There are several announcements surrounding audio products and mapping integration in we missed. Here is a roundup of the latest announcements from AUPEO!, iBiquity, HARMAN, INRIX, Magellan, Ford SYNC 3, TomTom, Cinemo & AT&T.
AUPEO! Gets Personal Radio
Personal Radio by AUPEO! transforms AUPEO! from a music service to a complete content delivery platform. Drivers and passengers can hear local and global news, sports, traffic and weather with their favorite music in their own personal, vehicle-friendly, intuitive radio station. The platform user preferences and recommends content. Content partners include CBS Radio News, TheBlaze Radio Networks, AccuWeather and GEO Traffic, and new partners such as American Public Media (APM) are being continuously added.
The platform lets automakers create their own user interface design for all connected audio content.
New iBiquity and TagStation Connected Car Combo
iBiquity, the developer of digital HD Radio Technology for AM and FM audio and data broadcasting, and TagStation, the developer of the NextRadio platform announced their first joint product that combines free over-the-air broadcast radio services with the visual and digital capabilities of the NextRadio app. The service will deliver a personalized and contextual suite of services to the car radio platform.
New Future of HARMAN with Cloud Updates, Analytics Pono Music, Sound Zones and HALOsonic
HARMAN cloud and Aha services introduced Aha Updates and Aha Analytics. The new Aha Updates service allows automakers to upgrade existing infotainment and audio systems. The new Aha Analytics vehicle and driver insights service will aggregate and analyze information collected through opt-in data sharing from a car’s infotainment and on-board diagnostics.
HARMAN and Pono Music have partnered to bring the quality HD music to the automobile market. Neil Young and HARMAN Chairman and CEO Dinesh Paliwal discussed solutions to offer the PonoMusic catalog with supreme, lossless HD quality playback in vehicles at CES.
“Music is about the feeling you get when you listen to it. Up to 90 percent of a song’s nuances are lost in the digital compression process,” said Neil Young.
HARMAN also introduced Individual Sound Zones and HALOsonic that use active noise management and sonic personalization to create a more comfortable and enjoyable in-cabin environment.
HARMAN’s Individual Sound Zones (ISZ) is a new in-cabin technology that enables drivers and passengers to create sonic zones between individuals for personalized car audio experience. ISZ is an innovative acoustic design and complementary digital signal processing that maximizes speaker directivity and minimizes crosstalk in and between the zones in a vehicle.
HALOsonic is an award-winning suite of active noise management solutions that work to improve noise levels and to enhance and contour sound inside and outside the vehicle. Two main sources of unwanted noise in the car come from the engine and the road. Not only do these sounds interfere with the in-car audio experience; they also increase fatigue and stress when driving. HALOsonic Engine Order Cancellation (EOC) and Road Noise Cancellation (RNC) were developed to address these road noises before they reach the ears of vehicle occupants.
INRIX XD Traffic for Audi
INRIX XD Traffic will be launched in Audi 2015 models vehicles in North America, with Audi connect. INRIX XD offers real-time parking, gas station finding with gas prices, navigation to parking, routes, travel time, real-time navigation and alerts. It covers 2 million miles of road in North America.
Bosch: Rdio/ Magellan SmartGPS for mySpin
Magellan announced is integrating its SmartGPS navigation software into Bosch SoftTec’s mySPIN infotainment platform.
Features of Magellan SmartGPS include turn-by-rurn navigation with landmark buidance, real-time traffic,Yelp /Foursquare information and social media check-ins. The last mile navigation, transfers navigation route from head unit to smartphone, to complete the journey on foot.
The SmartGPS app will be available in Jaguar Land Rover vehicles via the InControl Apps platform.
Ford SYNC 3 Threesomes
Telenav, location-based services, announced it will provide the navigation for Ford SYNC 3 infotainment system. Telenav, a long-time supplier of Ford, will provide SYNC 3 users with simplified Onebox search, multi-touch map technology, and 3D city models.
The technology behind Ford SYNC 3 is by Texas Instruments. The new Ford SYNC 3, uses TI’s OMAP 5 processor with the WiLink 8Q platform, a single-chip combining high performance Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GNSS, as well as power management and FPD-Link III serializer/deserializer (SerDes) wired connectivity solution.
Previously, Ford announced additional For SYNC 3 apps Life360, Accuweather maps and Disney Radio.
TomTom Maps for VW
TomTom announced that it will provide maps for Volkswagen, Volkswagen will launch in-dash navigation systems with TomTom maps, starting with the new VW multimedia system in North America in Q2 2015. The system will be introduced for the Jetta, Passat and Beetle. TomTom maps uses crowd sources to make sure the maps are up-to-date.
Arynga Rings in OTA for Intel
The CarSync In-Vehicle Gateway (CIVG) is integrated with the IVI Platform Message Bus and Package Manager in order to perform software and firmware updates on to the Intel In-Vehicle Solutions.
Cinemo & Gracenote Medtadata for Personal Music Taste
Cinemo, maker of automotive grade multimedia playback, streaming, media management and connectivity middleware, announced collaboration with Gracenote to offer new ways to enjoy personalized music in connected cars.
Cinemo’s advanced multimedia architecture fully integrates the population of music metadata for Gracenote’s analysis. Gracenote analyzes a driver’s music collection and listening behavior and assigns a unique musical taste based on its music metadata. A driver’s taste can then be used to help personalize the music experience by providing automatically generated playlists through Gracenote’s Entourage Radio platform.
AT&T for LoJack Locating
Finally, just in case, your car is stolen, you should hope that it is areas covered by AT&T. AT&T and LoJack, announced that they have partners power LoJack’s current and future telematics solutions.