Pioneer's AppRadioLIVE turns its car stereos into multi-media masters

Pioneer’s AppRadioLIVE turns its car stereos into mobile media masters

In advance of CE Week in New York –where connected car technology is expected to be the toast of the show– Pioneer has announced a new iOS app called AppRadioLIVE, which essentially converts the company’s AppRadio-enabled touchscreen infotainment systems into full-on multimedia masters.

Developments in car infotainment systems have shifted into high gear over the past few months. Apple’s Carplay and its upcoming implementation in aftermarket systems from Pioneer and Alpine promises an iPad-like experience in the car. And anticipated reveals regarding “Android in the Car” coming from the Google I/O event suggests the Android OS is very much in the race to offer something similar. But AppRadioLIVE appears to offer more than just a replacement for the stock operating system that comes with your car stereo. Rather, it will serve to aggregate a number of apps available on the iPhone into a single, customizable screen, providing instant access to a user’s most valued content.

AppRadioLive is essentially an evolution on an existing technology available to owners of Pioneer’s an AppRadio or AppRadio Mode in-dash receivers. Currently, users can interact with iPhone apps like Pandora directly from their car stereo’s touchscreen when a compatible iPhone is connected, but they can only do so one app at a time. With the AppRadio Live application, several of these compatible apps will be brought together on one screen, providing the driver with single glance access to music, events, traffic, weather, and news information.

The following is a feature breakdown from Pioneer’s statement which explains how already included services will be further enhanced through AppRadio Live. For example, rather than use Pioneer’s built-in navigation system which has no access to real-time traffic, drivers will have access to navigation apps that provide real-time traffic data and dynamically adjust routing options based on that traffic.

Dig in below to learn more, and be sure to check out the gallery above to see what the new system looks like in action.

From Pioneer:

Mapping

AppRadioLIVE’s map feature provides access to a map with INRIX live traffic data including traffic flow and incidents information. AppRadioLIVE makes it easy to obtain an estimated time of arrival (ETA) to various destinations such as home, work or a specified destination. Within the same interface, users can quickly find popular points of interest with reviews delivered from Yelp and receive information about concerts and other nearby events delivered by Eventseeker^®. The AppRadioLIVE map feature also allows destinations to be exported directly into any of the user’s favorite AppRadio compatible navigations apps, such as iGo Primo^®, MotionX GPS Drive^®, Navfree^® or Waze^® to obtain route and voice guidance.

Media

AppRadioLIVE provides access to a variety of audio content from music to podcasts, and even Internet radio. Users have quick access and control over the music stored on their iPhone devices and also have access to streamed content through services like Stitcher, offering more than 25,000 on demand radio shows and podcasts, Rdio^®, one of the largest music streaming services in the world with over 25 million songs available³, and Pioneer aggregated Internet Radio with access to several hundred pure play stations, sorted by genre.

News Information

With Feedly^®, AppRadioLIVE consumers can stay up-to-date on the latest news topics that matter most to them. The service enables customizable RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds to be read back using a high quality text-to-speech engine. Open Weather Map is also built-in giving users access to up-to-date 5-day weather forecasts for locations including their home, work, and destination when a route is set.

Calendar Events

AppRadioLIVE keeps consumers organized and informed by accessing the user’s iPhone calendar and Facebook events and delivering this information through a single, simple interface. Eventseeker can also update the user’s calendar view with information about nearby activities such as concerts, sporting events and more. AppRadioLIVE provide users the ability to view all of their activities in chronological order or in a quick snapshot with a timeline view.

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