Ford Sync turns your car into a WiFi hotspot |
Ford’s next generation of Sync systems will have yet another useful feature. This time around it’s built-in Wi-Fi, turning your car into a rolling hotspot. You’ll be able to share a 3G connection with a driver-defined list of devices.
Of course you’ll need to use your own 3G card, which will plug into the Sync’s USB port. I’m sure other auto makers will offer Wi-Fi soon as well. Then we really will always be connected.




This stretch limo Batmobile is what Batman and Robin ride around in on their off hours. Maybe Bruce wants to take Robin out for some Ice cream or to the opera. Nothing wrong with a rich dude taking his child ward out on the town in a stretch limo is there? I mean sure, you could take a lady friend, but…We’ll you and boy wonder have an odd relationship.
Pandora has it’s sights set on a variety of options for in-car music streaming. The news comes straight from Pandora’s Chief Technology Officer, who told attendees at the SF Music Tech Summit that the company is working with car manufacturers to more thoroughly integrate Pandora into vehicles.
JVC and Kenwood have partnered to release their very first car navigation system, which is dubbed the MDV-313. The device features a built-in DVD player, an integrated 1Seg TV tuner, USB port and virtual 3D maps and more.
ArcherMind has just unveiled the result of their collaboration with Chinese hardware makers, the first in-car navigation system based on Google’s Android operating system. Embedded with an ARM core processor, the system was shown off at the Embedded Technology 2009 event in Japan.
So you drive around in an Gremlin, but what you really want is a Porsche or a Ferrari. Unfortunately you can’t afford one. Which is why you are in your little bucket of rust. Well, the Soundracer can help. It won’t convert your heap into a sportier car, but it will plug into your car’s cigarette lighter port, and use an FM transmitter to play real V8 or V10 engine sound effects to the stereo.
Rave Computer is offering a rugged in-car computer dubbed the MIL-SPEC-810F, which debuted at the MILCOM 2009 exhibition. It’s a fanless computer powered by an Intel 1.6 GHz Atom N270 processor, which consumes less power, making it suitable for nearly all vehicles and almost all conditions.
If you thought the
Car keys are so last century. They’re only good for scratching other people’s cars out of revenge or scratching instant lottery tickets. We have the iPhone, who needs keys? More cars are starting with just the push of a button these days anyway. More will follow. Viper is creating a keyless future with their new iPhone app that unlocks and starts your car for you.
It would be pretty handy to have a black box for your car, just like airplanes have. That way if you got into an accident, saw a crime being committed or got beaten up by a cop for no good reason, you would have a record of the event.
The Lexus name is all about luxury, so why not incorporate some iphone docks? That’s just what they’ve done with the hybrid Lexus LF-Ch Concept. They’ve added rear seat headrest-mounted iPhone docks. That should help keep your little hellions quiet on your next roadtrip.
The most interesting aspect of the APSI C100 is that it features a large touchscreen display that can be removed from the dock and used as a portable media player. This gives you two gadgets in one and some bragging rights when your buddies are in the car.
Parrot’s RKi8400 in-dash car stereo was made for the iPhone, so you can take a nice drive and have all of your tunes hassle-free. When you get a call it goes into hands-free mode using Stereo Bluetooth connectivity and A2DP support.
One of the last realms for users to get always on Internet connections that can be shared is in their cars. We can already get Internet in cars with mobile phones or 3G dongles, but it can be hard to share. A company called Dension has announced a new USB dongle that provides wireless connectivity to users in the car.
Are you a talker? I mean a serious talker? Well feel free to talk away with the Motorola T215 Bluetooth car speakerphone, which boasts three days of talktime and was specially designed to work with other hands-free car kits.