Apple Carplay is a system in newer car media systems that allows one to control certain phone apps from the car's dashboard monitor (or steering wheel controls), so the driver can stay focused on the road. Apps that offer native support of Carplay have icons that appear on the dashboard monitor, and app output is mirrored to the screen. Android has a system called Android Auto which I have not used but I assume is somewhat similar.
The current implementation of JRemote using Apple Carplay is functional, but could be much better. A user needs to start the application from their phone, connect to their server from their phone, set the playback zone and choose media to play, all from the phone. Once that has been accomplished, a basic control appears on the dashboard monitor offering skip or pause. It requires a lot of interactions with the phone app, and if the wireless data signal is lost, the only way to recover is to use the phone app.
I would like to suggest a few ways that JRemote could better integrate with Carpplay, to make JRemote easier and safer to use in the vehicle.
First, native Carplay support would be important. With the JRiver app icon visible on the dashboard it would enable the driver to start it without fumbling for the phone. App menus then would be mirrored to the dashboard screen for easy server, zone, and content selection.
Second, the app could offer an option to automatically reconnect to servers after signal dropouts or data stream errors. I had a recent trip that took me through some data dead zones. JRemote would lose my server, and to reconnect I was required dig out the phone again and tap the server icon to reconnect. I often had to re-choose what content to play. Sometimes data interruptions would case a "streaming error", and it could not be closed without digging out the phone. It would be much safer if the app could detect when wireless data were available again, automatically reconnect and start playing audio again without any user input. Streaming errors would appear on the dash screen, and have a timeout that would then automatically try the next available track to play.
Third suggestion would be to integrate Siri support, so JRemote could be controlled via voice commands. This could be a simple set of basic commands, like "Play next album" or "Skip this song." Or it might be more advanced like "Play Playlist 'Road Trip'" or "Add Tom Waits 'Rain Dogs' to queue."
My last suggestion would be to be able to play video content on the car dashboard screen. This is a tricky request because obviously drivers should not be watching video while they are driving. However, other occupants of the vehicle could be entertained if this were possible.
If these features were implemented in a V.2 of JRemote that required a new purchase, I would not hesitate to pay for the upgrade.
