Have iPhone... Do I really need Entune?

I am just wondering how many out there have a new Prius V with Entune and currently own an iPhone 4 or 4s. If so, is Entune really necessary?

I mean, I can do everything with my iPhone (plus about a thousand other things) than I could do with Entune. And my wife can do all of them while I drive (or vice-versu).

I mean really... what's the point?

For when you are driving in your car and your wife isn't there and you probably shouldn't be futzing around with your phone while driving and you want to know whether you should call your stockbroker to buy 100,000 shares of AAPL because the stock just plunged in value due to some European debt crisis but first you have to know the score of the big game at the half because you had a huge bet on it in Vegas and if you didn't win the bet you won't be liquid enough to buy 100,000 shares of AAPL?

Added convenience and safety. It's safer than surfing your iPhone while driving anyway.

Do you need entune? Not unless you consider the ipod browse/audio controls to be a part of Entune (and I do NOT).

I finally found one useful thing about Entune today: use Bing to find a particular business, save the business as a "saved destination" then go to said saved destination in the nav.

Honestly though, I hate that I can't just type an address into the saved destination list on myentune.com. Totally silliness.

The stock & traffic features of entune don't require an iphone.

Peter+

On the Display Nav system, it rely on the iphone for all Entune "app" features {stocks,traffic etc}

I am pretty underwhelmed by Entune so far. Basically all it does is to allow the car main display to serve as a remote screen for the app running on your smartphone. It has the feel of a solution in search of a problem at this point. Perhaps more compelling apps will come along at some point.

It appears that you need to have the Entune app running on your phone for the Entune features to work on the car screen - this seems like a nuisance to me.

Also, on my Prius v 3, I need to use the USB cable for Entune to work with my iPhone4. There is apparently some quirk of Bluetooth that prevents it from working over Bluetooth. I am told that this problem does not exist in the premium Nav unit that you get with the AT package.

Does anyone know if they are working on the iPhone/USB/Bluetooth issue? Is this an Apple issue? App issue? Entune issue?

If you have the iPhone 4s, you can plug in via the USB and get what you need. I have Siri do my voice commands. I can browse my music (and listen to it once you disconnect the blue tooth). I can make my calls from the screen or via voice command.

When driving you shouldn’t be looking down at that screen to check movie times and such. It is just as dangerous as using your phone. I have my iphone on the dash as well as a Garmin GPS (in the small corner window so I don’t have to really look away from the road).

I've posted this elsewhere, but you may be interested in David Pogue's NY Times article in which he comments on his new Prius V, Entune and his iPhone 4S.

Can you provide a link to that article please?

Thanks

The Prius V and Its Entune System - NYTimes.com

i have a droid with voice activated features that do much the same as entune but to have the integration into the car is a much nicer feature. even with voice control, the droid still requires me to hold it to speak to it.

having it all in the car is a great advantage

it does exist and the issue is being addressed. should be fixed shortly if not already? there is reports of an entune update available now

DragonflyDM ; I use all you have mentioned plus the waze gps <free app> and every thing works perfectly. You might want to look at waze as it connects you with other wazers in the area and warns of things like trash in the road , stalled cars along side the road , and of course police locations. I also use iPhone 4s, don't know how it would work with anything else. Happy motoring.. J.O.

Entune works fine over bluetooth with an iPhone 4. You just need a plan with personal hotspot. You don't even need the app running on your phone.

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...108561-david-pogue-ny-times-bought-prius.html

No, it isn't a quirk of Bluetooth and it isn't a Toyota or Apple issue. If your carrier (AT&T/Verizon/?) permits tethering or you purchased the their tethering option, then it will work just like you expect it should. I paid AT&T for tethering for my iPhone4, set up Bluetooth pairing for Internet access, and enter my Entunes account information on the radio (Display Audio with Nav) screen and all of the "features" work. I don't even have the Entunes app installed on my iPhone.

so it only works with a $20/month option? that would be a bummer

So far that is the only legal option. If Toyota can modify the app to be able to communicate via BT to the car and sort of side-step things, I think that would be possible though the carriers may demand that Apple block the app from the store. There have been a couple of apps released over the years then pulled within days or hours because they allowed tethering without purchasing the tethering option from the carrier.

Another option, although I am not recommending it, is "jailbreaking" your iPhone and installing MyWi, which is one of those tethering programs. According to AT&T, this is a violation of your terms of service (tethering not jailbreaking). We tried it on an 3GS and it works fine on our v3.

That does not make sense. It works on a Droid then it must be something other than cellular data restrictions since neither Verizon or ATT policyon tethering polocy differs between the two platforms