xcel
02-24-2007, 12:25 PM
The new gadget will make cell phone and music player use a hands-free and voice-activated operation. (http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024648)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/550/2008_Ford_Focus_Coupe.jpgDoug Newcomb - MSN Autos - Feb. 23, 2007
Making its debut at the North American International Auto Show 2007 in Detroit, the 2008 Ford Focus will be one of the first Ford vehicles to feature Sync.
Ford's Microsoft-developed Sync links mobile phones and portable music players to a vehicle for easy and safe hands-free operation.
If you're cruising with a portable media player you probably have a wire or two dangling from your dash. Or maybe you've risked life and limb to find a particular tune on your iPod or just to answer your mobile phone at highway speed.
Ford's new factory-installed Sync in-vehicle entertainment and communication system, developed in conjunction with Microsoft, promises to not only free your car's cockpit from a tangle of wires and help keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, but it may also alter the way in which the latest electronic gizmos are integrated into vehicles.
By providing a means to operate almost any Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and portable music player seamlessly and safely, Sync reaped multiple awards and overwhelmingly positive press when it was unveiled last month at both the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and North American International Auto Show 2007 in Detroit.
But Sync's greater significance was largely overlooked by the press—that it could potentially allow automakers tied to multi-year product cycles to finally keep up with the quick-paced consumer-electronics industry, in which 12- to 18-month cycles are the norm.
Sync is slated to debut on a dozen Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the fall, including Edge, Explorer, Ford Five Hundred (soon to be Taurus), Focus, Freestyle (soon to be Taurus X), Fusion, Milan, MKX, MKZ, Montego, Mountaineer and Explorer Sport Trac. The beleaguered U.S. automaker has stated that the exclusive option will spread to its other vehicles as soon as possible.
The new technology offered on an entry-level car such as the Focus is largely unprecedented, since it typically takes several years for such high-tech features to trickle down from the luxury segment.
"Ford is matching Sync with the target audience," observed Phil Magney, president and chief analyst at Telematics Research Group, which follows trends in automotive electronics. "The people buying entry-level cars are more technology savvy than the luxury car buyer. But it would have to be priced below $500," Magney added, "and in reality it should be priced around $300."
Tying It All Together
The main components of Sync—Bluetooth hands-free capability, USB connectivity, voice-activated controls—are already offered by other automakers, although in a less cohesive and comprehensive approach.
"The majority of the solutions available do one or two things," Magney noted. "What makes Sync compelling is it will probably be priced similar to those options but deliver more. It's a very practical solution, but it doesn't do everything" Magney added. "For example, it doesn't provide navigation or telematics."
While Bluetooth-enabled hand-free phone capability has been around for a few years, Sync offers additional capabilities and conveniences. As with most such systems, Sync allows hands-free operation of a Bluetooth phone and calling from a phone's address book. But it will also dial stored numbers simply by speaking the name of an entry in the address book, such as, "Call Bob at home" or "Call Bob at the office."
And though some cars, like the Mercedes S-Class, can receive and send text messages, Sync will read messages aloud and also translate emoticons, such as "LOL" and "XOXO," as well as allow the driver to reply to a text message with preprogrammed responses such as "Meeting Cancelled" or "Can't Talk Right Now."
All of this can be done by voice-activation and steering wheel controls, or by controls in the dash when appropriate. Sync operates in English, French or Spanish, and Ford claims it doesn't need to "learn" special commands or individual voices, as is the case with some voice-activated systems.
The other major component of Sync is integration and control of the omnipresent iPod as well as the Microsoft Zune, other "Plays-for-Sure" portable media players that use a USB connection and even USB "thumb" drives.
Sync is also the first OEM audio system to permit wireless streaming of music from phones and portable music players—or a combination of the two—using Bluetooth's Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). It's also the first to offer streaming of Internet radio from a phone.
A USB port links portable media players to Sync and charges the device to boot. Once the player is connected, digital audio files—including MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and PCM—can be accessed via a variety of voice commands.
Music can be requested by artist name, track title, album, genres and playlists simply by saying, for example, "Play artist Beck or play genre reggae." A "Play Similar" feature even organizes music into categories by their shared melodic characteristics. If you're listening to, say, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and activate the "Play Similar" feature, Sync will cue up comparable cool jazz from your portable music player.
Shortening Tech Lag Times
While the premise behind Sync is to enable drivers to bring their portable electronics onboard and conveniently connect, control and charge them with embedded electronics, the system also solves a major dilemma facing automakers. Today people expect to be connected and entertained 24/7 and spend more time behind the wheel than ever. But consumer-electronics technology typically changes faster than automakers can react.
Consider how long it took car companies to add something as simple as an aux-in jack well after the iPod phenomenon took off. Plus, with the issue of driver distraction gaining attention and more states moving to enact laws banning the use of handheld phones, vehicle manufacturers and electronic suppliers have been searching for ways to safely accommodate drivers and their growing array of gadgets.
