Smart phone

[the brace]

Hello everyone

I am looking forward to collecting my new 2.0 Design Corolla estate next week.

Out of interest, can anyone let me know what I WILL NOT be able to do without a Smart phone.  Getting an automatic hybrid is a big enough tech step for me this year without also going Smart with my mobile phone.

Thanks

[bewA]

You don't have to use a smartphone.  The only thing you will miss out on is using the MyT app to view all the connected services, hybrid coaching etc etc but you can login to the Toyota site directly on a laptop if you wish to view it there, if everything is connected up already by the dealership.

You would miss out on bluetooth for calls/music as well.

It's nice to have but by no means essential to enjoy the car 🙂

[Yugguy1970]

You actually can get none smartphones that are bluetooth.

Nokia still do loads of old style handsets.

http://www.mphone.co.uk/acatalog/2323_sim_free.html

[bewA]

22 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

You actually can get none smartphones that are Bluetooth.

Nokia still do loads of old style handsets.

http://www.mphone.co.uk/acatalog/2323_sim_free.html

There's always someone 😂

[bigblock]

29 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

You actually can get none smartphones that are Bluetooth.

Nokia still do loads of old style handsets.

http://www.mphone.co.uk/acatalog/2323_sim_free.html

I actually do use an old Nokia 206 bluetooth phone for calls in my Toyota. It works a treat. Guess I'm the one Si.👍

[Yugguy1970]

There's a lot to be said for them.   Battery lasts a week,always gets a signal. 

 

[Cyker]

Yup, and also means you don't have to carry something with the footprint of a brick in your pocket!

I wish Nokia still made their old-style feature phones! I tried one of the newer HMC Global ones running KaiOS and it was a pile of garbage. All form and no function. How could they make something with smart-phone levels of hardware but feature-phone levels of features slower than an old Series 40 OS Nokia!?

 

[the brace]

Thanks for the replies.  It looks like I won't be missing anything that's important to me.

We have a couple of Samsung dumbphones (their batteries last for weeks, and they are relatively tiny, and they get a great signal) that work perfectly in our Kia Sorento via Bluetooth  -  so that's not a problem.

I don't often want music in the car (it's part of my quiet time), but I can rip a load of tunes onto a USB stick and play from there when I want (I currently use an SD card in my Skoda for this)  -  so that's not a problem either.

Does anyone know about Satnav?  For example, can I plan a route at home, and transfer it to the car via USB stick, or some other means?  That would be good, but not a real issue if not.

[bewA]

14 hours ago, bigblock said:

Guess I'm the one Si.👍

My comment wasn't aimed at you 😉👍

[AndrueC]

6 hours ago, the brace said:

Does anyone know about Satnav?  For example, can I plan a route at home, and transfer it to the car via USB stick, or some other means?  That would be good, but not a real issue if not.

In theory you can do it via the the web app but in practice I have yet to find it work at all.

[Roy124]

27 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

In theory you can do it via the the web app but in practice I have yet to find it work at all.

You can do it but it's not very good. It gives you one route and that's that.  You can add several destinations but you can't sort them even though there are 3 dots against each. Having sent to car you won't necessarily find it quickly.  It takes time to get be sent. 

[the brace]

Sorry guys, I don't have the car yet so I can't sit in the driveway and play.  But I am not sure about the language here.

Andrue: what do you mean by 'web app'?  Is that built into the satnav system, or are you talking about an app on my PC? 

Roy: similarly, what does 'having sent to car' mean in this context.  I'm asking whether it can be transferred on a USB stick, having downloaded to a PC.

Sorry to be a pain, and I am sure that when I get the car to experiment with it will become obvious whether it can (or can't) be done, and how.

[AndrueC]

24 minutes ago, the brace said:

Andrue: what do you mean by 'web app'?  Is that built into the satnav system, or are you talking about an app on my PC? 

I mean logging onto the My Toyota web site.

There's a simple answer to this entire thread: A smart phone adds nothing of any consequence to the experience of owning a Toyota. My phone is set up but I almost never bother to launch the app. You can continue to use your 20th century dumb phone safe in the knowledge that you're not missing out on anything.

At least with respect to your car.

[Yugguy1970]

Yes, you don't need a smartphone.  

If you have home wireless and a Toyota login you can connect the car directly to your wireless and download updates without needing any phone connected.

[Roy124]

Send to Car is a menu item in the Mytoyota App.  Open this, enter your intermediate destinations before the final. It calculates a route then you have the final instruction, send to car. 

If you then go to the car for the journey you can guarantee it isn't there.  It will appear sometime later. 

I think the process is from your phone to the Toyota Server, from the Server to your Router and your Router to your car.  I say your Router or and WiFi access point.  That double hop is the problem. 

I haven't tried to use my PC except to download the map update. 

[Red_Corolla]

I think the last few posts highlight the point that, whilst you don't HAVE to use a smartphone, your life is a hell of a lot simpler and easier if you DO, at least when it comes to navigation. This is not a criticism of Toyota in particular, it goes for any car. The routing & navigation facilities built into a phone these days are just better. I've found Apple carplay to be a godsend, especially in situations where you're in a foreign country, it's a hired car, the language is foreign and the postcode format is different. None of these things are an issue any more when you can just plug in your phone and immediately have access to a simpler, better system that's always kept bang up to date in terms of mapping and traffic conditions.

[Yugguy1970]

Maybe.  I find the nav in the RAV4 perfectly good, it can reroute, it knows traffic.  I can update it on my home wireless.  I have no need for pan European navigation.

I can stream music via bluetooth.  

I've not felt any need to use Android Auto at all.

 

[Roy124]

Yugguy, I looked at AA but didn't like the Google map display.  Thought I would give another go but it wouldn't work.

[Beta]

You can still use the app without a smart phone, I downloaded the app to my tablet and connected my car the the house WiFi, you can use send to car but you just need to remember to download to the car before pulling away, I've since got an iPhone and I use that. One thing the OP needs to be aware of is music on the USB stick comes up as folders a bit like a Windows computer in explorer, and I found it difficult to navigate, impossible whilst driving. I had a SEAT Leon before the Corolla and music came up as album covers that you could scroll through and select I'm guessing the same on the OP's Skoda, I could not get on with the Corolla folder system and was one of the reasons I got an iPhone.

[the brace]

Thanks everyone.  I'll wait until I collect so that I can have a good play.  I'll be interested to learn whether my wifi signal is strong enough to get from the hub to the driveway  -  it's a bit of a stretch.

[Beta]

2 hours ago, the brace said:

Thanks everyone.  I'll wait until I collect so that I can have a good play.  I'll be interested to learn whether my wifi signal is strong enough to get from the hub to the driveway  -  it's a bit of a stretch.

Have a look for a WiFi extender, I have a TP-Link one. My WiFi signal was hit and miss on the drive but with the extender no problems, I can even get it when parked in the road. Wait till you get your car to see if there is a problem first though. 

[AndrueC]

Yeah the built in sat-nav is fine. The graphics are a little bit 'cartoony' but it does the job. I don't think it's road choice is any better or worse than any other and at least you can edit the map to make corrections (though it might take a year before they appear in an update).

I didn't want a built in sat-nav. It was just unavoidable on the Excel trim and there were other things on there that were must haves (keyless entry for one). But I feel no need to ignore it in favour of my smartphone. Having to plug the smartphone in just makes it even less convenient. I already have my music source plugged in and don't want to clutter the car with a USB hub.

But even if Toyota had given us multiple data USB sockets I think I'd still be happy enough with the built-in software.