2013 MODEL PIONEER AVH-X1500 DVD / AVHX1500 DVD

Enjoy robust multimedia features with AppRadio functionality
Intuitive user interface and touchscreen controls
Pandora Radio Ready for iPhone
3 RCA Preouts (2V) and Navigation Ready
6.1-inch WVGA touchscreen with 16 9 aspect ratio

I bought this unit to install in my Toyota Sequoia. I searched everywhere for this unit finally found it on Amazon for less than $250. The install was simple and the unit looks good I’m my Toyota.

This is the newer version of the AVH-1400DVD with a bigger screen (6.1 versus 5.8), The mixtrax, and the ability to use App Radio a huge plus for me so basically you get the App Radio and all the other features of The AVH-1400DVD for the same price.

To use the App radio you have to get the Pioneer CDIOU201S cable and hook it up to the rear of the radio. If you want the ability to use the apps and watching a DVD without having the vehicle parked I would get the Microbypass interface also an easy install.

I’ve had this deck for over a month and I get a lot of comments, the deck sounds great running on my factory speakers. I recommend this deck for anyone looking for a nice deck for a cheap price.

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Preface: Do you like to read books? If so then this review is for you! LOL

**Pros:

*Screen is high resolution, vivid color reproduction.

*A lot of features and capability for the price. This radio is a good bargain.

*Good audio quality (with the exception of Mixtrax see below).

*Multiple A/V inputs for various external sources.

**Cons:

*FM radio reception is sub-standard.

*Limited video codec / container format support.

*No line-level audio output for external LCD panels with IR headphones.

*Very little GUI customization basically just background picture and some predefined color schemes.

*Sluggish GUI response compared to modern tablets and cell phones.

*No Android phone support at all, only interfaces with specific older models of iPhone.

*Volume controls cannot be accessed by feel, and the mute button is often hit by accident.

I’ve had this radio installed for a couple months now. Let me start off by saying I’m a bit of a technophile I like electronics, and I’m also a software developer. So I have rather high standards for both hardware and software. Perhaps I nitpick more than most, but at least you’ll find a number of details about this radio (specifically, things it cannot do or does not do well) that you may not find elsewhere. I originally rated this radio as 4/5 stars after installing, but I’ve bumped it down to 3/5 after becoming more familiar with the various limitations. I don’t think many of these limitations are specific to this model more than likely they also apply to the more expensive Bluetooth model, etc.

I bought this radio for the more “advanced” things it can do. Like playing movies and TV shows off of external drives, hooking car PCs up to it, etc. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about what it does well, because I think other reviewers have covered the positives. I’m going to point out some negatives that I did not discover until actually using the unit.

**USB Drives

I planned on plugging my 1 TB external HDD into the radio, and thus always having full access to the huge number of TV shows and movies without having to swap discs or even USB drives. Unfortunately the radio would not recognize the drive at all. After some digging through the specifications I found that the radio only works with FAT and FAT32 formatted drives, and most large drives are pre-formatted NTFS, which the radio will not recognize. You will have to reformat your drive to FAT32 if you want to use it with this radio so be warned before you spend many hours loading it up with files.

**USB Audio playback

This portion of the radio is decent. You can throw your MP3, etc, music files into folders on your USB drive, and the radio plays them back. Now, as other reviewers have noted, the radio is very strange about listing that music when you’re looking at the files directly. It does not sort by file name (actually it doesn’t sort by anything at all, which is the oddity). Instead it lists files in the order they were copied onto the drive. So for all intents and purposes, the files appear randomly when viewing them directly. The solution is to create a music database. This is done by pushing a single button, which prompts the radio to find every song, extract the song info (title, album, artist, etc), and create a database. Once you’ve done that the songs are properly sorted by title as one would expect. Any album art is also displayed, which prompted me to go back and spend the time to fix up a number of my MP3s, as when I ripped music way back when I didn’t bother including album art. It’s nice seeing the album picture of the current song that’s one of my favorite things about having an LCD display for a radio.

If you make any changes to the music on your USB drive the radio will recognize the change, and ask you if you want to rebuild the music database again. I’m just not sure why it can’t do all this automatically in the background, which would also solve the oddity I mentioned above about the file sorting.

When playing an MP3 the radio shows two small icons a folder icon and a music icon and next to each is the folder number and song number. So if you are on song 5 of a particular folder, it will show a 5 next to the music icon. What the radio does not do, and what I really miss, is that it doesn’t show you the total number of songs in the current folder. So I know I’m on song 5, but out of how many? Most people rip their CDs into folders, that way you can jump from folder to folder to move from album to album. I want to see 5/14, to know I’m on the 5th song of 14.

**USB video playback

Video playback is one of the main purposes I chose a radio with a huge color screen. After all, if I only wanted to listen to music, I could’ve saved money and gone with something with easier to use physical controls (like a volume knob, etc). Unfortunately video play back is only mediocre with this radio. It does not recognize a number of popular video container formats, like 3GP, MP4 and MKV. It won’t even list files with those extensions. Considering those are the video formats used by mobile electronics like smart phones and tablets, it is rather inconvenient that the radio cannot play them.

