The Pit

Pioneer's New AppRadioLIVE Leads The Way

BY Azfar Hashim

Pioneer Electronics continues to advance the connected car experience with the development and launch of AppRadioLIVE.

Reporting in Pattaya, Thailand

Developed in-house by Pioneer, AppRadioLIVE is a proprietary new app for users of Pioneer’s AppRadio Mode in-dash receivers. This new app aggregates content from popular music, events, traffic, weather and news sources through a new interactive user interface to provide seamless access to personalized information while in the vehicle. The AppRadioLIVE app is available for the latest iPhone® devices and is compatible with all Pioneer receivers that support AppRadio Mode.

With the app running on a compatible iPhone connected to an AppRadio Mode in-dash audio head-unit, users have access to various Pioneer partner services directly on the Pioneer touchscreen. By combining these services into a single app, AppRadioLIVE eliminates the need to individually open different apps to access content from partners such as Feedly®, Stitcher®, Eventseeker®, INRIX®, Yelp® and more, greatly simplifying the user’s experience. The dynamic home screen of AppRadioLIVE provides an interactive interface divided into four quadrants consisting of maps, music, news information, and calendar events. By selecting one of the four quadrants, the driver can bring the necessary information into focus with a full screen view.

“The AppRadioLIVE app developed with direct feedback from existing AppRadio Mode users is testament to Pioneer’s commitment to refresh the product lifecycle for our most valued customers,” said Mr. Isao Nomura, Deputy General Manager for Business Planning and Marketing Division (Car Entertainment) of Pioneer Electronics AsiaCentre.

The AppRadioLIVE map feature also allows destinations to be exported directly into any of the user’s favorite AppRadio Mode compatible navigations apps, such as Waze, NavGate Drive or Navfree to obtain route and voice guidance. 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 quickly 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®.

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 device and also have access to streamed content through services like Stitcher®, offering more than 25,000 on demand radio shows and podcasts; Pioneer aggregated Internet Radio with access to several hundred pure play stations, sorted by genre; and Rdio®, one of the largest music streaming services in the world with over 25 million songs available.

With Feedly®, AppRadioLIVE users 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.

AppRadioLIVE keeps users organized and informed by accessing the users' 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.

“Pioneer goes beyond to further enhance the driving experience with AppRadioLIVE, giving our customers a seamless experience between the built-in aggregated content for a safer and more fun user experience,” conclude Mr Nomura.

AppRadioLIVE is available for download from the iTunes app store. For more information, visit www.pioneerappradiolive.com.

Pioneer head-units compatible with AppRadioLIVE:

AVH-P8450BT, AVH-X1550DVD, AVH-X2550BT, AVH-X4550BT, AVH-X5550BT, AVH-X6550DVD, AVH-X7550BT, AVH-X8550BT, AVH-X1650DVD, AVH-X2650BT, AVH-X4650DVD, AVH-X5650BT, AVH-X8650BT

Compatible iPhones:

iPhone5s, iPhone5c, iPhone5, iPhone4s and iPhone4 with iOS 7.1.2