The recent release of the iPhone OS 4.0 included at least a few new features that will benefit the automotive industry.
Multitasking has gotten the headlines and rightfully so. It is a powerful addition and something that has been significantly lacking from the iPhone arsenal (much like copy and paste was lacking for so long). For [...]
Posts Tagged ‘infotainment’
iPhone OS 4.0 Has Automotive Implications
April 19th, 2010 
Jeff Shariat 
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, Telematics 
Tags: automotive, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, mobile, News, tech, Telematics 
Comments OffRear-Seat Entertainment Sales to Double by 2015
April 13th, 2010 Jeff Shariat iSuppli is forecasting that by 2015 worldwide sales of rear-seat entertainment systems will almost double their 2009 level (of 3.1 million units) reaching 5.6million units (with the US accounting for ~50%).
With the oncoming proliferation of apps and advanced connected applications the RSE market is a huge opportunity. I’ve already spent some time talking about how [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, Etc..., News, Telematics Tags: apps, automotive, forecasts, google, infotainment, real-time data, rear seat entertainment, tech, technology, Telematics 2 Comments »Making Foursquare Work for Business. Could Dealerships Learn Something?
April 7th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Mashable.com has 5 ways brands are using Foursquare to boost their business.
The article talks about how the Wynn Las Vegas, City of Chicago, Lucky Magazine, Tasti D-Lite, and Starbucks are using Foursquare to increase customer engagement, loyalty and satisfaction within the check-in and badges framework of the location based application.
Maybe this type of brand integration [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, News Tags: apps, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, foursquare, games, infotainment, LBS, location based services, Telematics Comments OffApp Downloads Will Near 6Billion in 2010
April 7th, 2010 Jeff Shariat ABI Research reports they expect just under 6 billion mobile application downloads in 2010 (more than double 2009 volume). To be clear, this is a forecast of downloads, not the total number of applications that will be available. The iPhone is expected to continue leading the charge (> 3Billion downloads) by a large margin with [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, News, Telematics Tags: android, apps, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, google, gps, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, technology, Telematics Comments OffProduct Spotlight: Continental AutoLinQ
April 6th, 2010 Jeff Shariat AutoLinQ is Continental’s Connected Services Platform for the car. Based on the Google Android OS the system will allow users to create and download applications directly to the in-vehicle system.
Continental’s ‘Always On’ concept is built around allowing the user to interact with the vehicle through various ‘views’:
Mobile View
The user’s view from their mobile phone. A [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, Telematics Tags: android, api, apps, autolinq, continental, convergence, Emerging Tech, google, infotainment, navigation, navteq, open source, technology, Telematics 1 Comment »Where Do Kids Fit Into Telematics Strategies?
April 5th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Where do kids fall into the world of in-car apps?
In the April 2010 edition of Fast Company Anya Kamenetz talks about how technology is impacting childhood creativity and the way kids learn. It’s a great read and you should definitely click through the link at the bottom, but first I want to talk about how [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, Etc..., Telematics Tags: android, apps, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, LBS, Sync, technology, Telematics 5 Comments »Ford Sync Has The Lead, Will It Hold On To It?
April 1st, 2010 Jeff Shariat It’s a new foundation for the ultimate mobile device. The automobile will never be the same.
As the mobile web (i.e. sites specifically designed to be viewed on mobile devices) is being replaced by mobile apps and sites that are dual purpose (i.e. the standard site can be viewed reliably in a mobile browser) Google seems [...]
Posted in Etc..., Ford Sync / Touch Tags: api, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, mobile, MyFord, MyFord Touch, real-time data, Safety + Security, Sync, tech, technology, Telematics, twitter 2 Comments »The Mobile Web vs Apps vs Both
March 31st, 2010 Jeff Shariat As the mobile web (i.e. sites specifically designed to be viewed on mobile devices) is being replaced by mobile apps and sites that are dual purpose (i.e. the standard site can be viewed reliably in a mobile browser) Google seems to think that developers should be leverage the mobile web to create cross platform applications.
As [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, News Tags: Emerging Tech, google, google navigation, gps, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, mobile, real-time data, tech, Telematics, twitter, Wifi Comments OffThe Internet Radio Universe
March 30th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Roger Lanctot offers a great overview of what internet radio is and isn’t. We know that in-car connectivity is on the rise and streaming music will be one of the major uses of that bandwidth. Pandora seems to have the buzz right now, but it is not the only player.
The major music services are [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, Etc..., Telematics Tags: android, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, infotainment, internet radio, mobile, tech, Telematics 1 Comment »The Dangers of GPS, ‘The Simpsons’-Style
March 29th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Let’s kick-off the week with something easy on the eyes and the brain, shall we?
In this clip from a recent Simpsons episode, Homer drives the kids to school, but reminds us to never blindly follow anyone (especially a GPS). Now, maybe if the system he used had real-time data connectivity (or if he had listened [...]
