My phone is also my GPS and I find that it helps to look at it from time to time even with voice guidance. Also I need to be able to reach the siri button to call people and change playlists. I have a very good view of it when I am in drive instead of park like now.

I mount it a case that has gotten loose with time so it holds enough that the phone stays in place but still very easy to get out one handed. The charger cable is help with a clip just under it but I only connect it on long trips. The case is held on by strong two sided adhesive foam tape.

 

Kinda defeats the purpose of sync if you press buttons on your phone, lol! Just press your voice button on your steering wheel and you can call people and change playlists with your voice without ever touching your phone.

 

But you can do other things (apps) and it's still quicker to press buttons than get in the silly voice command loops where it doesn't understand you or give you what you want.

 

It's more the interference issue. I've had occasion where there are skips or pauses with BT on many devices, not just the truck.

 

It's really the same for calls and songs. One button press.

Things I can do while driving using siri that I can't using sync:
Send a text message(I think maybe that works with sync, not sure with iphone over BT)
Add a date to my calendar
Dictate a note
Ask for things like weather and such. I never actually do that.
Also I think with the iphone you need USB to transfer playlist metadata; could be different with other phones.

But 99% of the time I just choose one playlist when I get in and then use the next button on the steering to skip songs. I very rarely do anything else with siri or sync. On very long drives I'll listen to podcasts and I need to touch the phone for that.

I'm sure it's a matter of personal preference. My phone is very much at the center of my workflow so it makes sense to me to use it as a portal even when driving and just use sync as a microphone/speaker system. For others maybe it's easier to use sync.

 

After swapping trucks with a friend, the one with the 2011 like mine but with nav, it really rekindled the frustration of my truck's Sync not working problem when resuming Bluetooth Audio.

I put my phone in my left pocket top first with the screen facing my leg. That means that when I'm driving, I just slip my left thumb into my pocket and hold the button for a second till Siri's little *dingding* noise lets me know to say whatever. I find it works a lot more reliably than Sync itself, but I don't need to worry about leaning back and to one side, steering across my body my off hand, trying to dig my phone out of my pocket without pulling the case apart or getting hung up on my jeans or whatever else while I'm trying to drive. I use my truck as a daily driver, not only long or heavy hauls, and my commute is really only about 10 to 30 minutes depending on traffic, so I don't really need my phone actually out in my hands almost ever. On long trips it will generally get pulled out anyway and dropped into one of 4 cup holders in front of the center console.

I've never had issues with Bluetooth calls or audio skipping or sputtering through Sync. I have had issues with my phone's Bluetooth connection interfering with my wireless camera system I break out occasionally when backing up to a gooseneck, but that's no biggie.

 

I guess it depends on what you have and want to do. I have the nav with travel link so i can look at weather map and forecast just by pressing voice and saying weather map or whatever through myford touch. I use a usb drive for music instead of ipod because it works much better and doesn't ever lock up or give indexing error so I use sync quite a bit. Mostly for phone calls and playing a specific track or playlist. I have sirius and sirius Internet radio so i download episodes of the Jason Ellis show and play them from phone via Bluetooth sometimes. My Bluetooth had worked flawlessly every time I've used it.

 

Exactly, I download podcasts and like having them on the phone, plus I have to charge the phone anyway. No way that I'm going to be able to play 8 hours worth of BT without charging, so at that point I might as well use USB audio for the podcasts. I installed a ProClip with the dock/charger built in. It made for an extremely clean install and the have a mount that accepts my iPhone and Otterbox Defender.

 

Here is the ProClip for iPhone and Otterbox Defender with the built in dock installed. It doesn't really block the vent. I do have to be careful when shifting from D back towards P so I don't move the phone around. Not a big issue. The mount will also rotate so you can have the phone oriented in the wide view. While the two piece clip and phone mount isn't the cheapest thing I've found out there, this is by far the nicest I've seen and it accommodates the Otterbox



This is the dock without the phone. Phone slides straight in. Very easy



Side view that shows how it latches and you can see the charging wire entering the media compartment



Ignore the Cigarette lighter adapter. That is an extra one I carry. The wire from the dock is plugged into the bottom USB port. I used some adhesive wire clips. You can't see the wire from the drivers seat.

 

that is not a bad setup and you get used to it. This is what I had on my 6.4..almost the same and ran it there for almost 5 years

 

It looks like the '13+ have a different dash setup. Never knew about that "media compartment" there

 

Like the looks of the old dash much more; the '13 is Fugly.

 

whats with that cheap looking airvent?

 

In te media center? That is a speaker. Close the lid and you have a smooth surface on top.

When I first saw the new center stack I didn't like it either but soon got used to it because of the neat features.

Admittedly I miss the open tray on top for my wallet and stuff but there are now other places that are just as good for them

 

My 150 had a little ledge above the screen that was prefect for setting my phone on. I miss that a lot because I have a Galaxy note note 2 and it doesn't fit in the cupholder unless you take the little insert out. Annoying. Ford has the worst cupholders I've ever seen. I wish they would copy Chevy and dodge, they do cupholders right! Those little rubber things inside that hold multiple size beverages are sweet. That compartment on top of the dash is neat and works great for the usb ports but it should be a little bigger, not enough room for anything I've tried to put in there so far. I think I liked the 150 layout better but I'm still getting used to this 350. I really miss the physical Button for my ac seats. You gotta press it 3 times to shut it off and it was super fast and easy with a real button but the touchscreen is slow and it takes a lot longer. With a button I could do it in les than a second but now it takes 5 seconds which seems like eternity, lol!