I just got a similar unit from CarLinkIt (a TBox Plus). It also can use a sim card and a memory card. I added a memory card, but didn't have a sim card handy. Instead, I linked the unit's WiFi to my home's WiFi while the car is in the garage, and turn on my phone's hotspot when away from home. The unit will use the Google Play store to add apps, or it can load them from the memory card if you copy something to it from another website.

I've been watching Car Scanner on the infotainment screen and found a GPS app with a good display to let me compare the speedometer with GPS speed. The nav apps still disable the internal Kia navigation, although I can see the Kia map in split-screen while navigating with an Android app (ABRP, Google Maps, or others).

 

So, I think the reason for the device going off line was because my phone was connected to both the car and the device. I've disconnected my phone from the car and tuned off Android auto and the device seems to be staying connected 👍

I've put an SD memory card in but it made no difference. The SIM arrives tomorrow.

Tried connecting the device to my PC but nothing is shown.

And I've edited the apps shown but can't add things like Netflix?

 

The CarLinkit unit has Netflix pre-installed. They mention to not upgrade it even if it says there is an update available. Must be something going on there.

I think the memory card is probably most useful if you want to download videos and watch them offline. I don't really know what I've done yet that uses it.

 

I think the memory card is probably most useful if you want to download videos and watch them offline. I don't really know what I've done yet that uses it.

Not that I'm advocating that folks should do so, but for folks who torrent recent theatrical movie releases because they don't want to wait before they officially become available for streaming it could be a decent reason for being able to watch such movies from their CarLinkit device. Yes the device has up to 128 GB of onboard storage but hey, you can never have enough space.

 

Well, I went ahead and put the SIM in. Then disconnected the Bluetooth. The device kept playing music on my Spotify account, so I guess it now has its own access to the web.

I then tried making a call via the car, the odd thing is that it made the call via my phone, even with Bluetooth off, although the call was sent to my phone.

Installed Amazon prime video and Disney plus on my phone, but there's no option to add the apps to the device and play on the car screen.

 

Not impressed with this device, on eBay it's going....

 

Does anyone know how to do a factory reset on these? I gave my T-Box to a friend and can't seem to figure out how to wipe. The factory reset option seems to remove programs but not a full wipe as I'm still signed into several apps.

Thanks!