Apple working with Mercedes on a Car Nav system?
From Macrumors
Google Translation
I'm eyeballing a Pioneer Nav system for the vehicle. I'd love to see what Apple could bring to the table. Multi touch would work quite well for a GPS system on a 6.5" screen. Plus it could offer stellar iPhone sync and playback iTunes music and movies and photographs. The possibilities are enticing.
Google Translation
Quote:
Mercedes will exclusively offer the new Apple set for six months. On an introduction on the market presumably 2009 are to be counted. Unclear it is still whether Apple - similar as with iPhone - on Google will trust maps as navigation aid.
Mercedes will exclusively offer the new Apple set for six months. On an introduction on the market presumably 2009 are to be counted. Unclear it is still whether Apple - similar as with iPhone - on Google will trust maps as navigation aid.
I'm eyeballing a Pioneer Nav system for the vehicle. I'd love to see what Apple could bring to the table. Multi touch would work quite well for a GPS system on a 6.5" screen. Plus it could offer stellar iPhone sync and playback iTunes music and movies and photographs. The possibilities are enticing.
Comments
From Macrumors
Google Translation
I'm eyeballing a Pioneer Nav system for the vehicle. I'd love to see what Apple could bring to the table. Multi touch would work quite well for a GPS system on a 6.5" screen. Plus it could offer stellar iPhone sync and playback iTunes music and movies and photographs. The possibilities are enticing.
Apple would be smart to build out the iPhone ecosystem with small devices that incorporate the general "look and feel" of the UI plus Multi Touch. I'd love a car head unit with a blank face plate that gave me changing control surfaces depending on function, as you envision.
iPhone sales should drive down the cost of the tech, maybe to the point that I can have my dreamed of Apple remote with Multi Touch for under $100..... But if it gets really cheap, why not license iPhone type interfaces for lots of consumer electronics? I vote for microwave ovens first, which have to have the worst UIs of anything ever made.
Boy, talk about a switch strategy-- imagine if the iPhone type UI became something a default for all those hard to use electronic items in your life-- surround receivers, combo printers, washing machines, etc. There are models of some of those things now that take a stab at "easy to use" touch screens, and none of them are very good.
Sorry. I was overcome with iPhone hysteria. Nav system. That would rock.
The iPhone is exactly what I wanted from Apple. I've never understood phones with a QWERTY keyboard of tiny keys. A phone in the 21st century needs a UI that adopts the appropriate modality of the function. Dialing numbers should be via voice command or large easy to hit buttons. Typing should be smaller but easy to hit "buttons" with "smart auto complete" which improves its guessing as it familarizes itself with your writing style.
I too want a multi touch remote. My HDTV and HD DVD remotes are overly large..the Apple TV remote is overly small. I need flexibility and the power of macros.
hahahahahh Microwaves do suck don't they? Every brand has its own way. "Do I set the power level first or assume that high power is the default?" LOL
Apple could take the UI everywhere. AVR suck for the most part. How hard is setting the delay on channels and other stuff? It's easy doing those tasks ..navigating there is the bear. TV menus aren't much better.
We live in such a "lowest common denominator" era in which "good enough" is just that. My gf has an Audi NAV system that is so convoluted that both her and her mother just print out Google Map directions rather than use the Nav system to actually navigate. This is what happens when technology isn't mated to an acceptable user interface.
Apple can make a killing here and in so many other areas.
From Macrumors
Google Translation
I'm eyeballing a Pioneer Nav system for the vehicle. I'd love to see what Apple could bring to the table. Multi touch would work quite well for a GPS system on a 6.5" screen. Plus it could offer stellar iPhone sync and playback iTunes music and movies and photographs. The possibilities are enticing.
Sounds very appealing, but I can not afford a Merc.
Sounds very appealing, but I can not afford a Merc.
Neither can I so I'm glad to see this.
Mercedes will exclusively offer the new Apple set for six months
Doesn't sound like a significant exclusive period. In fact it makes no sense at all.
I agree. The iPhone and it's UI is the one thing that Apple needs to rear and get traction with a solid userbase and then license the hell out of the platform. We're likely on the precipice of a new wave of computing where 24-7 connectivity is required and not a luxury.
The iPhone is exactly what I wanted from Apple. I've never understood phones with a QWERTY keyboard of tiny keys. A phone in the 21st century needs a UI that adopts the appropriate modality of the function. Dialing numbers should be via voice command or large easy to hit buttons. Typing should be smaller but easy to hit "buttons" with "smart auto complete" which improves its guessing as it familarizes itself with your writing style.
I too want a multi touch remote. My HDTV and HD DVD remotes are overly large..the Apple TV remote is overly small. I need flexibility and the power of macros.
hahahahahh Microwaves do suck don't they? Every brand has its own way. "Do I set the power level first or assume that high power is the default?" LOL
Apple could take the UI everywhere. AVR suck for the most part. How hard is setting the delay on channels and other stuff? It's easy doing those tasks ..navigating there is the bear. TV menus aren't much better.
We live in such a "lowest common denominator" era in which "good enough" is just that. My gf has an Audi NAV system that is so convoluted that both her and her mother just print out Google Map directions rather than use the Nav system to actually navigate. This is what happens when technology isn't mated to an acceptable user interface.
Apple can make a killing here and in so many other areas.
Man, don't even get me started on AVR controls. Holy shit. It's like they evolved them from the old stereo receivers that didn't need to do anything but switch a few inputs and change stations, and just kept adding functionality buried under layer after layer of button presses and single line led displays.
My favorite is the "function switch combined with the volume knob" trick, so that if you are using the big knob to select a new input and that input happens to be ear splitting, you have to wait a little while for the knob to revert to volume control.
I don't know a single person who has the faintest idea how to operate one of these monsters beyond the basics, or without very careful step by step scrutiny of the instructions (which of course are horribly written.)
Changed my mind-- microwaves will have to wait. AVR iPhone interface for teh win.