Wife loves Apple Music, doesn't use a cell phone. No native app. Suggestions? Opinion on my plan?

[Jimrpa]

My wife is kind, compassionate, hot, fun, wealthy, my son's mother and loves to have a good time. People looking at their phones for hours a day is not good or normal even though almost everyone does it. Yes this is a bit of a PITA but it's a small price to pay. Most cars I look over into have the guy driving and the girl is sitting there on the phone. This is orders of magnitude better. Let's attempt to keep the replies to functional solutions. Thanks!

Did somebody say “wealthy”? In that case, we have to find a workable solution. I think the older iPhone you found might be viable, assuming you can still upgrade it to the latest version of iOS (important for security reasons). Note that, if you use iTunes Match or Apple Music, you’ll need a data connection to access all your music.

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[Jimrpa]

The thumb drive is a good idea I will consider based on how well the system lets you get through all those songs. Love the RS! I just picked up an "RS" myself but I have a feeling yours is probably far more fun on the road than mine and that's what counts. You have excellent taste in cars. We have a new gen Model 3 Performance "my car" and she had a Cybertruck that was matte red "her car". She loved the thing but it was a highly political machine in the wrong direction for us personally and we somehow were lucky enough to get Tesla to buy it back after 16,000 miles for almost what we paid for it. So, we need a car one way or another. She loves the Y but refuses to buy another Tesla, so Mach E it is. Also my buddy did the visual design on this car, Castriota, and it looks great. Additionally, it's only real shortcoming, charging speed, isn't much of an issue for her as when we drive a long distance we take the 3. I can see the enthusiasm for these things so I know it's good stuff.



Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words. She utilizes many aspects of Apple Music as with the T the whole thing appears much like opening the Music app on a computer. Playlists, obscure buddhist albums, searching with the keyboard for a song [when I'm driving] and using the voice assist to play music.

Based on all these replies I see no matter what I do it's not going to be exactly the same or maybe exactly as good, but there are several reasonable options to choose from and none of which are a limiter in purchasing this awesome machine.

Thank you all!

Best,
Gene

I have to ask: what is a “Castriota”? I did a search for it and only came up with a Chevy dealership?

 

[Sikkun]

Did somebody say “wealthy”? In that case, we have to find a workable solution. I think the older iPhone you found might be viable, assuming you can still upgrade it to the latest version of iOS (important for security reasons). Note that, if you use iTunes Match or Apple Music, you’ll need a data connection to access all your music.

If we are going with unlimited funds, just buy a iPhone 16 Pro Max with a data plan.

Create a separate Apple ID, make sure your subscribed to Apple Music family so you can share your plan. Or not, because money is no object.

Give the phone number to no one, give the Apple ID to no one, and never let the phone leave the car.

And now you have Apple Music fully working for the life of the car.

Now we have not solved the problem that this solution still ends up with you having a working phone in the car, but we can go further!

Install child safety locks on Apple Store, (so no apps can be downloaded), safari, email, etc. so none of those can be used. Basically child lock everything but Apple Music.

So now you have a full time non functioning phone (except for Apple Music). Let’s not even call it a phone, that has negative connotation. Let’s call it an iPod!

 

[Tscates1]

I'm not a big phone user either. Just recently we switched to an unlimited data plan (it was cheaper), so I'm familiar with limited the use of data out of the house. I also use a USB stick. Even with unlimited data, I use the USB stick.

Food for thought though... if she is in an accident (or has a medical emergency that causes an accident) and her phone is connected, the car will call 911 and dispatch emergency services to her. She might want to turn on the phone when she leaves the house for this reason only (and would have access to Apple Music this way as well).

 

[Art]

While yes there is some inconvenience to the way she goes about using technology, I assure you it's far better than the phone addicted alternative.

Anyone have any useful replies?

It just happens that I am selling my Apple Phone SE on Ebay for $85 dollars and I'm paying for shipment.
I had a Cricket plan for $35.
The Phone is in mint condition and works with my MME bluetooth.
My son bought me a phone for my birthday, so I'm selling the SE.
The phone has been in a protective case since I bought it so it is in mint condition.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I'm still of the opinion that this can be done using Focus on your wife's current phone. Set a schedule for the Do Not Disturb focus to the times your wife doesn't want to use the phone. Add exceptions for yourself, your kids, your kids' school/daycare, her parents, your parents, and anyone else who may need to contact her in an emergency. So if she only responds to stuff from 08:00-09:00, set the DND schedule for 09:01-07:59, and run with it. ?‍?

