Voice of the DBA

Tag: iPhone

  • First Look at Apple Car Play

    I rented a Buick recently, and when I plugged my phone into the USB port to charge, I was surprised to see the CarPlay icon come on. At first I was a little confused, using my phone to navigate to a hotel, but when I could only see written directions, and not a map, I suspected the CarPlay integration had taken over.

    At first I was a bit annoyed, after all, I could see the radio on the car screen, but no map on my phone and navigating was tricky. However once I realized how to change to CarPlay on the car screen, I could access the map there, which was much easier to see than my phone.

    Over a couple days, I experimented with CarPlay, getting and sending texts in the car with Siri, which was much easier than accessing it on my phone, especially for having messages read. Accessing music (native or Spotify) worked well, though there were some limitations with Spotify, such as not being able to easily pick a particular song in a playlist.

    Very few apps were integrated, mostly the native ones with Spotify and Pandora for me. I wish Google Maps were integrated as I like that one better than Apple Maps, but it wasn’t a big issue for me. I suspect that will change over time, especially as more companies put CarPlay in vehicles and developers incorporate the APIs.

    The ergonomics are good, overall, however having to reach and access a touch screen on the dash is a bit cumbersome when you’re driving. Especially when there isn’t tactile feedback. It’s too easy on a touch screen to hit the wrong icon and then have your attention leave the road. I really think that CarPlay will need some hard button integration to really be useful for drivers. The voice access is OK, but I’ve found with road noise and sometimes needing a stiff pronunciation from me, it’s not a great system.

    Overall I’m impressed. I didn’t think much of the idea when it was announced, but having used it, I like what I see. There’s work to be done, but this is one of the best car/phone integrations I’ve seen in terms of working well and also removing temptations for the driver to focus on their phone. I’m hoping that Android Auto works just as well and we find ways to remove some phone distractions in the car.

  • iPhone or Android?

    With the announcement of the iPhone on Verizon, I’m getting ready to switch carriers. I’ve had decent luck with a jailbroken iPhone on T-Mobile, but my coverage is spotty, I’ve been working with the two-gees on an Edge network, and I’m ready to pick something up that’s more modern and powerful.

    I was hoping for an LTE iPhone on Verizon, but that didn’t happen. It might happen with the iPhone 5, but I’m not sure. My guess is Verizon is going to see how their new Android phones work on LTE and gauge capacity first. Then we might see one in the fall.

    So my choices boil down to:

    • iPhone 4 on Verizon (3G)
    • 4G Android on Verizon
    • 4G Android on Spring

    I suppose I should consider a Windows Phone 7 device, but honestly I don’t know that I’ll get the app support I want. To me the differences between iOS and Android are non-existant on the hardware. Sure one phone might be slightly more powerful, but not by a lot. The interfaces are similar, I can get a real keyboard on Android, but the rest is just noise. The marketplace is important, and music sync is something I want.

    I looked around a bit and it seems that music sync is something that could work with Android, and I have a few choices there. So really it’s a question of the various apps I use working on Android. It seems that many of them are either on Android, or there are similar ones. So I could make it work on Android, and I wouldn’t necessarily need to re-invest a lot to move to Android.

    Ultimately I’m not sure that I want to move away from iOS if I don’t gain much. I am definitely leaning towards an iPhone 4, and living with the slower 3G speed. Heck, it will be an upgrade for me in cities, and out near the ranch it won’t matter. No 4G is coming here anytime soon. Half the time we can’t get 3G.

    I saw an interesting article about the iPhone on Verizon and how it’s not their best smartphone. I question if that’s true, since the raw hardware specs don’t mean everything. I have a few weeks to think about it and research a bit, so that’s what I’ll do.