assistant is also more accurate in understanding speech than Siri.
VWs OEM is QNX based as is Audi, also part of VW.
Could never buy a product from a company cheating at the level VW does. Stunning.
Ever consider what else they cheated at that hasn’t been found yet?
I’ve got wired CarPlay and the sound quality is horrible for both music and calls. It was one of the reasons that I bought this car. Switch to Bluetooth and everything sounds much better, not just for me but also for the person on the other end of the phone call.
Not all CarPlay is created equal. The best implementation I’ve seen with it by far, albeit wired, is with Volvo.
They have a center dash set up that looks like a vertical iPad (much like the Tesla), but they really focused on UI/UE and how people would want to use the car’s IS and CarPlay at the same time.
Sadly, for other reasons, we went with Mercedes instead.
The Mercedes allows for Bluetooth, wired CarPlay, and wired iPod, all of which work with the iPhone. CarPlay/iPod sound the same and slightly better than Bluetooth (you have to really push it).
Anyway, I’m surprised by your findings. CarPlay/iPod wired should be sending a non-transcoded digital audio signal, where as Bluetooth would be a transcoded one with quality loss in the transcoding. That’s not to say that you’re wrong, but rather something is going on in the DAC/amp of your system that’s treating Bluetooth better for some reason.
Ha, what car is that, because my experience is the exact opposite. My 2016 Volt sounds much better with CarPlay than thru Bluetooth.
The VW version is excellent and has been out a long time.
The Alpine player is limited pretty much to CarPlay only. No SD card inputs, etc.. A non-starter for me. I am reasonably happy with my Pioneer NEX unit if it only just had a wireless connection to my iPhone I’d be pretty happy. The sound system itself in my Forester is the best one I’ve ever had that came from a manufacturer.
I’m not sure how this would work with a “modern car” at all. I don’t know about you, but we have a 2013 VW Touareg and a 2016 Subaru Legacy. The spot where an aftermarket screen like this would go it where the current one is AND they control so much of the car itself with settings and configuration of vehicle controls, maintenance, lighting in the VW, entry & exit/lock settings, etc. I just don’t see how you put one of these things in a newer car? In an older vehicle with a standard FM stereo/CD player, sure, but not newer cars. Argh, I wish there were upgrades for these.
This is why Toyota cars suck!
With the integration of Handoff, it should now be possible to start your trip in one car and finish it in another.
ENCRYPTED Wi-Fi I hope! The source article mentions nothing on the subject of security. In these days of worthless crap IoT (Internet of Trash) devices, we have come to expect device security to be entirely ignored. I hope that is not the case here. I suspect Apple would get it right, but verification is required.
Easy to Install! Duct tape and double stick tape right over your existing infotainment center! Viola!
I don’t see the point of wireless CarPlay. I am so happy to be able to recharge my phone while driving. So until contactless charging is implemented I don’t see the point.
I can’t drive a car without CarPlay anymore.