[MannyZ28]

I was rather apprehensive about this at first. When I first decided it was time for a new radio in my everyday driver (04 Colorado), I scoured the Crutchfield website to read reviews about different radios. To no surprise, every Tom, **** and Harry had an iPhone that they mentioned when it came to Bluetooth compatibility. Some units had reviews with Galaxy S3 owners who complained about that phone just synching half the time and all sorts of other problems. Since I have a double DIN radio in my truck from the factory, I didn't want to put anything else in there size wise so I decided on an Alpine IVE-W530 since I didn't need navigation and since I couldn't justify spending another $250 for the next model up whose major advantages were HD Radio and Sirius Radio compatibility, both of which I have no desire of using.

The day came and my buddy started installing the radio. Hook up was pretty straight forward since Crutchfield send all the right adapters and wiring harnesses, so before we even thought about how to mount the thing in the dashboard, we turned it on and tried it. My Note 2 (Sprint) and the Alpine found each other right away, and with a simple click to confirm the pairing, everything was done. I must say, either I got lucky, or these two were a match made in heaven. BT audio streaming of the micro sd card in the phone works flawlessly. When I leave my truck, I do nothing to the phone, it just keeps the song paused in the background and either continues were it left off or starts it again from the beginning when I get back into my truck. I takes about 10 seconds from the time I start the truck to the time the music starts playing again. The installed hands free phone feature with the included microphone works great as well.

I was wondering about whether or not I could listen to streaming music from the phone through the trucks system, especially since while doing my research, I found so few radios that were Android App friendly, most of them had iPod and iPhone integration. Well, not to worry, any app I tried played the music through the trucks speakers. Tune in Radio works, even games work, heck I can even listen to movies streamed from Netflix. Movies on the SD card work as well....all in all, I am pleasantly surprised and very pleased.

So, if you have a GM vehicle with the double DIN stock Toaster, throw that thing out and get yourself a good radio.

Only one thing that bugs me about this radio is that you have to set the parking brake, step on the foot break, release the parking brake and then engage it again while keeping the foot brake pressed the entire time to be able to play DVDs and to access setup menus for anything other than sound functions. I mean, I have to do this to se the clock! That's a bit overkill.

[Uribam]

Works great with Ford sync as well. Pair, passcode, profit.
Features are sync version dependant though.

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[jdub1981]

Just a fyi but they make brake bypasses pretty cheap that allow you us3 the dvd while driving. I myself have one thst I bought online for mt double din pioneer deck. Try amazon. Just look up the model of your radio plus break bypass. Should he several to choose from.

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[GMJeff]

Yeah, the brake thing is to help with driver distraction. When I had a pioneer double din in my truck, thankfully there wasn't one integrated yet, so I was free to use all features without the brake on. Although, I used mine mainly for audio and navigation, not dvd.

The Apple integration is a big thing for the icrowd because when you hook up the iphone/ipod properly, you can control the device from the head unit as well as see track info and such. I have yet to see a large selection of audio equipment that is "Android ready", other than with bluetooth or an auxiliary input.

The right devices will show track info through bluetooth as well, depending on track format (mp3, wav, etc.).

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[jdub1981]

Yep mine was designed for iphone. It has appradio and pandora built in. Unfortunately when I got my iphone 5 with the digital connector it stopped working. Bluetooth streaming also changed and the radio stopped displaying track info and controls. Sold the iphone and got GN2 and now bluetooth works great again. I dont care about appradio or pandora.

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[MannyZ28]

Yeah I don't care about Pandora either. Apple screws its customers with every major revision...go figure....I guess it "just works" only if you have all Apple products. Hope they won't pollute the world with some proprietary iCarRadio... lol. I am fine with the parking break thing, I wasn't planning on watching a movie while I drive, and it really is a better idea to be stationary when you try to set your clock and other settings.

[jneusch]

Glad to hear it works! I have a 2013 Camaro with the MyLink system and the Note2 pairs nicely with it as well. Phone calls, music streaming via BT, Pandora, Stitcher all work well.

[nizmoz]

2012 Acura TL here and works perfect! BT, music streaming, phone book, pandora, etc


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[sdmf]

Pretty sure you don't need a brake bypass kit (unless things have changed since 2011). I got a jvc double din dvd deck and we just grounded the wire somewhere else which bypasses the "need in park to watch"

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[jdub1981]

The it depends on the radio. Some radios require a double pulse. Which basically connected to ground, remove, connect to ground and stay connected. Mine requires this. Pioneer Avh-8400bh. Requires a special device to do it.

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