Liferules

I'm reading lots of posts that include details about the Enform app. I personally have had a lot of issues with it. I think its connected a total of twice. For the ridiculous price that Lexus is thinking people will pay annually for this at best beta product, I am guessing it will last one year at best and then dry up due to nobody renewing the subscription past the complementary year.

So, what are your experiences with Enform?

matt2421

Its buggy!!! I have the Samsung Note and i cant connect to Enform if i have wifi turned on. By the way i always have wifi turned on as when im in my house i use my wireless network, cant do that anymore or i have to make a concerted effort to remember to turn it off before i get into my car. If i forget and leave it on, i have to restart my phone, pain in the @$$. Also, dont try to connect your phone to another vehicle either as it wont connect back to your car without a reboot. Tried it out in a demo vehicle at the dealer while mine was being detailed and when i tried it agin in my car, no joy, reboot. I got a text message and went to the phone menu to read it, Love this option by the way, when your car reads your text messages to you, awesome, but when i did that i lost connection to pandorra and couldnt get it back, you guessed it, reboot. Oh, loaded some destinations in my edestinations folder,worked like a charm. tried to add to the list, the new destinations didnt show up and i havent revisited the issue since. I think the technology is there but it certainly needs to be cleaned up. Hopefully once this car has had some time in the wild and the Lexus R&D guys get some feedback there will be some software upgrades to clean up some of the issues.

rockyman

I have had similar types of issues with Samsung infuse 4g on AT&T. The lexus website says its fully comparable. I decided to forget it, as it wasn't worth the aggravation. I think best bet is listen to satellite radio. Sometimes when I access Pandora through the nav system, it would play on my phone's speaker, not the car's system.

I think it's too bad lexus pushed Enform on consumers. Are they really that desperate they're willing to risk the brand reputation?

caddyowner

We have a 250 mile road trip this weekend. I think I'll have my GF drive part of the way and I'll play with Enform and the other goodies that I never have a chance to use when driving.

djpeak10

after a week of ownership I still haven't been able to connect to any apps!

danjb

Enform has been buggy for me too. My hope is it will potentially down the road work more seamlessly when Lexus fixes the bugs, phones get updated firmware, and carrier data networks become more pervasive/reliable. I would rather have it on my car occasionally working and have this hope, than to not have it at all and have no chance of using the features it promises ever in the future.

mrcheerio

iTrader: (1)

I had the same problem with the Enform app till i manually connected to the vehicle via the app... just start the app from the car then go to your smart phone and bring the app up and then go to settings and select connect to vehicle.

My only concern is that i dont think they will update the apps as frequently as we would like ... i personally think it will just have those 4/5 apps and lexus will just forget about it...

gkcmilner

The problem seems to be mostly with Android phones (which I have). iPhones work pretty well because Apple tightly controls the software and doesn't let the carriers install a bunch of junk. Android phones unfortunately allow phone manufacturers and carriers to install all kinds of junk on them. When Lexus (Toyota) designed the system they used the stock Android operating system.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S 4G that would not work. I have an old HTC HD2 that I installed a stock version Android ROM on it and it works perfectly. Unfortunately its not reasonable for Lexus to try to get the system to work with every tweaked version of Android. BMW eliminated this problem by allowing their system to connect ONLY with iPhones.

If you go to Lexus.com/mobilelink it will show if your phone is Enform compatible. If there is only a Bluetooth tab and no Enform tab, don't expect it to work well.

BTW, there is an update to the Pandora App, and Enform phone App coming. SHould be here by the end of this month.

jj14

Well, technically, it is not because of the carrier installed junk - but because of the huge variety of hardware options that are available for android manufacturers to choose from.

On Apple devices, there is one set of hardware - period. So, an app will either work, or it won't.
With Android devices, because of differences in chipsets, and drivers that are available for them, some features may be available on some devices, while not on other devices.

It has its advantages, and disadvantages

LexusGSFGO

I have an iPhone 4 and have had pretty good luck with it. I've only used Bing, Pandora and eDestination. Pandora works I'd say 90+% of the time. When it doesn't connect, a restart of the app on the iPhone has always corrected it. Bing works well with voice search and good integration with the Nav system, when it does connect with my phone. eDestination is great. I use this from my desktop (Lexus Drivers site) to automatically send destinations to my Nav, and neatly organize them in folders so they're always available. I agree that these should be free and not subject to a subscription fee, especially given the fact that it's buggy. I'm guessing that in time it will improve and I hope Lexus continues support. I only wish Apple will get off it's a#$ and support MAP so I can hear my emails and text messages.

gkcmilner

Examples of carrier and/or maker installed junk that is causing conflicts:
Samsung doubletwist (older versions), some tethering apps, HTC (Amaze) / T-Mobile proprietary Bluetooth stack (replaced in ICS ) update, and others. T-Mobile is aware of some of the issues from their unauthorized tethering software and is working on fixes.
It is not the hardware, it is the software.

djpeakSD

I am running doubletwist right now. Are you saying that if I uninstall it, enform will possibly work?

drdigital1

When I ordered my new GS350 I complained on this forum about the fact that one cannot subscribe to the apps suite without subscribing to Enform which in turn requires to subscribe to Safety Connect. So a Lexus driver who wants to use only the apps suite will have to pay $349/year ($265 + 12 * $7).
Now that I have had the car for 2 months I decided that even if the apps suite was only $7/month with the current apps in the apps suite, I still wouldn't subscribe to it. The feature I like the most is downloading destinations to the car but this is only because it is fun/cool; it doesn't save much time. If Lexus enriches the apps suite then I'll pay $7/month but there is no way I'll pay $349/year.

drmain

Had nothing but problems. Enform app quits logging in. Call lexus support and they get it working. Next time I use it says 'An intermittent failure has occured with third party provider. Please try again later'. This what happens ever time I try to use it. I'm tired of the problems. I paid $7000 more just to get the navigation system and another $300 for Lexus Enform with Safety Connect just so I can use it on the road. They charge way too much for something that never works right. There needs to be a Class Action Lawsuit.

kssod

With the iPhone do you have to hard connect to the usb port, or does the app run via bluetooth?