Pioneer AppRadio car stereo (preview)

Finally got one from US for less than $400 aussie including postage. Am about to install so I hope it works the way they say. As for Pioneer Australia when asked when they would be available all I got was there is a problem with the digital signal dropping out, what digital signal its an AM/FM radio unit. They also tried to tell me it would not work in Australia, what crapp. Its just a radio, 12 volts etc. Pioneer Australia are loosing heaps of customers with this type of response to one of their products

Does not look to me as anyone below has actually demo'd the final go to market unit. I have, and I will say the biggest failing is that it does not allow you to switch between apps. from the Pioneer unit. If you have selected Pandora and are listening to music, and decide you want to click over to MotionX-Drive to enter a route, you can only do this by using the iPhone itself. Not from the Pioneer unit. There does not even seem to be a way to 'quite' out of an app. from the Pioneer unit, but only to go tot he iPhone and quite the app. It almost looks like Pioneer did this at the advice of their attorney's as it pops up a warning that you should not 'view video' while driving. Well then dah, why launch this product?? It is even more hazardous to have to fumble with your iPhone to launch or cancel an app. Only gets worse with more apps. coming on board.

Another less troubling issue is you cannot 'scan' for stations. What appears to be the scan button (a half circled arrow) scrolls through all the stations and goes right back to 88.5 fm, w/o stopping on each clear channel. Requires that you manually click through all available stations to set your favorites. A minor irritation.

These are two major issues of UI with this unit that I hope Pioneer will address. Seems like it was released a bit prematurely w/o having been thoroughly vetted from a UI or consumer perspective.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20066217-48.html#ixzz1Z0NyWouq