I tried playing an AVI with DIVX video encoding and MP3 192kbps audio. For some reason it says “Unsupported audio format” and plays only the video. It does properly play a video with a 110kbps audio stream, so perhaps it doesn’t play 192kbps? I’ve got a couple other AVI files that it says it cannot read as well. I have yet to figure out the exact limitations as far as bitrate, etc, that the radio does not support. I have a series of videos that will play correctly only if started from the beginning and allowed to play without interruption. As soon as I seek, or if the video has to resume (like when turning the car off and back on) then the audio will no longer play. I have to seek back to the very beginning of the video, and only then will the audio play (and will only continue to play if uninterrupted).

It does play many of my other videos perfectly, however I was disappointed early on with the number of videos that it cannot play. I was hoping for better versatility and compatibility in this day and age. Reencoding videos is not a fun nor fast process.

Did you notice above, where I mentioned the oddity of how the Pioneer does not sort files by name, and they appear in the order they were copied onto the USB drive? That applies to videos too, however in this case it’s much worse, because there isn’t any database function for videos! So that means whenever you navigate videos, the order of the files is essentially random. I have a folder full of Spongebob episodes for my preschooler. When I go into that folder they aren’t sorted neatly by season and episode, as I have them named. It’s just a hodgepodge of randomness. That is not cool.

**USB Pictures

The JPEG picture loading is rather slow (scans down the screen from top to bottom over the course of a second or two). There is also a noticeable flickering in areas of the picture with fine detail. I think the screen might be interlaced and renders every other line each pass, which causes flickering where there are pronounced horizontal lines in the picture.

**GUI

The GUI is only moderately responsive (don’t think it’s super smooth like an iPhone or modern Android phone the scrolling menus, etc, are laggy). It is definitely faster than the older model AVH-P1400DVD my local Walmart has on display (for $80 more too, LOL). However it is still somewhat laggy when scrolling up and down through song lists. When you navigate from one folder to another there is a delay as the files appear one at a time.

I’m disappointed in the lack of customization in the GUI. For example I can’t control what kind of information is displayed or where, or font sizes, etc. There are only a handful of color schemes to choose from (5 I think, just your basic colors), and just a few animated backgrounds. The Spectrum Analyzer animated background lags behind the actual music so bad that at first I thought it was just purely random motion, until I looked closely and saw that it did seem to crudely follow the music to some extent. If you enable the Spectrum Analyzer background then it automatically disables the album cover art picture (the SA animation is shown in its place). Since the cover art display is one of my favorite things about having a full screen LCD radio, well, that’s two strikes against the Spectrum Analyzer for me.

**Display

*Resolution

For its size, the screen is high enough resolution to look sharp and clear. I would consider it a “retina” display simply because it is far enough away from your eyes (unlike cell phones and tablets, which you use closer to your face) that it isn’t possible to make out individual pixels. It is very crisp and clear. The previous generation to the AVH-X1500 DVD (the AVH-P1400 DVD) has a much lower resolution screen that looks very pixelated, so the display on this radio is a big improvement.

*Polarization

One downside is the polarization. If you wear a good pair of polarized sunglasses you will find that the display is quite dark. If I tilt my head just slightly to the right the polarization lines up with that of the display and it becomes completely black. If I tilt my head a little to the left of center the display becomes brighter. The display polarization should have been aligned optimally with this in mind that many people would be viewing it with polarized sunglasses. Thus the display is much harder to see in daylight with polarized sunglasses than non-polarized sunglasses.

*Brightness

The backlight is normally plenty bright for daytime use. However, the display backlight becomes dimmer when your headlights are on as it should so you aren’t blinded by it at night. The problem is that the dimming level is fixed. It’s all or nothing if the car lights are on the display dims to a preset level. The radio ignores the variable dimmer control of your vehicle (and mine is definitely wired correctly). So in those situations when it’s bright out but you need to use your headlights (like wet road conditions, rain, etc), the radio display will become too dim to see very well. I’ve had to use my headlights even when I needed to wear my sunglasses, and in that case the display is completely impossible to see. If the radio had proper variable lighting then you could turn up your gauge dimmer all the way and the radio brightness would also be at maximum, but Pioneer cut corners on that one.

**Physical controls

*Control lighting

The color of the buttons along the left edge of the radio are customizable, in that you can adjust the RGB color (there are at least a couple hundred colors to choose from there is a single slider the width of the screen that spans the spectrum, but you cannot set RGB intensities individually). However, the buttons’ backlight completely ignores the dimmer / headlight level. Only the screen backlight gets dimmer when your headlights are on the physical buttons always remain at full brightness. You cannot control the brightness of the buttons at all, only the color. Thus at night they are pretty bright brighter than my gauges or anything else on my dash. This is another area Pioneer cut corners with this radio. I was able to pretty closely match the color of the other gauges in my vehicle (kind of a pale green color), which was nice. I just wish they dimmed with the vehicle’s variable dimmer as most radios do.