One thing that makes Sync groundbreaking is that it was developed in a relatively short time frame by auto industry standards. According to Velle Kolde, a product manager for in-vehicle systems at Microsoft involved on the Sync project, work began in earnest on the system in early 2006.
"And with vehicles not available until the fall, we still have some runway left," Kolde added. He also acknowledged that Fiat's Blue&Me feature, which Microsoft also developed and was introduced in Europe in early 2006, includes elements of Sync's capabilities, such as Bluetooth hands-free and a USB port. "It's not as comprehensive," Kolde said, "but we were able to use it as a building block for what we needed to do with Sync."
"Microsoft realized that getting product to market in the automotive world can be a long process," commented Magney. "And Sync is a system that can be implemented without having to reengineer a vehicle's center stack and it speaks the common language of most of the audio and multimedia technology within cars. So it can be developed faster than something designed from the ground up."
Magney shared an anecdote that illustrate the impact Sync—and other such systems that are likely to follow—could have on automakers' ability to more quickly adopt new consumer-electronics technologies.
"About three years ago I was giving a presentation on the increasing popularity of providing iPod interfaces," he recalled, "and afterwards a Ford engineer approached me and said, 'It's great to hear about the trends that are starting to occur, but you have to understand we at Ford would need about five years to get something like this into production.' So clearly, that comment demonstrates that this is a system that they were able to bring in relatively quickly."
Another important element of Sync is that, according to Ford, the system's software can be upgraded by consumers themselves via the web or through a dealer. That means as new technologies are introduced, Sync and future gadgets can be compatible.
"A big part of our design goal was to make Sync updateable," Kolde said. "We saw other systems where you bought a car with an integrated hands-free phone and a year later the phone was obsolete—and you can't buy a new phone and use it with the onboard system. It's our goal to support virtually every Bluetooth phone and every media player out in the market, and there's an excellent chance that whatever Bluetooth-enabled phone or media player you have will plug into Sync and work."
Design Win
"I think it's a great design win for Microsoft and I think it's good for Ford because they need new technology," said Magney. "Granted, it takes more than a few electronics gizmos to sell a car. But certainly from a consumer-electronics standpoint Sync is cutting edge. It's a very robust system."
Of course, it all sounds good on paper and worked great in demos we witnessed at CES, but we're also eager to see how it works in the real world and out on the road. So stayed tuned for an extensive evaluation of Sync.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/550/2008_Ford_Focus_Coupe.jpgDoug Newcomb - MSN Autos - Feb. 23, 2007
Making its debut at the North American International Auto Show 2007 in Detroit, the 2008 Ford Focus will be one of the first Ford vehicles to feature Sync.
Ford's Microsoft-developed Sync links mobile phones and portable music players to a vehicle for easy and safe hands-free operation.
If you're cruising with a portable media player you probably have a wire or two dangling from your dash. Or maybe you've risked life and limb to find a particular tune on your iPod or just to answer your mobile phone at highway speed.
Ford's new factory-installed Sync in-vehicle entertainment and communication system, developed in conjunction with Microsoft, promises to not only free your car's cockpit from a tangle of wires and help keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, but it may also alter the way in which the latest electronic gizmos are integrated into vehicles.
By providing a means to operate almost any Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone and portable music player seamlessly and safely, Sync reaped multiple awards and overwhelmingly positive press when it was unveiled last month at both the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and North American International Auto Show 2007 in Detroit.
But Sync's greater significance was largely overlooked by the press—that it could potentially allow automakers tied to multi-year product cycles to finally keep up with the quick-paced consumer-electronics industry, in which 12- to 18-month cycles are the norm.
Sync is slated to debut on a dozen Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the fall, including Edge, Explorer, Ford Five Hundred (soon to be Taurus), Focus, Freestyle (soon to be Taurus X), Fusion, Milan, MKX, MKZ, Montego, Mountaineer and Explorer Sport Trac. The beleaguered U.S. automaker has stated that the exclusive option will spread to its other vehicles as soon as possible.
The new technology offered on an entry-level car such as the Focus is largely unprecedented, since it typically takes several years for such high-tech features to trickle down from the luxury segment.
"Ford is matching Sync with the target audience," observed Phil Magney, president and chief analyst at Telematics Research Group, which follows trends in automotive electronics. "The people buying entry-level cars are more technology savvy than the luxury car buyer. But it would have to be priced below $500," Magney added, "and in reality it should be priced around $300."
Tying It All Together
The main components of Sync—Bluetooth hands-free capability, USB connectivity, voice-activated controls—are already offered by other automakers, although in a less cohesive and comprehensive approach.
"The majority of the solutions available do one or two things," Magney noted. "What makes Sync compelling is it will probably be priced similar to those options but deliver more. It's a very practical solution, but it doesn't do everything" Magney added. "For example, it doesn't provide navigation or telematics."
