Livio Radio Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit Consumer Review

Livio Radio Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit

The Bluetooth-enabled Livio Radio automotive kit makes an attempt to be the Holy Grail of dashboard connectivity devices, marrying smartphones with older cars that lack the hardware to completely support them.

The main plan behind the device ($120 from Livio, cheaper elsewhere) is that you just will wirelessly play music from your iPhone or Android phone via your car’s speakers using an FM radio affiliation, thus whatever’s taking part in on your phone gets piped through the car’s radio.

The phone and also the Livio dongle (which plugs into the cigarette lighter and is regarding the scale of alittle stack of credit cards) communicate using Bluetooth. It simply syncs together with your car’s radio and your phone, and features a USB port on the facet to stay your handset juiced up.


Like alternative devices during this class, it conjointly works as a hands-free phonephone. you'll be able to answer calls with the press of a button, however dialing out should be done on the phone. The caller’s voice comes through your car’s speakers and sounds nice and clear. Of course, anybody else within the automotive will hear the conversation — a and or minus relying upon one’s viewpoint.
[Livio] recently detached an API for the device, permitting developers to code their apps so that they will be controlled via the buttons on the unit.

But Livio isn’t solely intent on connecting your MP3s and your phone, it’s tackling apps, as well. the corporate recently detached an API for the device, permitting developers to code their apps so that they will be controlled via the buttons on the unit. a number of the partners already using the API are streaming services like Rdio, NPR, Live365 and AirKast, that may be a streaming platform for little radio stations, thus it’s helpful for being attentive to sports broadcasts outside your native market. additionally to the apps the are enabled through the API, Livio makes its own phone app which will access some forty five,000 web stations, that is pretty cool.

In theory, the device is that the excellent accent for vehicles while not built-in smartphone capabilities, like my 2002 Volkswagen Eurovan camper. It will work as advertised, principally while not problem. however in my months of testing it, I encountered many annoyances that almost prompted me to toss it out the window many times.

There were some things I liked. when years of suffering through touchscreen menus whereas driving, this device let me simply cue up some Beatles while not ever losing sight of the road. On family journeys, my 11-year-old son, sitting within the back seat, may take management of the device along with his iPhone and stream from his iTunes library or his Rdio app, keeping him busy and entertained. That was pretty awesome, except once I had to bark at him to show off the most recent profanity-ridden rap song.

But the largest travesty of the Livio is how it nearly created my ears bleed on multiple occasions, to not mention those of my black Labrador and 2 juvenile-delinquent sons. If you switch the device off whereas leaving your radio on, you’ll be greeted with an ear-frying pop. If my dog may speak, she would have yelped “WTF!” when.

When all goes well, the device simply pushes your music through a vacant FM station on your radio. However, constant maddening popping sound (sometimes in the midst of static) happens whenever the vacant slice of spectrum you're dialed into starts to urge edged out by radio stations as they are available into vary. If you’re driving long distances, or if the radio dial is already crowded in your town, this happens quite alittle. And if you’re an audiophile, you'll be able to ignore being happy with the sound quality. The Livio leaves a little hissing sound within the background, but slight. however it absolutely was a nuisance enough that it turned my session with the invention box set of Pink Floyd remasters into a bummer.

But don’t get me wrong; all of the Bluetooth and app connectivity functions work okay, and also the audio-quality issues I experienced are par for the course with most of those devices that consider an FM transmitter. however I even have nonetheless to ascertain one thing that clears these hurdles elegantly.

So despite the injury to my family’s eardrums, the Livio has promise.