*The Mute button is directly below the Volume Down button and is easy to hit by accident. I’ve muted it by accident many times when I was just trying to turn it down a little. Physically there isn’t any kind of bump or divider separating the volume and mute buttons the whole thing is perfectly smooth across all 3 buttons. I’m very surprised that a company like Pioneer, who has been making car radios for decades, could have designed a radio with volume controls that cannot be used by feel and thus require the driver to stare at the radio to make sure they press the right area. I could understand if the volume control was part of the touch screen and virtual, but it is not, yet Pioneer did not take advantage of having physical controls by making them easy to use by touch.

If you press the Mute button again it unmutes the radio and it returns to the previous volume level. However, an oddity is that when the radio is muted and you press Volume Up or Volume Down the volume jumps down to 0. Coupled with how easy it is to accidentally press Mute instead of Volume Down, that gets rather annoying. If I accidentally press Mute, then hit Volume Down or Up and then I have to scroll all the way back up to my previous volume level manually. I think pressing Volume Up or Down should just unmute and go back to the previous level.

*The eject button does not function when the vehicle is off. I guess that’s either good or bad depending on your personal preference. The OEM radio the Pioneer replaced could eject when the car was off (and it was a 6 disc changer), which was convenient to run out to the car and grab a CD without having to mess with the keys. On the other hand, perhaps it’s good that the disc can’t be ejected without the keys, as a security type thing.

**FM Radio

*Radio reception is markedly worse than the OEM radio this Pioneer replaced, or the factory radio in my Nissan Quest, or any of the other vehicles I’ve operated. One particular station I’ve listened to regularly for the last 20 years has so much static that I can no longer listen to it. When I installed an external LCD screen I had to pull the radio out to hook it up, so I took that opportunity to make sure the antenna connector was well seated I hoped that perhaps it just wasn’t plugged in properly and that was causing the poor reception. Unfortunately the antenna connection wasn’t the problem the radio just has suboptimal FM reception. This is one of the reasons I reduced my rating from 4 stars to 3.

**External LCD

I installed a Performance Teknique Icbm-9939 12.2″ Ceiling Mount Flip-down Monitor (see my review of that product it’s a good LCD for the money) for the kids to watch movies in the back seat. The good is that the video output works exactly as expected. Further, if you connect an external A/V source (like a game system the Wii is 12V which makes it well suited for car use) the radio will pass that video through to the external A/V output too. I was a little concerned it wouldn’t but that works as it should.

HOWEVER, there is a major, major limitation when it comes to using an external LCD with this radio. Most car LCD monitors have wireless infrared audio output, which allows people in the back to listen to the audio with wireless headphones so everyone else doesn’t have to hear it too. Here’s the problem with the Pioneer it has no fixed-level audio output (at least none that I could find). What this means is that if you run your audio output line to the LCD panel, as I have done, then when you turn the volume down or mute the radio, it also affects the output volume to the LCD panel and thus to the headphones. In other words, it is impossible to have the kids listen to a movie using only headphones so the driver doesn’t have to hear it. Now, I anticipated up front that the Pioneer was not advanced enough to work as the OEM radio in my Nissan Quest, which allows the kids to listen to a movie via headphones while the speakers play something entirely different out loud, like the radio or CD. I figured the Pioneer could not do that, and it doesn’t. But the fact that the wireless headphone capability of my LCD panel is totally useless because of the Pioneer is a big let down. There’s no point in the kids using headphones when the movie has to be blaring out the speakers for them to work.

**Powering on

When turning the car on, the radio start up time is fair, but not great. For example if you were playing a movie off of a DVD or USB drive it will have to reload / buffer the movie, which takes a few seconds. I have a Nissan Quest with a factory entertainment system and it always resumes instantly (I assume it buffers several seconds of the DVD into memory). The Pioneer does not work that smoothly there is a few second delay.

Some reviews have complained about the radio “forgetting” what MP3 it was last playing when you start the car. I have also seen this many times now. It seems to me that the radio only occasionally saves the current place in a song. When you start the car all power to the radio is pulled abruptly, and it doesn’t have time to save the current position. So when it powers back on it has to resume to wherever it saved last. Often that means it jumps back into the song you played before the last one. Yeah, that’s annoying. It doesn’t do it every time though. Maybe one of four times I start the car.

**Pioneer Mixtrax

Pioneer Mixtrax on this radio is a complete joke. I really don’t know why they wasted time developing this, because to me it is useless. What it is supposed to do is analyze your music, find songs with a similar tempo, then kind of jump from one song to another and mix them up. It has various audio effects (some of which are pretty cool) to “blend” from one song to another. You can set it to play a song for up to a certain amount of time say 45 seconds then it will jump to another song. Now, for starters, the type of music I listen to is not conducive to this. Maybe it is useful for dance or rave music or something that’s pure beat, but for 90% of “normal” music, it’s simply annoying. Nothing is as grating as getting into the flow of a song to have it abruptly yanked out from under you.