While Bluetooth-enabled hand-free phone capability has been around for a few years, Sync offers additional capabilities and conveniences. As with most such systems, Sync allows hands-free operation of a Bluetooth phone and calling from a phone's address book. But it will also dial stored numbers simply by speaking the name of an entry in the address book, such as, "Call Bob at home" or "Call Bob at the office."
And though some cars, like the Mercedes S-Class, can receive and send text messages, Sync will read messages aloud and also translate emoticons, such as "LOL" and "XOXO," as well as allow the driver to reply to a text message with preprogrammed responses such as "Meeting Cancelled" or "Can't Talk Right Now."
All of this can be done by voice-activation and steering wheel controls, or by controls in the dash when appropriate. Sync operates in English, French or Spanish, and Ford claims it doesn't need to "learn" special commands or individual voices, as is the case with some voice-activated systems.
The other major component of Sync is integration and control of the omnipresent iPod as well as the Microsoft Zune, other "Plays-for-Sure" portable media players that use a USB connection and even USB "thumb" drives.
Sync is also the first OEM audio system to permit wireless streaming of music from phones and portable music players—or a combination of the two—using Bluetooth's Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). It's also the first to offer streaming of Internet radio from a phone.
A USB port links portable media players to Sync and charges the device to boot. Once the player is connected, digital audio files—including MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and PCM—can be accessed via a variety of voice commands.
Music can be requested by artist name, track title, album, genres and playlists simply by saying, for example, "Play artist Beck or play genre reggae." A "Play Similar" feature even organizes music into categories by their shared melodic characteristics. If you're listening to, say, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and activate the "Play Similar" feature, Sync will cue up comparable cool jazz from your portable music player.
Shortening Tech Lag Times
While the premise behind Sync is to enable drivers to bring their portable electronics onboard and conveniently connect, control and charge them with embedded electronics, the system also solves a major dilemma facing automakers. Today people expect to be connected and entertained 24/7 and spend more time behind the wheel than ever. But consumer-electronics technology typically changes faster than automakers can react.
Consider how long it took car companies to add something as simple as an aux-in jack well after the iPod phenomenon took off. Plus, with the issue of driver distraction gaining attention and more states moving to enact laws banning the use of handheld phones, vehicle manufacturers and electronic suppliers have been searching for ways to safely accommodate drivers and their growing array of gadgets.
One thing that makes Sync groundbreaking is that it was developed in a relatively short time frame by auto industry standards. According to Velle Kolde, a product manager for in-vehicle systems at Microsoft involved on the Sync project, work began in earnest on the system in early 2006.
"And with vehicles not available until the fall, we still have some runway left," Kolde added. He also acknowledged that Fiat's Blue&Me feature, which Microsoft also developed and was introduced in Europe in early 2006, includes elements of Sync's capabilities, such as Bluetooth hands-free and a USB port. "It's not as comprehensive," Kolde said, "but we were able to use it as a building block for what we needed to do with Sync."
"Microsoft realized that getting product to market in the automotive world can be a long process," commented Magney. "And Sync is a system that can be implemented without having to reengineer a vehicle's center stack and it speaks the common language of most of the audio and multimedia technology within cars. So it can be developed faster than something designed from the ground up."
Magney shared an anecdote that illustrate the impact Sync—and other such systems that are likely to follow—could have on automakers' ability to more quickly adopt new consumer-electronics technologies.
"About three years ago I was giving a presentation on the increasing popularity of providing iPod interfaces," he recalled, "and afterwards a Ford engineer approached me and said, 'It's great to hear about the trends that are starting to occur, but you have to understand we at Ford would need about five years to get something like this into production.' So clearly, that comment demonstrates that this is a system that they were able to bring in relatively quickly."
Another important element of Sync is that, according to Ford, the system's software can be upgraded by consumers themselves via the web or through a dealer. That means as new technologies are introduced, Sync and future gadgets can be compatible.
"A big part of our design goal was to make Sync updateable," Kolde said. "We saw other systems where you bought a car with an integrated hands-free phone and a year later the phone was obsolete—and you can't buy a new phone and use it with the onboard system. It's our goal to support virtually every Bluetooth phone and every media player out in the market, and there's an excellent chance that whatever Bluetooth-enabled phone or media player you have will plug into Sync and work."
Design Win
"I think it's a great design win for Microsoft and I think it's good for Ford because they need new technology," said Magney. "Granted, it takes more than a few electronics gizmos to sell a car. But certainly from a consumer-electronics standpoint Sync is cutting edge. It's a very robust system."
Of course, it all sounds good on paper and worked great in demos we witnessed at CES, but we're also eager to see how it works in the real world and out on the road. So stayed tuned for an extensive evaluation of Sync.