Carplay and Android Auto coming soon? Crossing fingers...

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Yes the cx-5 looks good doesn't it.
Not just stuck up like a after thought.

Yikes. Is that the CX-5 version? The Mazda3 version (2014 to present) looks like this:

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If these stuck on there screens, don't work as you would like them, with what else you can replace with? Nothing, you are stuck with it, until you own the vehicle. They have proprietary connectors, much harder to connect other aftermarket stuff to them as well.
I guess, when you are in the process of buying the car, you really have to sit down and test all of the features that has, to be sure that you are OK with them. But what if, later on you upgrade your phone and it doesn't work as before?
 
Post warranty... if I can get an aftermarket unit with native connectivity to all existing pieces of current nav (customization, Bose, camera, etc... I might look into one of these https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned) for '13-'15 CX-5.

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The price is nice. I'm always weary of Android devices now days that have less than 2GB RAM. You might find it to slow and frustrating. In fact, the Rockchip thus uses is very very slow.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk
 
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The price is nice. I'm always weary of Android devices now days that have less than 2GB RAM. You might find it to slow and frustrating.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

That's a good point to consider. I use a lot of low end Android stuff for home automation and while it works fine for basically headless operations....it would be a challenging end user experience if I utilized as my everyday device.
 
yeah, I downloaded the new AA update on my phone and without playing with it too much, seems nice. In fact, with my mount I recently bought its a nice setup. Just brief things I noticed so far. You can have it setup to automatically launch when connected to whatever bluetooth device of your choosing. Of course, it launches when my phone connects to my Mazda. Everything is easy to touch. Clean and sharp looking. Basically all I can say at this point. Will see what happens when texts come in. If it's a pretty automated response and allows for easy replying via voice, I'll be happy. I'll also post a link to the mount I'm using for my phone. It's a basic magnetic mount. Small plate goes inside in my case and it works perfect. Also, I still have the vent pointed towards me so it doesn't so I get air/heat... yeah you see heritage collision center on my directions list. Somone hit me last week on the highway :( can't wait to get my cx5 fixed. Luckily it was a low speed accident and is still driveable.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

Here are a couple shots:
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yeah, I downloaded the new AA update on my phone and without playing with it too much, seems nice. In fact, with my mount I recently bought its a nice setup. Just brief things I noticed so far. You can have it setup to automatically launch when connected to whatever bluetooth device of your choosing. Of course, it launches when my phone connects to my Mazda. Everything is easy to touch. Clean and sharp looking. Basically all I can say at this point. Will see what happens when texts come in. If it's a pretty automated response and allows for easy replying via voice, I'll be happy. I'll also post a link to the mount I'm using for my phone. It's a basic magnetic mount. Small plate goes inside in my case and it works perfect. Also, I still have the vent pointed towards me so it doesn't so I get air/heat... yeah you see heritage collision center on my directions list. Somone hit me last week on the highway :( can't wait to get my cx5 fixed. Luckily it was a low speed accident and is still driveable.

I am also using Android Auto like this. The big buttons make it easy to pick the right thing and you can use multiple audio sources as input, such as Pandora PBS One, Google Music etc. but not USB/Aux, which continues to work independently through the car's infotainment. Making phone calls is also easy and Google Assistant voice recognition is helpful. I was able to use auto reply to an incoming Hangout saying that I am driving. I suppose this will be the same for SMS (which I personally don't use).

I mostly use the music and maps feature, and because Bluetooth is already available through the infotainment, anything that only requires the Next button to function (e.g. Pandora) has already good enough integration with the car, so I am left with navigation, which can use plain Google Maps. So, at the end of the day, it is only a small improvement for me over using plain Maps + Pandora. If you want to switch audio programs, then Android Auto is definitely easier.
 
On my Not 3, AA doesn't work yet. There is another alternative, which is very similar, called AutoMate.
 
One obvious downside to phone-based AA is GPS signal. The CX-5's GPS antenna is very well designed (on the dash, right next to center speaker IIRC), never had it not picking up GPS signal even in a storm, whereas my LG G2, also sitting on the dash, can only pick up the signal half of the time, and is usually jumpy.
 
One obvious downside to phone-based AA is GPS signal. The CX-5's GPS antenna is very well designed (on the dash, right next to center speaker IIRC), never had it not picking up GPS signal even in a storm, whereas my LG G2, also sitting on the dash, can only pick up the signal half of the time, and is usually jumpy.

Time to upgrade. G2 is an awesome phone but with new phones made in the last couple years, GPS works all the time. I never have an issue at all with my s7 edge.
 
I have absolutely no problems with GPS signal with my current and previous phone. In fact, it works better than my old Garmin GPS.
 
Time to upgrade. G2 is an awesome phone but with new phones made in the last couple years, GPS works all the time. I never have an issue at all with my s7 edge.

Yeah, still deciding on a phone that doesn't bootloop or explode :) Was driving to a temple in downtown St. Paul last weekend, using my wife's Galaxy S6 for navigation. The GPS was stable most of the time, but we got several "GPS signal lost" announced while driving on a street with lots of trees on both sidewalks. The CX-5 signal was constantly good all the time (I was using the Enhanced Compass).

Same thing when we visited a friend's house last month in the suburb (a piece of farm land of 25 acres). The CX-5 didn't have a slightest problem, whereas all of our 3 phones (G2, S6, Note4) couldn't pick up any GPS signal (data signal was good). To be fair, it was a cloudy day full of grey clouds.

Given the car's GPS antenna is about at least 1/4 the size of the phone, the performance difference is obvious.
 
The only issues I had with phone GPS is when walking and when the phone is not active.
For example, hiking in a forest, when the phone is in my pocket the taking it out pressing power and looking at the map. Thick forest can definitely impact how quickly it will tell me where I am (blue dot in Google Maps).
In another case, walking in downtown SF, with all tall buildings around, the phone was pretty quickly able to tell where it is, only that GPS reflection from the tall buildings made it confused between the street I was on and the next street.

Otherwise, I have logged literally thousands of miles using Nexus 5 and Nexus 6P without an issue. Because the phone uses Wifi and cell towers, it can tell much more quickly where it is when these are available. Not the case for traditional GPSs.
 
It depends on what make, model, and age, and chipset the GPS is. I've had smartphone GPS devices that took ridiculously long to acquire a satellite fix even when it had wifi and A-GPS enabled. Most modern standalone GPS units like from Garmin or TomTom manufactured within the last year or two have really fast satellite acquisition times. However, if you don't have data/wifi then depending on the GPS receiver installed on the device, you will lose your GPS signal quickly except where you have an unobstructed view of the sky.
 
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AA 2.0 is out.
My Note 3, works with it now and I can mirror it to my Kenwood DNN991HD, yeah!
 
When and if Android auto is compatible in Mazda cars, will you need the navigation system (SD card ) in your car. I usally get an Amazon gift card for Xmas and was going to puchase a navigation SD card with it, since I purchased my CX-5 without navigation installed.
 
When and if Android auto is compatible in Mazda cars, will you need the navigation system (SD card ) in your car. I usally get an Amazon gift card for Xmas and was going to puchase a navigation SD card with it, since I purchased my CX-5 without navigation installed.

Android Auto uses Google Maps, so it is not likely you will need the SD card.
However, Mazda may choose to limit Android Auto to SD equipped cars, just because.
 
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