So what I did was set Mixtrax to always play the entire song, that way at least I could make use of the neat transition effects from one song to another. I discovered 2 major issues with this. First of all, it still cuts off a significant portion of the song it lops off a full 20 seconds off the end of the song. Now, when I’m listening to Norwegian Wood and I don’t get to hear where Lennon burns down his girlfriend’s flat because she made him sleep in the bathtub well, that messes up my day. So it’s a nonstarter for me right there because it still truncates the music.

But here’s the real killer Mixtrax destroys the music fidelity. If you have this radio then listen to a song with good highs and lows, and turn Mixtrax on and off and on and off and listen closely. It totally cuts off the highs and the lows. It just kills the fidelity entirely. I think I know why when Mixtrax is running the radio as to reprocess all the audio on the fly that is how it adds effects to the song. The CPU / software in the radio is simply not powerful enough, so the bitrate has to be reduced and thus the fidelity is destroyed.

So even for those of you that listen to the exact right kind of music that Mixtrax would be useful for, it’s no good because it greatly reduces the audio quality of the music.

**A/V inputs

The radio has 3 different inputs for A/V:

*Aux input, which is just audio only. This is for plugging into the headphone jack of your iPod, phone, etc, so you can play the audio out of the radio. That works fine, and is nice when I want to stream some internet radio station from my phone through my radio. The audio was good and clear sounded great.

*A/V input, which is full video and audio input. I use the A/V input to hook up a Raspberry Pi computer to it. You can also hook up things like Wiis, XBox, etc anything with a video output. As I mention above, this is passed through to the Video Output too, so it can be viewed on external LCDs if you have them installed. It would be nice to be able to change the A/V button’s icon in the menu. The icon is a video camera, and I’m not sure how many people would be plugging video cameras into their car radio, so it’s probably not very applicable.

*Rear view camera. I have not hooked one up yet, but the radio will automatically switch to this video source when you put it in reverse (if you have that wired to the radio). It is nice having that independent of the A/V input so you can use both a backup camera and game system / computer without having to unplug things back and forth.

**App mode

I have an iPad, but I haven’t bothered buying the expensive Pioneer App cable to hook it up to the radio. There’s not much point in doing so since my iPad doesn’t have 3G data, so I can’t listen to Pandora through it anyway. However, I do have a Samsung Galaxy S3, which I cannot connect because Pioneer was too cheap to create the software to allow it. Pioneer does have units that work with Android phones, but not this one. Either Pioneer wants to save money by not bothering with the most popular smartphone in the world (Android holds 75% of the phone market), or Apple paid them money not to. Either way, Pioneer is saving money at our expense by not supporting Android.

**GPS Module

Pioneer offers the AVIC-U250 Add-on Navigation System , which adds GPS navigation to this head unit. However, it costs $320, which is 150% of what I paid for the radio itself. Plus, given all the GUI deficiencies the radio has, I don’t trust Pioneer to make a GPS that’s half decent.

Read Best Reviews of 2013 MODEL PIONEER AVH-X1500 DVD / AVHX1500 DVD Here

Love this receiver! I have no problem with my iPhone 5 hooking up to it with the ipod connector that came with it.

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If you plan to use this radio with a iPhone 5 it will not work. It does not support the new iPhone 5 cable and not play music through your iPhone.

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Just installed this in a 2002 F150 this weekend. It will fit but with some modification to the inside of the dash. Wiring harness was easy and color coded the same as the harness for the vehicle. Wire ends could have been pre stripped but no big deal. Also got the parking brake override from amazon and that was easy to install when hooking up the wiring harnesses. The aux jack is in the rear of the unit so I picked up a male to male 3.5 mm stereo wire (6ft) from walmart and ran it through the cup holder compartment. Picture quality is great, but gets a little washed out from the sun as they all do. Overall, for the price, this unit is great. Pieces not included but recomended: Vehicle specific harness-$5 on amazon. Vehicle specific face plate trim-$10 amazon. Parking brake override $15-20 amazon. 6foot aux cable $5 walmart but could probably find it on amazon. Not difficult to install but dont try it if you dont have the right tools and some basic knowledge of how things work

SiriusXM SXABB2 Portable Speaker Dock

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Enjoy class-leading sound quality with a powerful 30 watt amplifier and 2-way speaker system
A concealed handle and built-in antenna cradle with cable storage make it easy to take SiriusXM wherever you go
Plug into an available AC outlet or listen anywhere with battery power (Requires 8 C-cell batteries, sold separately)
Use the included remote control to easily operate both the Portable Speaker Dock and Satellite Radio
Listen privately using the headphone jack
Connect MP3 players, CD players or other audio devices via the Aux In jack (Aux In cable sold separately)
Compatible with the following satellite radios: SiriusXM Lynx, SiriusXM Edge, XM Onyx, XM XpressRCi, XpressRC, Xpress & XpressEZ, XM XMp3i and Pioneer XMp3, Sirius Sportster 5, Sirius Starmate 8, Starmate 5, Starmate 4 & Starmate 3 and Sirius Stratus 6, Stratus 5 & Stratus 3.

