Hasta La Gadget!

The problem: you need a hands-free option for safely espying your smartphone while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

Your equipment: Ahesive-backed craft foam, heavy duty plastic coated wiring, assorted PVC tubes and pieces. (Total value: approximately $2.) A “goofy vacant space” in the car dash for placement.

Target time is 10 minutes or less. Hit up the Instructables source link for your solution!

DIY smartphone car dock: 10 minutes, $2, and worthy of a MacGyver sense of accomplishment originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your car’s dash just got a tad bit more interesting with the introduction of Pandora music streaming in Pioneer’s latest navigation unit. The double-DIN in-dash device exploits your iPhone’s cellular connection to glean tunes from the ether and comes with a 6.1-inch display, Bluetooth, 3D video accelerator, and 4GB of built-in memory expandable by MicroSD. Coming out in March for $1,200, this is slated to be a direct challenge to satellite and old school radio services, and for more on the greater market impact of its introduction, you can see the WSJ coverage below. For the full specs of this new flagship device, as well as a new AVIC-U220 add-on nav unit, hit the source link below.

Pioneer AVIC-X920BT brings Pandora streaming music to your satnav via the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bluetooth connectivity between phones and SYNC-equipped Fords is nothing new, but the problem is that a good number of handsets out there in the wild don’t support phonebook download (seriously, check the compatibility chart) which means you can’t dial names by voice — and what’s the fun in calling anyone if there isn’t at least a small chance of your car confusing “Dad” for “Vlad“? That’s where Ford’s all-new SYNCMyRide comes into play, an app for Windows and Mac machines that’ll take the names and numbers (up to 2,000) off your lame vintage handset and stick ’em on a USB drive; from there, you just plug the drive into your SYNC’s port and kick off an upload. It’s compatible with every SYNC-equipped car on the road today, so we’ve hooked you up with a link to go grab it — but only begrudgingly, since we’d obviously love to see you upgrade to a better phone instead.

Ford’s SYNCMyRide app forgives you for your lame phone, transfers contacts to your car originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The A8’s Multi Media Interface (a fancy name for a nav unit with media player attached) is already a pretty sophisticated piece of tech, but Audi has opted against resting on those laurels and has pushed out a new feature for the luxury saloon’s next iteration. The 2011 A8 (available in Spring 2010 — crazy, we know) will benefit from the same handwriting recognition as promised for the next-gen R8, wherein the user is able to scribble his destination all John Hancock-like and then use the touchscreen to complete his instructions. With Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean character support, this could be a particular boon for gadget lovers of a more Eastern persuasion. And just in case you’re fretting that the rest of your gear won’t get as much love, there are further plans afoot for connecting the car via UMTS and distributing WiFi goodness to the devices inside it. The only thing this is missing is a Snoop Dogg voiceover for the ultimate in convergence tech. Video after the break.

Continue reading Audi A8 MMI adds handwriting recognition to list of 2011 features

Audi A8 MMI adds handwriting recognition to list of 2011 features originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Chevy Volt is one vehicle we can really get behind. It’s hard not to be a little excited over it — we have, after all, been watching its development for quite a long time now. The electric car gets an impressive 230 miles per gallon in the city (and, all shaky rating practices aside, that’s nothing to scoff at). Autoblog Green‘s just taken one of Chevy’s 80 IVER pre-production prototypes for a little spin, and they seem to have come away pretty impressed with the car. They report that the brakes are better than most hybrid vehicles, and said that when the engine does kick in after the battery’s depleted, they didn’t even notice it until they stopped and heard it running quietly. It was a short spin, so they weren’t able to gauge, for instance, whether the car can actually pull the full 40 miles per battery charge that Chevrolet claims it gets, but check out their full, detailed observations at the Source link.

2011 Chevrolet Volt gets taken for a test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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