The Jaguar site gives rather limited info on this $650 option.

Does anyone have anymore detailed info about this option, its capabilities, maybe some screenshots, or know anything about the "more exciting third-party apps to come..."

Love to hear from anyone with any experience with InControl Apps?

 

I am ordering an F-Type, and had the same questions as you. My dealer suggested I save my money, but he didn't have much info. I googled InControl Apps and it appears he's right. Doesn't look like there is much if any content, and definitely not worth $650. Couple of links:


Overview | Land Rover USA




Think I'm going to spend my money on other things... Like illuminated treadplates!

 

Funny how my dealer was pushing me to get the apps. I was leaning towards saving my money. He did show me a navigation app on his phone and it didn't seem like it was anything earth shattering. I am an android fan so I got Google Maps. in car navi is not really a big deal for me and I am loathe to install another nav app. I sort of was under the impression that basically for the in car stuff to work you need to have the phone hooked up via a wire to the car (don't know what wire) and it will charge the phone and what you see on the phone app-wise will appear in the center screen. Meh.

 

Yes, it appears you have to have the USB connection to the car plugged in for the InControl Apps to work. Another reason it might not be the right choice...

 

The killer feature to me is when it can run almost any app, or at least receives the top car apps like Waze or any music app like Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music etc. If they have to be "made" for the incontrol app then yeah I don't see this as that great and once again the infotainment system remains outdated.

 

I ordered it. I guess I'll tell you guys if it's worth it to me or not.

 

InControl is not a general remote client for your phone (i.e. it can't run anything that your phone can run). It runs specific, Jaguar-approved apps.
The list of apps currently approved is here:

In Control Apps (scroll down a bit)

Since Land Rover uses the same software platform for InControl, the same apps also appear here:

Overview | Land Rover USA

Jaguar is looking to add more apps to the platform, but I'm deeply skeptical that this will amount to anything actually useful: apps evolve way too fast for Jaguar/MB/BMW/etc to keep up.

 

Really the only good app on that list is Stitcher (and the only one I have heard of) but since it is audio you can just stream it from your phone like any other audio app.

I think the holy grail of auto infotainment will be when you can just clone your smartphones view to the dash and have full touchscreen control over it. No wires. The technology already exists. They just need to wrap the view with their own UI to switch to vehicle specific items.

 

I would be happy if Jaguar just support Google Map's send to car.

The remote UI concept sounds easier than it is. Apple has had an automotive division working on this for some time. There are a lot of problems: it's hard for auto manufacturers to support screen gestures (swipe, pinch, etc), and many applications (especially for iPhone) are written in "pixel perfect" form which means they will not render properly on low-quality screens.
It may be a few years before auto manufacturers get the retina-quality displays required to properly emulate native apps on mobile phones, sadly.

I think Apple's solution is to try to embed the iPad or iPad mini displays into cars so that you are basically running the entire infotainment system natively. Uptake has been slow...

 

It's actually pretty easy to do in the android ecosystem. You don't have to worry about "pixel perfect" layouts. It is all dynamic as it should be. Size agnostic. I develop this stuff for a living and it isn't that hard. All the gestures (swiping, pinch zoom etc) are baked in these days, nothing to recreate, even on a remote display We shouldn't have low quality screens in these cars anyway, especially considering the price they usually charge for nav/entertainment units. Even this Incontrol app costs more than what a 1920x1080 10" display would cost. Telsa has no problem with their 17" display.

Last thing I want though is an ipad integrated into my car. Surely they have learned from all the outdated ipod connected cars out there. Technology advances way too fast to limit yourself to a single product. That's why the screen should just be a dumb terminal. Your phone powers it, no matter what phone you have, or OS. Use an incar local wifi to mirror the display.

The more I think about it, the more I should just go out and develop my own prototype.

 

Do it!!!!
There is a giant pile of money available for whoever develops a reasonable android-based infotainment system. Google is not nearly as organized as Apple around this, and I agree the Android platform is more suited to this than iOS.

 

Can the F-Type stream music wirelessly via Bluetooth? Like Pandora?

 

You also have the liability issue - there are already way too many people dicking around with their phones while driving.

 

Yup.
Also, when using bluetooth the left steering wheel buttons are mapped to volume, next track, and previous track, which is handy.

 

That's cool to know. Starting to think the Incontrol app might not be worth it.

 

I looked at it and quickly decided it was crap. IMO...

 

Google I/O announced some major android changes today which may make the screencasting/remote UI a lot easier for manufacturers to work with.

 

I literally just read that too. They are allowing screen mirroring through chromecast now among other new items.

Guess I better hurry up.

 

Haha yup.
Really nice set of announcements in all. Loving Material Design and Polymer.

 

Just got this doc today. This should pretty much confirm your decision to not buy this option. Being an IT geek I did (rather blindly) order this option so I'll do my best to find something to like about it when my R arrives next week. It looks like I get a USB port that I can recharge my phone with in the car - which is nice

The electronics and infotainment in my 2014 Jeep GC is much better, and other than winter driving I do expect this is the only time I will make that statement. Good thing is the $650 is rounding error...