I was worried about how this thing would sound and perform. My first experience with a portable sat unit (a Sky-Fi, My-Fi)was lackluster for sure. I mean its a portable satellite radio unit so my expectations were forgiving. Man o man, this thing is great! Sound quality, specifically bass response is mind blowing. I would go so far as to say it would rival the sound docks from Bose. Getting a strong sat signal can be tricky at times. It takes a little bit of practice and knowing your cardinal directions (XM recommends aiming the antenna south) but surprisingly for the most part you can just point it at the sky and rock on. I have on occasion been able to set it on the kitchen counter and aim the antenna southward and it work just fine inside the house!

Now for the downside. And there is only one. Battery life does seem a bit short. But in its defense it does have to power the unit in addition to the internal amp for the speakers, and I was not using a high quality set of batteries. But even so I would not expect it to last a super long time. It does sort of stink that it needs (8) D cell batteries, but with a good set or rechargeable batteries I expect it should last a while loner. Hey you got to pay to play right? I plan to try it soon with the good rechargeable batteries I have and update this review.

Side note: I did have one issue while using the unit. It was an isolated incident but the volume would cut out and the lights around the volume knob would flash randomly. It only happened once and I use this thing 3+ days a week, also since I cannot replicate the problem I would not say it is an issue, just wanted to point it out.

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I love the sound and the ablitly to plug in an ipod and headphones. The styling is sleek without buttons or knobs. The antenna cord can wrap neatly into the back and the antenna stows on the back also. We have the dock infront of a window and it works great until someone sits down next to it (not infront of the window) then it cuts in and out so that is why I didn’t give it all five stars. I’m not sure if this is caused by the dock/antenna or the receiver. Now we can use our XM Onyx radio in the car and in the house or outside. I was a little reluctant because of the price but the sound quality was worth it. I wish we would have purchased it a long time ago.

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I would highly recommend this speaker dock, it was easy to set up and sounds great. It also is light and easy to move around.

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I have a SiriusXM XPress RCi which is a great fit for this portable speaker dock. It is easy to set up & operate. The sound is crisp and clear, for the most part. However, I did notice that the speaker dock seems to over heat while using the battery supply when setting on a solid surface & will shut the system down. When you plug the power supply cord in, the speaker dock begins working again. This would be very inconvenient if you were not close to an outlet. So far this has not been a significant issue yet because we have only used it on our deck where a power outlet is available. I have not tried elevating the speaker dock on something like a cooling rack which would allow air to circulate around the speakers. This might help to keep the bottom of the speaker dock from getting too hot. All in all this is a great way to enjoy your SiriusXM service other than in a car!

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We purchased the speaker dock to replace a heavy boom box and are thoroughly pleased with the design, which is compact and attractive, and the sound which is great. It is easy to move around. We use it much more than we ever did the boom box.

Dual Electronics XGPS150A Universal Bluetooth GPS Receiver

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I just used the Dual XGPS150 on a recent trip, and found that it worked very well indeed. The only issue I have encountered is potential incompatibility with specific applications that, by the express intent of the provider of the application, are not compatible with external GPS receivers. This is the sort of thing that many people would not anticipate, because it is counter to common sense, but it is real. I recommend that prior to purchasing any external GPS receiver, that you start by identifying the particular application that you expect to use, and that you confirm with the supplier of that application that the application is compatible with external GPS receivers. I’ll discuss this further in a bit.

I did not encounter any issues with the Bluetooth connection between the iPad2 WiFi and the Dual XGPS150a. The XGPS150a did not exhibit any problems with maintaining continuity of satellite reception or continuity of its knowing its precise location. It was highly accurate. I am particularly pleased with how quickly it figures out its location after having been powered off for a while. It does this within just a few seconds, which is a small fraction of the time that my high-end Garmin Nuvi needs to figure out where it is.

There is a competing device that hangs directly from the docking port, and I just think that this is a very dumb idea. Yeah, there is nothing about the docking port that prevents this sort of thing, but it is suitable only for cables and cradles. Nothing should be attached there in the way that that thing does. It is only a question of when, not whether, you snap it off, ruining the accessory at least and possibly even damaging the port on the iPad or iPhone, which I expect would be a costly repair.

For owners of WiFi-only devices, there are generally two issues that you have to sort through when it comes to applications. The first issue is the issue of off-line maps. As most people quickly figure out, Google Maps on the iPhone/Pod/Pad relies on continual Internet connectivity to download pieces of the map on the fly, as you travel or even as you scroll around the map without moving. The same behavior applies to most of the map apps that you can buy at the app store. This is obviously an issue for mobile use of WiFi-only devices, but it is even an issue for devices enabled with cellular-based data communications (3G, etc.), because in rural areas, loss of data connectivity is even more prevalent than loss of voice service. (And as has been reported elsewhere, it is all too common for 4G services to revert to 3G, in which case the data rate plummets from something remarkably fast to something more like a very slow DSL connection, which could adversely affect the ability for the map application to update the map as you are moving.) When you evaluate specific applications relative to this need, you need to pay close attention to the particulars of how you select the map segments that get stored in the device. And ignore all the misinformation that you find on web forums, telling you about some trick for forcing Google Maps and similar apps to cache maps in the device. Categorically, those tricks do not work.

