Early Apple CarPlay Reviews Cite Ease of Use, Excellent Siri Voice Integration

Apple and several of its partners showed off CarPlay at its official unveiling earlier this year, mainstream users are finally getting their hands on the system with Pioneer's release of its promised CarPlay update for for several of its aftermarket car audio receiver yesterday.



Early reviews of CarPlay from Consumer Reports and Australian technology and car blog EFTM suggest the system is indeed easy to use and effective at reducing driver distraction, thanks to excellent Siri integration.





Consumer Reports points out the many benefits offered by Siri, which allows you to send text messages, get directions, set reminders, and more without touching your iPhone.

As handy as Siri’s natural speech recognition is when you’re just walking around with your phone, it really comes into its own in the car. Siri makes it easy to choose music, get directions, and read or send text messages—all by using your voice with natural speech, rather than menu-driven, formulaic commands.

Consumer Reports also notes that updating the AVIC-5000NEX unit was easy, requiring the owner to download the firmware to a USB stick, plug the stick into the receiver, and wait for unit to update itself.





For his part, Trevor Long of EFTM provides a detailed walkthrough with screenshots of CarPlay's major features. Demoing Pioneer's AVH-X8650BT stereo installed in a 2010 Mazda 2, Long shows how easy it is to make phone calls, interact with visual voicemail, listen to music, and more.

CarPlay is a revolution in in-car entertainment. While many of the features have been available for some time on other cars, the genuine integration with your smartphone and capabilities that have been added make it well worth considering if you’re an Apple iPhone user who spends a great deal of time in your car.



If you’re shopping for a new car – ask the dealer – is CarPlay available? and if no – will it be available via a firmware upgrade in the future?

Pioneer this week released its CarPlay firmware update, making it the first aftermarket receiver manufacturer to offer CarPlay to consumers. Among Pioneer's U.S. models, CarPlay is available for the $1400 AVIC-8000NEX, the $1200 AVIC-7000NEX, the $900 AVIC-6000NEX, the $750 AVIC-5000NEX and the $700 AVH-4000NEX. CarPlay is also compatible with Pioneer's new $600 smartphone receiver, AppRadio 4. Consumers can generally find Pioneer's units at significant discounts from list price from a variety of retailers.

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Posted in 2014 at 02:26PM, October 03

Samsung Details New Galaxy Note 4, Note Edge, Gear S Watch and Gear VR Headset

Ahead of Apple's upcoming press event where it will introduce larger iPhone models, Samsung today kicked off IFA 2014 with a presentation that unveiled several new mobile and wearable devices including the Note 4, Note Edge, Gear S smartwatch and Gear VR headset.





The Note 4 and Note Edge are two new models in Samsung's popular Note series of large smartphones. The Note 4 is the premium model offering a 5.7-inch Quad-ultra HD (2560×1440) Super AMOLED display at 518 pixels per inch and either the 2.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor with support for Category 6 LTE or the 1.9 GHz octo-core Exynos 5433 with Category 4 LTE, depending on geographic location. There's also a 16-megapixel rear camera with image stabilization, a 3.7-megapixel front camera designed for selfies, a heart rate sensor, and a new S-Pen with improved sensitivity that detects pressure, nib tilt, and speed. Design-wise, the Note 4 sports a plastic textured rear housing with metallic edges.




Galaxy Note Edge


As an alternative to the Note 4, Samsung also unveiled the Note Edge, a smartphone that is identical to the Note 4 under the hood, but features a curved display. The curved edge of the display operate separately from the main display providing an app launcher or contextual controls depending on the app that is being used.



Samsung also detailed its Gear VR virtual reality headset that was developed in conjunction with Oculus and is compatible with the Note 4. Finally, the company also re-introduced the recently announced Gear S smart watch. The Gear S is Samsung's latest wearable, featuring a 2-inch, curved AMOLED display, and 3G connectivity. The Tizen-powered device also includes dual-core 1.0 GHz processor, 4 GB of storage, 512 MB of RAM, and sensors such as GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, UV detector, barometer, and heart rate monitor.




Galaxy Gear S


Samsung did not provide pricing or exact launch dates for this new hardware, but the Korean company is expected roll out these products in the coming months. Samsung's latest mobile and wearable devices will compete with Apple's upcoming gear, which will be announced beginning next week. Apple is expected to announce its new iPhone 6 in both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch sizes and its iWatch wearable at a press event scheduled for September 9. This event likely will be followed by a second event in October that Apple may use to unveil its next generation iPad models.

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Posted in 2014 at 02:26PM, September 03

Yes, your phone and cable bills have been getting ridiculously expensive

If you find that your monthly phone and cable bills have been eating into a bigger chunk of your budget, you aren't alone — in fact, you're perfectly normal. In an article on upcoming cable and telecom mergers, The Wall Street Journal cites data from the U.S. Department of Labor showing that average household spending on phone, pay TV and Internet rose to $2,237 per year in 2012, a 20% increase from 2007. In contrast, overall household spending rose by just 3.6% over the same period.

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Posted in 2014 at 02:26PM, May 06