I preface by saying I know almost *nothing* about this stuff.

Here's my situation, I have iPhone 7 and now a 2018 Honda Ridgeline which supports Apple Car Play. The truck came with Sirius radio which I enjoy and occasionally use but the free subscription will soon expire and I have no interest in playing the pricing game of cancelling just prior to the automatic renewal BS to pay $25 for 5 months, otherwise $100 for 12, on and on....

I see there are free apps such as Spotify, Slacker, Pandora, etc which can be put on my phone then with the phone plugged into the truck's console I'd have something akin to Sirius right? There is also "iTunes" on my phone (and laptop) which I've never used.

Any suggestion as to one music app over another? Or another app that you find useful when connected to your car?

I use Spotify but I have a pay subscription. I also use audible and the iPhone podcast app which are both supported by CarPlay. Do your self a favor plug your phone in and have someone send you the shit emoji and listen to Siri read out your text...hilarious

If you want free, iheartradio is free. It streams radio channels across the nation, has some made up channels (for example, you can have a brazilian music channel or a specific artist channel or genre). I use the app. It remembers your favorite channels and offers you those selections.

If you already have Amazon Prime and I do, I use their prime music service. You can either stream the music or save the music to your iphone and you can play the music without using data.

OK I thought Spotify was free.

Thanks Rey the wife does have Amazon Prime I'll look into that.

Spotify does have a free option, just limited on how many 'skips' you get per some period of time (hour maybe?).

The pay version I believe has unlimited skips.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
OK I thought Spotify was free.

Thanks Rey the wife does have Amazon Prime I'll look into that.

If you have amazon prime, then you also have amazon video for movies. (not for use in your car while driving though).

Along with free ebooks if you're so inclined. Also not good to do while driving.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I preface by saying I know almost *nothing* about this stuff.

Here's my situation, I have iPhone 7 and now a 2018 Honda Ridgeline which supports Apple Car Play. The truck came with Sirius radio which I enjoy and occasionally use but the free subscription will soon expire and I have no interest in playing the pricing game of cancelling just prior to the automatic renewal BS to pay $25 for 5 months, otherwise $100 for 12, on and on....

I see there are free apps such as Spotify, Slacker, Pandora, etc which can be put on my phone then with the phone plugged into the truck's console I'd have something akin to Sirius right? There is also "iTunes" on my phone (and laptop) which I've never used.

Any suggestion as to one music app over another? Or another app that you find useful when connected to your car?

I own a 2013 Accord and though I don't use any of the apps like Spotify, Slacker, Pandora or Apple Car Play, I'm constantly linked via Bluetooth to my Honda. I've currently managed a Playlist of 200 favorite songs that I've downloaded off the iTunes app from my phone. This gives me over 10hrs of consistent listening of my all-time favorites. Additionally, all of the songs are also linked to the iTunes app in my Macbook if I also choose to listen to them on the laptop/computer. I use an iPhone 6S currently that has an excellent Bluetooth connection to my car. In fact, I've mentioned previously here that I've left my iPhone in the house in my bedroom and went to my car in the garage and started it and the bluetooth connected from all that distance. In fact, the Bluetooth link stayed connected up to a certain point backing my car out into the driveway before the link finally disconnected. For me, Bluetooth all the way. I get only the very best songs from all the way back from the 70's, 80's, 90's, till present, just my listening Playlist on my iPhone. Which I also use via my Bluetooth music headsets when moving about the house or outdoors. I also let the free Sirus subscription expire that came with the Accord, never used it. The quality using Bluetooth thru the premium sound system in the Accord is more than satisfactory for me. Good luck with your new Ridgeline, they look great!

^^^^ What he said! I just plug my phone into vehicle power and then Bluetooth it. 250 songs on my phone.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
OK I thought Spotify was free.

Thanks Rey the wife does have Amazon Prime I'll look into that.

If you have amazon prime, then you also have amazon video for movies. (not for use in your car while driving though).

Along with free ebooks if you're so inclined. Also not good to do while driving.

Prime also has the music app.
I do not know if it is compatible with CarPlay though. I hope it is as I am adding a CarPlay receiver to the Sienna in a couple weeks.