The other issue is with forced incompatibility. Fundamentally, there is no apparent reason why an application that works with internal GPS receiver would not work with an external GPS receiver. In fact, it might not even be possible for the application to detect the difference. Nevertheless, the provider of the application can flag the application such that you cannot even download the application into the device if the device does not have an internal GPS receiver. In particular, I discovered that this is what MotionX, the supplier of several navigation applications, does. If your device does not have an internal GPS receiver, you cannot buy MotionX GPS applications directly from the device (via the app store application), and if you go the iTunes route, you can buy the app but then during the app synching phase, iTunes will give you a message saying that the app could not be downloaded into the device because the application is not compatible with that device. This is not some sort of oversight or snafu or whatever. It seems counterintuitive, but MotionX’s concern is presumably that without this restriction, some people (cheaters) who use external GPS devices would purchase the app and then demand a refund, claiming that the app is not compatible with the device. It remains to be seen whether MotionX and Apple will figure out a better way to address this concern, but for the time being at least, you cannot download MotionX GPS applications into devices that lack internal GPS receivers.

This concern is potentially an issue for GPS applications in general, which is why I recommend that you start by selecting the application that you intend to use, and make certain that there is no compatibility issue of this sort, before you purchase any external GPS receiver. I had hoped to use MotionX GPS HD, mainly because it is so much less expensive than TomTom, which is a very expensive application at around $50. Before buying the TomTom application and then finding out that I had wasted my money, I attempted to get confirmation from TomTom that there were no issues similar to the situation with MotionX. I called their tech support number and then waited on hold for a long time and eventually spoke to someone in Mexico who absolutely assured me that TomTom would work only with either the internal GPS receiver or else their own docking cradle (for the iPod/iPhone not sure if they even have anything for the iPad). Then I sent an email asking for clarification, and I got a response that was confusing but that seemed to corroborate what I was told over the phone. I sent a reply to that email, and a day or two later I got another reply correcting the earlier reply, stating definitively that TomTom GPS app is compatible with all external GPS devices. That second reply even included a link for a page on their web site that indicated the same thing, although not as definitively as I would have liked. I have not decided whether to purchase TomTom, but I am confident at this point that should I choose to do so, I would not encounter an issue similar to the issue with MotionX, and in the unlikely event of such an issue, there should be no difficulty in getting a refund through the app store.

Garmin also makes a car navigation app, but presently it is an iPhone-only app. Presumably it would run on the iPAd, but either using only a small part of the screen or else blown up with lousy resolution.

I only really wanted a good map application anyway, as opposed to full-blown turn-by-turn navigation with route planning and so forth. I found two good applications: PocketEarth, and MapsWithMe. Of the two, I like PocketEarth better, because the graphical representation of the maps was easier to read and interpret, particularly with respect to freeway ramps, which sometimes are incredibly complex. PocketEarth even shows bypasses and roads that are presently under construction but not yet completed. They were indicated using dashed lines to distinguish them from existing roads, but even the ramps were indicated. This was impressive to say the least.

My final observation is for the benefit of anyone who has not purchased an iPad and who is debating whether to get the WiFi-only version or the version enabled with mobile data capability (3G, etc.). I recently had a discussion on this question with a friend who is considering buying an iPad. Notwithstanding the availability of external GPS receivers, and notwithstanding that you can get those little devices that translate 3G (or whatever) to WiFi, and notwithstanding that the offline maps issue is an issue even for devices that are enabled with mobile data communications, we agreed that for anyone wanting to use an iPad for navigation purposes, it is wise to spend the extra money on the iPad with the data capability (3G, etc.) and then purchase service for it on a monthly basis as needed, which is a nice thing that you can do with the iPad.

Just wanted to let folks know that this product does indeed work with the newest iPad, the one that came out (in the USA) in March, 2012.

I have a wifi-only iPad version, and the Dual Electronics works great with it.

This device pairs easily and quickly with the iPad. It also has great battery life.

The Dual Electronics device works with my iPad’s navigation software. In specific, a Navigon North America navigation application. (Its great having a huge screen to view your map the screen of the iPhone just can’t compare and nor can dedicated GPS devices.)

I downloaded the free app “Dual GPS Status Tool” onto my iPad and it gives all sorts of detailed information about the GPS device (e.g., battery life) as well as about the satellites to which its connected.

To test the Dual Electronics device, I drove my 52 mile-roundtrip daily commute in the Washington, DC area. During these drives, the Dual Electronics device had no problems maintaining a connection to the satellites, to my iPad, and as a result the Navigon app on the iPad worked great.

