Sony readies its first aftermarket receiver with Apple CarPlay support

AppleInsider · August 22, 2016 7:51PM

Expanding CarPlay's so-far limited number of aftermarket upgrade options, Sony has announced the XAV-AX100, its first receiver to support the Apple platform.

The device will sport a 6.4-inch, 800-by-480 touchscreen, and include Bluetooth and USB connections, Sony said. The company is also promising features like 55 watts of output, a 10-band graphic equalizer, rear camera support, and the ability to connect external amplifiers for more complex audio setups.

Like many CarPlay-ready devices, the device will also support Google's Android Auto. In either case people should be able to trigger voice commands with a button.

Sony is targeting a late November launch in North America, at a cost of $499.99.

That pricetag may be one of the more important aspects of the AX100, since other CarPlay-compatible receivers often cost $100 or more extra, especially for models that don't use a resistive touch interface.

anantksundaram · August 22, 2016 8:08PM

Why do they have to look so.... pedestrian... Does Sony have no design chops left in it?

dementuschikan · August 22, 2016 8:35PM

Do you want chrome fins or spinners or something?

cali · August 22, 2016 8:46PM

It supports droid also. So what's the big deal?

why is this news?

soli · August 22, 2016 8:49PM

dementuschikan said:

Do you want chrome fins or spinners or something?

anantksundram point is valid. Touchscreen receivers for automobiles look like they are stuck a decade in the past. It's 2016 and that isn't a high-DPI or IPS display (or some other display with a wide viewing angle. I'm not even sure it's capacitance-touch, most seem to still be resistive-touch.

junkie · August 22, 2016 9:36PM

One of the interesting things here is that with Carplay, these head units really have very little to them, a screen and ports. CD drive etc. The Alpine in this category is a very shallow unit. Similar chinese devices that don't support Carplay are sub $100.

Question will be if it supports wireless carplay - so far neither Alpine or Pioneer do that.

Also seems like a 7" screen, Alpine 007, is a bit nicer than a this 6.3".

titantiger · August 22, 2016 10:55PM

I'm sure it pained them to do so, given their terrible support for Macs over the years.

moo083 · August 22, 2016 10:56PM

It most certainly is resistive. 9to5mac.com confirmed with Sony that it is indeed resistive. Which is disappointing, especially for $500.

robin huber · August 22, 2016 11:22PM

titantiger said:

I'm sure it pained them to do so, given their terrible support for Macs over the years.

Didn't Sony used to make the optical or diskette drives for the Mac? The good ones—the ones that used to "suck in" the disks as you put them in.

chelin74 · August 23, 2016 12:11AM

I don't understand who would use this? Are they any cars out there that you an hookup an external receiver?

mike1 · August 23, 2016 1:55AM

chelin74 said:

I don't understand who would use this? Are they any cars out there that you an hookup an external receiver?

Like millions of cars more than 5 years old.

welshdog · August 23, 2016 5:42AM

anantksundaram said:

Why do they have to look so.... pedestrian... Does Sony have no design chops left in it?

It looks like every other audio device since about 1977. Sony was one of the pioneers of the moronic black-on-black design scheme. I remember when this happened and it was justified with the "black looks more cool" BS. I had friends who worked in stereo shops (remember those) and they told me the black recievers sold better. And it is still going on after all these years as we see in this Sony reciever. I have a really nice Oppo BluRay player and you cannot see the two buttons on the front even in fairly good light. Some companies make optional color schemes, usually a silvery, clear anodized aluminum motif that is visually more funtional. The black-on-black is just so boring.

volcan · August 23, 2016 4:51PM

mike1 said:

chelin74 said:

I don't understand who would use this? Are they any cars out there that you an hookup an external receiver?

Like millions of cars more than 5 years old.