Posted in Etc... Tags: automotive, funny, gps, infotainment, mobile, technology, Telematics 3 Comments »Smartphones and Embedded Systems
March 24th, 2010 Jeff Shariat We know that apps are coming to the car and that movement is no doubt led by smartphones like the iPhone and Nexus One. Over at Telematics Update Andrew Tolve discusses, ‘The Smartphone: Friend or Foe of In-car Infotainment?” My take away from the article is that the answer is, it’s both…and I would tend [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, News, Telematics Tags: apps, automotive, convergence, Emerging Tech, infotainment, iphone app, mobile, News, real-time data, real-time traffic, Sync, technology, Telematics 3 Comments »Application Spotlight: AppSpace.com
March 23rd, 2010 Jeff Shariat Sister site TechtoLiveBy.com has a post on AppSpace.com, a recommendation engine for smartphone apps.
The number of apps available for the iPhone, Android OS and Blackberry is rapidly approach a combined 200,000. Wading through the sewage that constitute most apps to find that diamond in the rough can be a daunting task. For some of us [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, Etc..., Telematics Tags: api, apps, automotive, Emerging Tech, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, mobile, tech, technology, Telematics Comments OffHacker Uses Telematics System for Revenge
March 23rd, 2010 Jeff Shariat Alright, that headline is a bit much… It’s true though and re-raises some security concerns…
Apparently Omar Ramos-Lopez, 20, was laid off from the Texas Auto Center and decided he’d use a telematics system installed on some cars sold at that auto center to be very annoying. He used the system to activate the horns [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Safety + Security Tags: apps, automotive, Emerging Tech, infotainment, Safety + Security, security, Sync, tech, technology, Telematics 4 Comments »Application Spotlight: Aha Mobile
March 18th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Aha Mobile bills itself as interactive personalized radio and aims to deliver a customized ‘radio station’ of streaming audio content created from web and local information relevant to the user. That is, Aha Mobile will give you a customized traffic report, your facebook / twitter updates, yelp reviews and move all based on your preferences [...]
Posted in Apps + Products, Emerging Tech, News, Telematics Tags: app, application spotlight, infotainment, iphone, iphone app, real-time data, real-time traffic, streaming audio, tech, technology, Telematics 2 Comments »Ford Sync Feature Spotlight: API and Apps (aka AppLink)
March 9th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Update: Ford has announced the AppLink downloadable program which will be the in-vehicle application that manages the functionality discussed in this post. It will be available first on the 2011 Ford Fiesta and will allow integration with Android and Blackberry apps.
We’ve talked about the importance of apps in the future of the telematics landscape and [...]
Posted in Ford Sync / Touch, Telematics Tags: convergence, Emerging Tech, Ford, Ford Sync / Touch, geo lccation, infotainment, iphone, mobile, produc spotlight, real-time data, Telematics, twitter 2 Comments »Challenges with Telematics Adoption
March 4th, 2010 Jeff Shariat We’ve previously discussed some issues with the telematics business case and while its clear to many that the market is there someone does have to make the numbers work before any feature can be broadly adopted.
On Telematics Update, Andrew Tolve highlights that CES this year marked the first time OEMs were perceived to be ready [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, Etc..., News, Telematics Tags: convergence, DoT, Emerging Tech, Ford, Ford Sync / Touch, infotainment, iphone, LBS, mbrace, mobile, MyFord, MyFord Touch, onstar, real-time data, real-time traffic, Safety + Security, Sync, tech, technology, Telematics 2 Comments »The App is the Future of Telematics
March 1st, 2010 Jeff Shariat For a long time the biggest problem with connected mobile applications has been the ‘connected’ part. The mobile web has existed for many years, but only since the broad adoption of 3G has a true mobile web emerged. In fact, things aren’t really even about the mobile web anymore, it’s an almost antiquated concept. With [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, Featured Tags: android, app store, apps, convergence, editorial, Emerging Tech, Ford, Ford Sync / Touch, infotainment, iphone, opinion, Sync, tech, Telematics 9 Comments »Will Toyota’s Issues Shine Spotlight on All In-Car Electronics?
February 24th, 2010 Jeff Shariat 
Yesterday I spent some time listening to Ray Lahood be questioned in the Senate hearings over Toyota. Today I’m listening to the Toyota executives. It’s pretty clear that this is not good for Toyota, but what the future holds nobody knows.
The responses across the board are basically, We’ll start doing everything we weren’t doing. Good [...]
Posted in Etc..., Featured, News, Safety + Security, Telematics Tags: DoT, Ford, Ford Sync / Touch, infotainment, Ray LaHood, Safety + Security, Sync, tech, Telematics, Toyota 2 Comments »Spotlight: Kia Uvo
February 12th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Uvo is Kia’s new infotainment and telematics package a la Ford Sync. Based on the Microsoft Auto OS Uvo offers a number of the same features as Sync including the advanced voice controls. Unlike Sync the system is not available without the 4.3″ color screen which is used to “detailed information on media content, phonebook [...]
Posted in Emerging Tech, News, Telematics Tags: Emerging Tech, Ford, Ford Sync / Touch, infotainment, kia, mobile, Telematics, tv, uvo, voice controls 2 Comments »‘What is Telematics?’ Infographic
February 4th, 2010 Jeff Shariat Telematics Update (there is no byline so I can’t give a shout out to the creator) has a cool little interactive infographic explaining the different layers and categories of telematics. It’s not meant to be exhaustive, but it does cover the basis of telematics pretty well.
From the core of hardware and providers to enabling technology [...]
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