Its great not to have to worry about holding the iPad a certain way in order to get GPS this external GPS always sits on your dash.

I use, in addition to this Dual Electronics device, the Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 3G Mobile WiFi Hotspot Modem, Refurbished (Verizon Wireless) so that I can connect the iPad to the internet and get the latest traffic reports while using the Navigon app.

Note that in order to test whether this GPS device is truly working properly, I tested without the WiFi connected (because the iPad has a feature where it can determine approximate location if connected to WiFi, even without a GPS connection).

So, in sum, I can report that this external GPS works, as does its software and the software of 3rd parties such as Navigon, with a WiFi-only device such as the iPad.

P.S.: Not to get too technical here, but its adorable a little cute guy with its own form-fitting dashboard mount.

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I had a bad elf external gps, which was being used with foreflight. An IPad app that I use daily in my flight training. To my disappointment, the bad elf had a very hard time locking on satellites and further more, while a great idea to run off iPad power it proved not a great design for being in a cockpit, ESP small light planes I fly.

A fellow student raved about the xgps150, and let me borrow it. I was shocked at how quick it locked on to satellites, and that it worked in my home as well. Solid as a rock. Battery life is good. My flights never go over 2 hours. The non-slip pad, is excellent and works well on an inflight dashboard. I have the xgps150A, which allows a 12-30V input for aircraft 28vdc systems. My advice for foreflight users, buy it buy buy it! It is on foreflights approved external gps list now. Its light and compact. Free shipping on amazon as usual.

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Just received the XGPS150A about 21 hours after I ordered it. Can’t beat Amazon Prime shipping!

I was concerned, as others were that this unit would operate with my WiFi only iPad and MotionX-GPS HD. I emailed MotionX and received a positive answer in less than an hour. Using my new iPad (3) the following apps work fine, Maps, MotionX-GPS HD, Google Earth, ArcGis, iGIS and EasyTrails GPS. I did not try the Dual GPS with MotionX GPS Drive, because I have it on my iPhone 4s and don’t use it much. Also, you can preload maps with GPS Drive, but you need WiFi if you need to recalculate your course.

I downloaded satellite maps of my area into MotionX-GPS on the iPad, and took a short walk and created a track and three waypoints with the Dual/iPad and my iPhone 4s. One of the waypoints was much closer with the Dual unit and the other two were different, but equally off by about 15 feet. The track was much closer with the Dual than with the iPhone. With the Dual, both coming and going pretty much overlapped and were mostly within the path I was walking on. With the iPhone, the coming and going did not overlap at all and were on both sides of the path, sometimes by quite a lot. To be fair to the iPhone, it was in my pants pocket and the Dual GPS was on my arm with the handy but somewhat difficult to use arm strap.

One of my planned uses for the Dual GPS and iPad combo is to map the locations of trees and plants in a GIS database. The ability to download satellite maps into the WiFi only iPad (don’t need a WiFi or cell phone connection) and now have GPS is theoretically an improvement over using the iPhone because the iPad screen is much larger. One thing that I did not count on is that the iPad screen is almost impossible to see in sunlight. This diminishes the advantage of using the satellite maps in the background to make sure you have the exact location.

The Dual XGPS150 Status App is pretty cool and gives more information on the satellites than you would get from the iPhone.

I think this is a fantastic product and I am very glad to have it. I have not tried it with my laptop, but assume it will work well with it also.

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If you just got your shiny new iPad or are a bit under impressed with the TomTom car adapter this is for you. This unit is deceptively small and uses your Bluetooth connection to connect to your phone. The battery lasts for 10+ hours of continuous signal acquisition. It is able to see it’s position in 3D space so with the arm strap you could use it for geocaching or to capture signal for your sports apps that track your position for speed and distance. I live in the sticks and quite frankly am less than impressed with aGPS signal acquisition.

It is a really nifty app that lets you see how many satellites are overhead, and which ones it was able to use to construct your position and then gives a reliability rating for its trustworthiness. Even in a building I was able to get at least 4 satellites. It has a 20 channel signal and up to a 5 Hz refresh rate. Way better than a standalone GPS unit.

I love the fact that where my GPS apps used to grey out or bounce around the map or show my position several yard off, now it is razor accurate.

Its only downside, is that it takes a bit to lock into the satellites, but it is a small price to pay for this level of accuracy.

It is not waterproof, but since it is Bluetooth, putting it in a baggy for protection is simple and effective without stopping its usefulness.

It comes with a rubber sticky square so you can throw it on the dash of your car (even a curved part) and it will mold and hold to the dash give it great line of site to improve your acquisition rate. It also comes with a Velcro strap that can be doubled to fit on your arm or leg (or really big arm) for motorcycle, bike, or running. The strap fits through two small loops on the bottom of the unit so you don’t have to worry about losing it in the woods. I love it.

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Russound X75 2-Channel Dual Source Amplifier

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RUSSOUND 2800-533020 2CH DUAL SOURCE AMPLIFIER

I bought the Russound X75 for my office setup, which consists of source material on the computer feeding two sets of speakers, one indoors, one outdoors.

