Kansas

My wife's Prius v wagon came with the Toyota Entune app suite which, except for the absence of a couple of apps like Yelp and Facebook, is very similar to the Lexus Enform app suite available on 2013-up Lexus Vehicles.

My 2000 LS400 is way to old to have anything like Entune/Enform but I found that the iBOLT Dock n Drive Android app I downloaded from Google Play to my Samsung Galaxy SIII phone does a darned good job emulating it and in some ways works better.

Dock n Drive was free when I downloaded it a few months ago - not sure if it still is. Here is info about it: http://www.ibolt.co/blog/ibolt-dockn...-now-available

Dock n Drive automatically starts when I insert my phone into its Samsung Infuse charging cradle - purchased at the AT&T store for $17.50 before tax. I have the Infuse charging cradle mounted on a Kuda leather console but the cradle comes with a suction cup mount that could be attached to a windshield or, using an adhesive disk, to a dash top. Dock n Drive was intended to be used with iBOLT charging cradles but seems to work fine with my Samsung cradle. Even without a charging cradle, it is possible to manually start Dock n Drive and customize a Dock n Drive setting that keeps the phone screen from timing/dimming out.

Attached are three photos - a fuzzy photo of Entune in our Prius and photos of two of the three screens I've customized on Dock n Drive.

Dock n Drive allows putting six applications on each of three screens. Switching between screens is by using the arrows or "finger sweep". As you can see by the two Dock n Drive photos, the customized screens include most applications included in Entune/Enform. Unlike Entune/Enform, I can have links for music streaming services other than iHeart Radio and Pandora such as Slacker and Tunein Radio.

Selecting the links from Dock n Drive actually work substantially better than selecting the same apps from Entune as I assume it would be similar compared to Enform. Although I didn't put a link for it on Dock n Drive, if I wanted to I could have a link to the Lexus Roadside Service app on my phone which is much like the Roadside Service app on Enform.

The third Dock n Drive screen which I am not showing has links for such personal things such as airline flight status and speed dials to my home and wife's phone numbers. Another cool thing about Dock n Drive is that it has a setting for automatically answering a phone call which is then routed to the hands free feature of the Garmin GPS I have mounted just above my phone. Can now answer a call and hang up without removing my hands from the steering wheel. OK, I'll include a photo of the Garmin too but it is an old photo taken before I had Dock n Drive.

The audio from the apps on my phone (Pandora, Slacker, etc.) is routed to my Nakamichi via an aux-in added last year by Factory Radio Service in California - $85 for the version with the on/off button on the radio face and the aux-in connection on the back of the head unit. Sound quality provided by the aux-in is absolutely CD quality.

All in all, this relatively inexpensive combination of devices and applications is making my 13 year old LS400 seem pretty cool and modern.

.... just wanted to share!