DIN and Double DIN ISO standard has been around for years however many cars still do not conform to the standard, or if they do sometimes the depth of a replacement unit might conflict with the dash. Personally, I replace my cars every three years because that is the usual free maintenance duration. In the long run it costs about the same because after that length of time you start replacing tires, brakes, batteries, wiper blade, lamp bulbs, etc. I always get the navigation, rear camera, infotainment system upgrade. CarPlay is a nice idea but to use it for navigation means you might need to up your data plan because you are going to eat through your data pretty quickly, especially if you are on a road trip. We have a shared 5GB plan so it is not really enough to use it for continuous mapping or even music streaming all the time. CarPlay would be useful for local music though because even luxury cars in my experience don't support playlists very often. I will be ready for a new vehicle in exactly one year. Hopefully my next car will have CarPlay.

soli · August 23, 2016 4:58PM

volcan said:

mike1 said:

Like millions of cars more than 5 years old.

CarPlay is a nice idea but to use it for navigation means you might need to up your data plan because you are going to eat through your data pretty quickly, especially if you are on a road trip. We have a shared 5GB plan so it is not really enough to use it for continuous mapping or even music streaming all the time. CarPlay would be useful for local music though because even luxury cars in my experience don't support playlists very often. I will be ready for a new vehicle in exactly one year. Hopefully my next car will have CarPlay.

Ideally it would be nice if both systems were intelligent to simply talk to each other better so you can, for example, pass your Maps history to the internal navigation and vice versa.

volcan · August 23, 2016 5:48PM

Soli said:

Ideally it would be nice if both systems were intelligent to simply talk to each other better so you can, for example, pass your Maps history to the internal navigation and vice versa.

You can sort of do that with Google Maps and BMW Assist (other cars also). You can send a destination by email directly to your car from within Google Maps.

urchin11 · August 24, 2016 5:07PM

mike1 said:

chelin74 said:

I don't understand who would use this? Are they any cars out there that you an hookup an external receiver?

Like millions of cars more than 5 years old.

Haven't you ever replace the radio in a car?

urchin11 · August 25, 2016 8:30PM

Soli said:

volcan said:

mike1 said:

Like millions of cars more than 5 years old.

CarPlay is a nice idea but to use it for navigation means you might need to up your data plan because you are going to eat through your data pretty quickly, especially if you are on a road trip. We have a shared 5GB plan so it is not really enough to use it for continuous mapping or even music streaming all the time. CarPlay would be useful for local music though because even luxury cars in my experience don't support playlists very often. I will be ready for a new vehicle in exactly one year. Hopefully my next car will have CarPlay.

Ideally it would be nice if both systems were intelligent to simply talk to each other better so you can, for example, pass your Maps history to the internal navigation and vice versa.

Maps doesn't use much data at all. I use it for Directions in car about a dozen times a month (some of those 2-3hr trips), and still use less than a gig of data each month.

volcan · August 25, 2016 9:47PM

It depends. If you are using it in the same city it has already downloaded all the tiles and cached them. I just tried a little test. I'm in California so I searched for New York. After scrolling around for about 20 seconds with lots of tiles slowly loading. I checked my data usage and had used around 200K.

soli · August 25, 2016 9:57PM

volcan said:

It depends. If you are using it in the same city it has already downloaded all the tiles and cached them. I just tried a little test. I'm in California so I searched for New York. After scrolling around for about 20 seconds with lots of tiles slowly loading. I checked my data usage and had used around 200K.

200KiB or 200MiB?

volcan · August 25, 2016 10:17PM

Soli said:

volcan said:

It depends. If you are using it in the same city it has already downloaded all the tiles and cached them. I just tried a little test. I'm in California so I searched for New York. After scrolling around for about 20 seconds with lots of tiles slowly loading. I checked my data usage and had used around 200K.

200KiB or 200MiB?

My mistake. It was a lot more. It had clicked up at least 0.1 GB but it was not an entirely precise test since it was a short period time and the data usage only shows one significant number after the decimal. But the point is it is more data than you might think. In this small test it represented a fairly long road trip from NY to out to Ohio.

edited August 2016

spamsandwich · August 25, 2016 10:21PM

And speaking of cars:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/worlds-first-self-driving-taxis-hit-the-road-in-singapore-1472102747

Sony readies its first aftermarket receiver with Apple CarPlay support

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