This is not a critical listening setup, given that most of the music comes from iTunes (compressed digital) and I’m driving a pair of Sony bookshelf speakers of decent but not super quality. The speakers give out before the amp does, and I can drive both sets of speakers simultaneously louder than I want to listen to them (or the neighbors should be asked to endure)and still enjoy smooth and effortless sound.

I love the simplicity of this amp! It has all I want and nothing else, which gives it a very clean, uncluttered look and makes it a snap to operate. You can select Speakers A or B or both, adjust the balance, and adjust the volume. That’s it. If you want to further tailor the sound, you might be able to do so through the computer interface depending on your sound card, or you can add a pre-amp, equalizer, etc.

Here are the cons, and they are really, really minor:

The amp has automatic switching, meaning that you can hook up two sources and it will switch automatically between them. Your primary source plugs into Line 2, which strikes me as counter-intuitive. If the amp senses a signal from Line 1, it’ll override Line 2. It just seems strange to me that your primary source plugs into Line 2, and I can imagine this causing some confusion for people who don’t read the manual. I have only one source, so I haven’t tested the auto-switching function.

The speaker buttons are kind of annoying, in that when you select A, B automatically de-selects. When you push B, A deselects. To get both, you push both buttons in simultaneously. This seems needlessly fiddly to me.

The red LED power light is obnoxiously bright. Blindingly bright at night even in a fully lighted room, like someone shooting a laser pointer at your eyes. It’s nothing that a piece of electrical tape won’t fix, but I hate to stick tape on such an elegantly styled front panel.

The big plus, though, is the sound. (My wife just entered the room and remarked at how nice it sounded.) Now I want better speakers!

In short, I highly recommend this amp even with the quibbles!

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The X-75 would have been a good choice had it included the features claimed by the manufacturer in their user’s guide. But the X-75 lacks an important feature the auto power-down on loss of audio input, does not exist.

That feature, even though listed as a feature, and described in the user manual, only exists in Russound amps costing more than twice as much.

So the thing is an energy hog 24 x 7 x 365 unless you turn it off with the power switch directly.

Much cheaper to buy a lower-priced amp and a speaker switch or fader pads than this.

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Needed an amplifier to push my in ceiling/wall speakers in formal space and pool side speakers. This amp does that perfectly! Given that most of those type of speakers aren’t powerhouses it performs better than expected. Is the sound as good as an upper level denon receiver-NO. Does it provide decent sound for Zone 2/3 operations-Yes. I gave 5 stars because it exceeded my expectations for the price.

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Have multi-zone sony stereo receiver. one room 5:1 surround, and second zone connected to four rooms (each has two in ceiling cambridge soundworks speakers). for some reason blew three different receivers with multi-zone as i must have a resistance problem some where.

then decided to get russound x75 to power zone 2. zone 2 now works perfectly. much louder and clearer. receiver still works perfectly.

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Fantastic product to turn any audio generator, such as an ipod, sonos, etc, to a multi-room amplified system. This amplifier has A/B speaker switches, two line in options, and most important to me, sleep option. This is huge. Now we can leave it on all the time wo heat concerns. (In sleep mode, still a little warm, but nothing compared to full throttle.) This product was exactly what we were looking for.

Coby CXCD329 Personal CD Player

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Slim Compact Design
Digital LCD Display
Skip, Search, Pause/Play, Hold functions
Automatic power off
60 second anti skip memory

Plays great, has skip protection. The Fwd and Back buttons can take to next/previous track. Also, they can shuttle backwards second by second to play or replay what’s ahead / behind.

The battery compartment door is very “loose.” It slides open almost too easily, and uncareful handling can make the door slide open a little when this is not desired. Using paper or something could rememdy this. For the price, this is a great personal CD player. Glad to have it.

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I put this on my wishlist because I didn’t want friends spending a lot of money, but I could use a CD player. It feels flimsy and cheap. It goes through batteries like crazy. There is no way to stop it at a particular location and re-start later at that same location. If you hit pause and are delayed coming back, the batteries are dead. The left side of the headset already stopped working (I’ve had it for about 1 1/2 months of minor use). I do not recommend this to anyone. It’s very annoying.

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I bought this product so I could listen to CD’s while in bed. When I got the CD out of the box and attempted to use it, I had to readjust the headphone jack several times to get the sound to work on both sides. The place to put in the batteries was cheap plastic and will break easily if mishandled. This product does work, but, you must handle with care for fear of breakage. I feel this product will at most last a year because it is made so cheaply. If you want a CD player then pay a little extra to get one that is made better.

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I received two of the CD players beecause of a delay in shipping. I overpaid. The construction is barely there, the anti-skip protection is non-existent. On an enviromental standpoint the player EATS batteriers. You can do better.

I bought this when my other player just gave up the ghost. I had it for a very long time. I can’t complain about this new one except it seems to use up batteries very fast. Other than that it works just fine.