Thanks everyone and thank you just1tym my fingers are crossed but so far with maybe 2,000 miles the Ridgeline gets an A+, I love this truck!

I just discovered the wife took advantage of some Sirius "special offer" on my Ridgeline and w/o my knowledge she subscribed at $129 for a year for their top package which includes our phones. So she'll have it for a year in her Rav 4 through her phone and it'll continue uninterrupted in my truck.

$11 a month seems expensive even if it does cover our phones as well as the truck, no way would I have done it. Oh well...

Have you used the navigation on CarPlay yet? It’s pretty slick.

Following this with interest, as the Jeep I'll soon (I hope!) be acquiring has Uconnect and, I'm told, CarPlay.

(Update: Or maybe not. I'm reading CarPlay will be available only for MY2017 Uconnect systems and later. And maybe not even all of those?)

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
I just discovered the wife took advantage of some Sirius "special offer" on my Ridgeline and w/o my knowledge she subscribed at $129 for a year for their top package which includes our phones.

My wife likes deals, but she wouldn't do that.

Don't feel bad. FCA's Uconnect Access is $20/month

It's got a lot of way cool features, but that ain't gonna happen.

Mike Rowe Podcasts

“That’s the way I Heard It”

.....Pure gold !

As a bonus, they are free to listen to.

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
Have you used the navigation on CarPlay yet? It’s pretty slick.

No, the truck itself has Nav which accepts voice commands, but I'll be playing around with CarPlay so I'll try it.

Ensigmatic my wife wouldn't bat an eye paying $20 for something like that!

Pandora and I pay the $4 a month for commercial free.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
Have you used the navigation on CarPlay yet? It’s pretty slick.

No, the truck itself has Nav which accepts voice commands, but I'll be playing around with CarPlay so I'll try it.

Ensigmatic my wife wouldn't bat an eye paying $20 for something like that!

I stopped using the built in nav in my car as the Apple maps is better with traffic and detours. With car play you just have to say “hey Siri navigate me to so and so” and the maps opens up and navigation starts.

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
I stopped using the built in nav in my car as the Apple maps is better with traffic and detours. With car play you just have to say “hey Siri navigate me to so and so” and the maps opens up and navigation starts.

Though I've really yet to sink my teeth into the Navigation Manual, from what I have read so far is that you can navigate to let's say home from anyplace by just hitting the talk button on steering wheel and saying "home" and the nav screen will open up and the turn by turn route will be displayed with voice commands along the route. I know it can give traffic routes along with detours and such along with traffic patterns. I've really yet to dig into it so much as the regular car manual was as thick as a phone book, and the separate navigation manual almost as thick! I suppose one day I'll take the time to read and digest it. I wonder how the Apple maps update, how often and does it cost to update? I do know that to update my navigation maps every couple of years or so costs $$ I'd suppose this would be a good thing to update regularly if I traveled a lot, especially for trips and out of state travel. I do love all the tech that Honda puts into their vehicles though, comes in handy and makes driving a nicer experience

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:

quote:

Originally posted by Dusty78:
I stopped using the built in nav in my car as the Apple maps is better with traffic and detours. With car play you just have to say “hey Siri navigate me to so and so” and the maps opens up and navigation starts.

Though I've really yet to sink my teeth into the Navigation Manual, from what I have read so far is that you can navigate to let's say home from anyplace by just hitting the talk button on steering wheel and saying "home" and the nav screen will open up and the turn by turn route will be displayed with voice commands along the route. I know it can give traffic routes along with detours and such along with traffic patterns. I've really yet to dig into it so much as the regular car manual was as thick as a phone book, and the separate navigation manual almost as thick! I suppose one day I'll take the time to read and digest it. I wonder how the Apple maps update, how often and does it cost to update? I do know that to update my navigation maps every couple of years or so costs $$ I'd suppose this would be a good thing to update regularly if I traveled a lot, especially for trips and out of state travel. I do love all the tech that Honda puts into their vehicles though, comes in handy and makes driving a nicer experience

It updates fairly regularly and it doesn’t cost anything. I have found that if a road is closed just for that day it at times will reflect that in the nav.