Hasta La Gadget!

With it being ordered in 80 percent of its 2011 models, SYNC’s been a boon to Ford’s bottom line, but it’s not all peaches and cream for the Dearborn crew’s connectivity platform. Our friends at Autoblog are reporting that the second generation of the infotainment software has a nasty little habit of restarting itself when something goes wrong with one of the applications. Doesn’t sound like such a big deal, except these automatic reboots take several minutes (an eternity if you’re relying on the GPS to get you around), and the system tends to misplace your indexed music and linked phone info while fixing itself. Apparently, the only other way to deal with such glitches is to take afflicted autos to a dealer for a full-on software reinstall or reinitialization — why Ford and Microsoft went the Ctrl-Alt-Delete route instead of finding a more user-friendly solution, we’ll probably never know. The Blue Oval boys claim that Autoblog’s experience was atypical, but have nonetheless rolled out software updates to alleviate the problems. Hopefully, it’s enough to stop SYNC systems from doing the Force Close dance.

SYNC’s second version off to a buggy start, Ford fixes with Ctrl-Alt-Delete originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re liking what Firefox 4 for mobile already offers in its previous beta builds, then you’ll certainly want to check out its release candidate that went live on Monday — just less than six months after the browser when beta. According to Mozilla, this new build provides a better overall user experience with faster scrolling and improved Firefox Sync, along with other goodies like Awesome Screen smart shortcuts, tabbed browsing, Firefox Add-ons, and Persona themes. Sounds a lot like its desktop sibling (which has a healthy 4.9 million downloads already), doesn’t it? Head over to the source page for the Android and Maemo download links, or you can have a look at Mozilla’s latest video after the break if you need some convincing.

Continue reading Mozilla Firefox 4 RC for Android and Maemo now up for grabs

Mozilla Firefox 4 RC for Android and Maemo now up for grabs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Worried that the fancy-schmancy SYNC system you just ordered up in your Mustang will soon be outlawed? Fret not, speed demon. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will reportedly not push for restrictions on handsfree phones or in-car technology until “the government conducts further research.” There are generally two prevailing trains of thought: one feels that any type of calling — be it handsfree or otherwise — is a terrible distraction to the driver, while the other feels that properly integrated technology is safe enough for use on the road. As the story goes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating whether systems like SYNC post a “cognitive distraction,” while some automakers suggest that motorists are going to goof off with their phone anyway — might as well make it as safe as possible for ’em. Of course, things could change in short order once this so-called “research” gets finalized, but for now, feel free to request that your OnStar system read on to the next post. Your OnStar system can read Engadget, right?

Transportation secretary Ray LaHood: no restrictions (yet) on in-car information originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For a long time Ford kept its best cars in Europe and Australia, leaving Americans to make do with the Tempo or teasing us with a Focus that wasn’t nearly as good as those elsewhere in the world. That’s all changed now, and we’re dutifully returning the favor. SYNC, which has been present on many an American Blue Oval since 2007, is now going international, Ford and Nuance managing to add an additional 16 languages to the voice recognition processing, bringing the total to 19. Emergency assistance has also been expanded to cover other languages as well, so you can now hollar for help, schreien for hilfe, or even schreeuwen om help.

Continue reading Ford SYNC goes global, 2012 Focus will accept commands in 19 languages

Ford SYNC goes global, 2012 Focus will accept commands in 19 languages originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Within a few years, your car may become a hub of interconnected devices, media and online services.

And you thought it was for getting you around town.

I spent a little time recently in a tricked-out 2009 Corvette whose dashboard included some proof-of-concept technology to integrate the car with a smartphone, a tablet and the internet.

The console was created by QNX, the company that makes the operating system underlying GM’s OnStar systems, Toyota’s upcoming Entune and other vehicles. It’s similar to these systems, except it extends them by adding even more integration with the consumer devices you’re carrying.

In this car, the dashboard can interact with other devices in your car, such as your iPhone, a BlackBerry or RIM’s upcoming tablet — the BlackBerry PlayBook. It can play media from all of the above, or connect to the internet (by 3G) to stream music from Pandora.

Because QNX also makes the operating system underlying the PlayBook, there’s also a possibility that developers can create software for your car as easily as they can for the tablet, using HTML5, Java and other tools familiar to app developers.

I take a look in this video at some of the ways cars will soon gain even more sophisticated connectivity.