Remote Control Your Car With Your iPhone
Posted in: car, Environment, iPhone, Phones, Today's Chili
Now you can use your iPhone or iPod Touch to kill the environment by firing up your car from afar and leaving the engine to idle whilst either warming or cooling your ride while you wait inside. This alternative to a scarf and gloves comes from Viper in the form of the SmartStart, a module which is wired into your car and lets you lock, unlock and start your car from any distance.
The remote unit isn’t new — Viper has sold the SmartStart for some time. The fancy part this time is the iPhone (or iPod Touch) integration, which comes by way of an iPhone app and a $300 add-on for your SmartStart device (you can opt for the $500 all-in-one if you are starting from scratch). This box has inside it a GSM cell radio, with which you communicate via the internet using the companion application.
Because it uses the cellular network, you’ll need to pay a $30-a-year subscription (year one is included in the cost of the device) and, because it has something to do with cars, you’ll have to pay somebody to install it — there is no DIY kit version. I guess only you, reader, can decide if it’s worth burning extra gas instead of just sitting in a cold car for five minutes. On the other hand, having the car report status info — triggered alarms, for example — direct to your phone is pretty handy stuff.
Product page [iTunes]
Product page [Viper]
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