Infotainment system

Car makers have been slowly but surely sucking content off your phone and into your vehicle. With the help of a smartphone, you can now access navigation, music, text messaging and other phone functions from the driver and/or passenger seat. The Hyundai Connectivity Concept takes things a step farther, wirelessly transferring all of the phone's content to the car's touchscreen display and adding other wireless functions.  Read More

As we've seen with the MyFord Touch system, sometimes vehicular infotainment systems can look all kinds of useful on paper but end up being a real pain in the posterior in the little place we call real life. In order to prevent any problems with its own in-vehicle technologies, Lexus has introduced the Enform Emulator app, which lets potential customers try its infotainment system without even going to a dealership.  Read More

This week, GM rolled out its IntelliLink infotainment system. The system connects wirelessy to your smartphone and provides voice-activated access to phone and audio functions. This latest example of the growing number of in-vehicle smartphone connectivity systems will be standard equipment on all Buick sedans and will be offered as an option on the GMC Terrain and Acadia.  Read More

Had the wicked Queen from Snow White access to a Cybertecture Mirror, she would have had much more to think about than who was the fairest in the land. Described as a reflective window into a digital life, this internet-connected, intelligent mirror can augment your reflected image with weather and news, check for messages or social network feeds, let you watch a TV program, give you information on your state of health and can even act as a personal exercise coach.  Read More

Hong-Kong-based Innotrends has unveiled its Ca-Fi Android 2.3-based infotainment system for in-car use. Tailored for 2-DIN dashboards and running on a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 CPU and 512MB of RAM, Ca-Fi features 6.2-inch 800 x 480 (resistive) touchscreen, a 3G modem to surf the web, GPS to handle in-car navigation apps, Bluetooth support for hands-free calling and 4x45W audio output.  Read More

Smartphones have become a large part of many peoples' daily lives, while computer-based in-vehicle infotainment systems are on their way to becoming standard equipment in all new vehicles. While there are some smartphone apps that are able to interact with some in-car systems, for the most part the two have been leading separate existences. The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), however, wants to change that. The group, which contains high-profile member companies from the automotive and mobile communications industries, has established a new technical standard for two-way communications between in-dash displays and applications running on smartphones. It's named MirrorLink, and the first products utilizing the standard will be unveiled this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show.  Read More

In the 1970's, top of the line in-car entertainment systems consisted of a quadraphonic eight-track audio system pumping out music stored on cartridges – and maybe a strobe light. Since then, CD, DVD and Blu-ray players, touchscreens, integrated smartphone connectivity, GPS systems and more have all found their way into automobiles to provide increasingly powerful in-car infotainment systems. Saab is now looking to bring the versatility and personalization capabilities of Google's Android operating system to its vehicles with the development of its IQon infotainment concept that will allow users to download applications, online services and multi-media functions through a Saab IQon store.  Read More

Busworld Asia was the venue chosen by FUNTORO Inc to announce the launch of its Media On Demand (MOD) Infotainment System on buses manufactured by China's largest professional bus manufacturer. One server can support up to 54 monitors throughout the coach, providing passengers with their own entertainment hub capable of independent output without impacting on fellow travelers.  Read More