 

[ARK]

I'm still of the opinion that this can be done using Focus on your wife's current phone. Set a schedule for the Do Not Disturb focus to the times your wife doesn't want to use the phone. Add exceptions for yourself, your kids, your kids' school/daycare, her parents, your parents, and anyone else who may need to contact her in an emergency. So if she only responds to stuff from 08:00-09:00, set the DND schedule for 09:01-07:59, and run with it. ?‍?

I see it as more a temptation issue, like having junk food at home and being unable to resist. Otherwise if the will power is there, this isn't an issue at all.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I see it as more a temptation issue, like having junk food at home and being unable to resist. Otherwise if the will power is there, this isn't an issue at all.

LOL I throw my phone in a corner when I get home on a Friday and prefer not to look at it until I absolutely have to (the following Monday, or now that I'm self-employed, whenever I decide to pick it up to put it on the charger). I hate my phone almost as much as I hate the 5 second limiter. ?‍?

 

[RickMachE]

It just happens that I am selling my Apple Phone SE on Ebay for $85 dollars and I'm paying for shipment.
I had a Cricket plan for $35.
The Phone is in mint condition and works with my MME bluetooth.
My son bought me a phone for my birthday, so I'm selling the SE.
The phone has been in a protective case since I bought it so it is in mint condition.

In my experience, SWAPPA is much better.

 

[B177y]

How about something like one of these standalone carplay boxes ? From what I understand, you can insert a SIM card and use a data plan and it is a self-contained Android Auto or Carplay with no phone. You can download apps and stream with it. I guess there is also the possibility of using the car hotspot for the data connection.

 

[SteveEngineer]

To further complicate things, Tesla allowed full access to your Apple Music library, as it did on other apps.

Apple Car Play limits access to your entire library unless you are not moving, you have to rely on asking Siri to play anything.

Huh? I have access to not only my entire music library, but also all of Apple Music's library from my Fords and from my Bolt as well as on my home stereo and Apple TV. Everything just works. You must have something set up wrong ...

 

[Buh-Bye Tesla]

I’m talking about while on the move. Ford requires Siri. Tesla gives full touch screen access while driving…no need for voice control.

 

[profdraper]

Hi all,

First time poster here. We're planning on picking up a green/bronze GTPE this Friday. My wife turns her phone on once a day to reply to things and turns it off. We've owned several Teslas but are trying out a Mustang this time for...um...reasons. The Tesla can play Apple Music natively whereas the Mustang cannot.

There are two solutions.
1. Get her to switch to Spotify or Amazon Music. [which is more like Apple Music? I've never used either]
2. Hack the planet! [kind of in the most basic sense of the phrase.]

I found an old iPhone 12 mini that's cracked up bad but could work. My thoughts are to have it plugged into one of the front USB ports for wired CarPlay and hide it away somewhere in the car.

1. Some CarPlay systems require clicking a button on the phone often or sometimes or never. Does this car require interaction with the physical phone to run CarPlay?

2. If I must I can get a data only plan for ~$25/month but is Fords wifi hotspot system reliable enough that I can simply have that running all the time and have the phone connect to it?

As you might imagine my wife is not a tech person by nature so I'm looking at something as seemless and "it just works" as possible.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you all very much.

Best,
Gene

Put the audio files in folders on a stick. Much better sound with Apple's code than awful Spotify compression (and dubious artist royalties).

 

[MetalCord]

Reading through this thread is like listening to Philadelphia residents explain where the best cheese steaks are. ? We all do what we like and what works best for us. I can count on 2 fingers the number of times that I've needed to use the display to browse my media collection on the screen (from a connected USB drive) so that limitation doesn't bother me. I try to use voice commands exclusively. But that probably works well for me because I like to hear individual albums and I almost never forget the names of the albums. I'm not trying to tell anyone how they should do anything, just sharing a perspective you may not have. The voice recognition has been very good for all the years I've had Fords. I even pronounce Rammstein like the members of the band do and it recognizes it. That's with rolling the R and adding the SHHH to stein.

 

[Jimrpa]

Reading through this thread is like listening to Philadelphia residents explain where the best cheese steaks are. ? We all do what we like and what works best for us. I can count on 2 fingers the number of times that I've needed to use the display to browse my media collection on the screen (from a connected USB drive) so that limitation doesn't bother me. I try to use voice commands exclusively. But that probably works well for me because I like to hear individual albums and I almost never forget the names of the albums. I'm not trying to tell anyone how they should do anything, just sharing a perspective you may not have. The voice recognition has been very good for all the years I've had Fords. I even pronounce Rammstein like the members of the band do and it recognizes it. That's with rolling the R and adding the SHHH to stein.

Jim’s, Pat’s or Gino’s. Unless you know some “beef and beer” hole in the wall in south Philly.

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