So, when Alpine gets something right, it becomes a reference.
However, when the get a compatibility bug built in, it seems to be
a brain-out affair.
I've recently encountered two such foul-ups;
CDA-9887 plus I-Phone.
Had a customer with a system in place for over a year, and he WAS thrilled with the performance, in spite of the lack of charging support for the iPhone.
About a month ago, he upgraded his iPhone firmware, and is now unable to access the music on his iPhone through the CDA-9887.
To be fair, Alpine could not possibly anticipate Apple's changes, but it still sucks. And they (Alpine) have not, as yet, produced a HU that has the signal processing power of the CDA-9887 plus iPhone compatibility.

Worse still, is the incompatibility of the DHA-S690 DVD changer with the ION Bus interface for the F1 Status. Plug in a CDA-S634 and all's well. But with the DVD changer, the DVI-9990 does not even register that the changer is plugged into the system. So, you're stuck having to use the Aux input and the stand-alone mode of the changer, which means another remote control, and a system that's a bit distracting to use in changer mode. To me, if it's distracting to use, that makes it unsafe.

Anyone else care to chime in, or perhaps enlighten me on any possible work-arounds that might remedy these lamentable oversights?

And don't get me started on the logic (or lack thereof) behind DVD region lock!