lex

the iPhone (3G) works just fine with the car.

DOUS

So it charges and connects to play music/movies, etc from it, right? I have an iPhone 3G and would want it to work seamlessly with the RX when it comes.

lex

I don't think you can play video from the phone though. Only music and audiobooks and stuff like that.

I forgot to check if it charges the phone as well but I have another test drive on Saturday, I'll find out.

data2009

I have an unsupported IPod, and I basically use USB port for charging it when I drive to work. I see no reason why it would not charge the iPhone.

I was also thinking about upgrading IPod until on another thread someone mentioned USB can read music from Flash drives. For me its a no-brainer. I downloaded 4GB worth of mp3 files onto it, and plugged it in.
Playback is great, almost instanteneous. Navi displays folders and file names (although it only reads english letters and shows blank spaces for others).

buckse

I have an iPhone and here's what I have seen so far...

When you plug in the iPhone with the USB adapter you get a message on the iPhone that says you are connecting to an unsupported device. At that point, it asks you if you want to disable the phone by going into "airplane mode" to improve sound quality, and then the screen controls are locked out out on the phone and it says something like, "accessory connected". It DOES charge through the USB connector. However, I have 1000+ songs on my iPhone, and once the iPhone screen is locked out using the USB port, it forces you to navigate through the car's Nav system interface, but the NAV interface only shows 5 songs or artists at a time and it PAINFULLY SLOW to navigate--there is no search or high speed option. About the only way I have found USB mode useful is to allow it to charge the phone and then listen to an Audiobook or listen to music with it set to random play; otherwise, you can forget finding something in your playlist before you get to your destination d;^)

Instead of using the USB adapter, I have found it much more convenient to just use the headphone output jack on iPhone to connect to the AUX port on the RX. The sound is great and it lets me very quickly and easily navigate and control the playlist and song selection via the iPhone.

Unfortunately, the iPhone does not get charged through the headphone jack, so just for grins, I tried to connect both the USB and Headphone connector at the same time, hoping it would charge through USB but then let me control stuff using the phone.... I was hoping the RX would see both connections but be smart enough to let ME pick which interface to use, but no luck, I think the iPhone freaked out and locked up.

So if you have a small play list and are going on a really long trip, you should be able to use the USB port to navigate through your playlist using the RX interface (or you can just select random play) and at least your phone will get charged. But the USB interface is just too slow for me and my 1000+ song playlist, so I just charge my phone at home and use the headphone jack via the AUX port on the RX so I can quickly navigate the playlist on the phone itself.

Hope this helps.

rxets

Welcome to the forum.

To me, your info is great and helpful. I was thinking of trying USB and AUX together sometimes next week.

Thanks a lot.

lex

Instead of scrolling through the entire list of songs that you have, you could make smaller playlists with songs that you listen to more often or that are suitable for driving. You can do that right on your iPhone. (On-The-Go playlists or in iTunes.) I made a playlist called Drive to test the iPhone in the car

DKRX

I hate that the Lexus Nav system is forcing people to tailor their use of the device for use in the car by making short playlists, etc, just because the interface does not perform well and in some cases hitting bugs on scrolling. Lexus should fix it especially when people can buy a Ford for 1/2 the price and the integration is 100% better.

DunWkg

I agree with much of what you have said. Seeing a Ford with Sync commercial makes me envious and slightly disappointed.

This is what I've done. I have an old iPhone 3GS plugged into the USB port. It's in airport mode to extend battery life. I only remove it from the depths of the console to update playlists. It charges just fine, but dies occasionally and isn't always available when I first start the car. I also have a 12 volt to USB adapter plugged in with a USB cable that can extend out of the console. That is used to charge my or my wife's daily use iPhone 4G. Also plugged into the console is an auxiliary cable to plug in an iPad or other audio source. The powered USB cable can power the iPad as needed. I cannot watch video on the navigation screen, however the passenger may watch the iPad and listen via the car stereo.

DKRX

That's a great idea. I have an old 16 GB iPhone 3G that I can use for this purpose with iOS 3.1.3 on it. I just reset it and turned off everything, bluetooth, phone, wifi, and even moved all the default apps to page 2 except the iPod app. I put it in airplane mode and I'm syncing songs to it now. Hopefully the iOS version is old enough to be compatible with the behind-the-time software engineering team over at Lexus. I only use the car once or twice a week so I hope the battery holds out long enough between uses - it should considering that I turned all the wireless features off - I hope.

One question - does anyone know if the Lexus Nav cares if the iPhone has AAC files on it? I want to be able to store as much music as possible on the 3G so I've checked off the option to "Convert higher bitrate songs to 128 kbps AAC" for this device.