Apple CarPlay

 

Though announced way back in March 2014, Apple's CarPlay software has remained elusive. With the exception of the Ferrari FF, the partnered automakers are still in the "coming soon" phase of their rollouts, and the aftermarket has remained mostly silent.
Mostly, that is, with the exception of Pioneer, who announced this summer that it would be bringing Apple CarPlay to the masses via its NEX series of multimedia receivers. Today, we take a look at the Pioneer's flagship AVIC 8000NEX, a fully featured navigation and multimedia receiver that is, so far, the only way to get CarPlay in your car short of buying a new Ferrari.

AVIC hardware, NEX software

The AVIC user interface starts with a 7-inch capacitive touch display, where the driver and passengers will have most of their interactions with the system. The screen runs at a WVGA (800x480) resolution -- which sounds low in a world filled with 720p and 1080p smartphones, but isn't bad at all in practice. Graphics for the various parts of the NEX and CarPlay interfaces are rendered smoothly and sharply, but DVD video was just a bit pixelated. 

The first Apple CarPlay receiver

As opposed to Pioneer's own App Mode, which required additional hardware, all that you'll need to get running with CarPlay is the latest version of Pioneer's NEX firmware, an iPhone 5 or 6 running the latest version of iOS 8 and a USB to Lightning adapter.