MyFord Touch and SYNC App Ecosystem hands-on [w/video]

Hands on with MyFord Touch and SYNC App Ecosystem

You've read the PR, seen the press shots and probably snickered a little at the quote from Ford's Derrick Kuzak indicating that his company's latest tech "will cause people to fall in love with their vehicles again." After getting a chance to play with a few entrants into the company's so-called SYNC App Ecosystem, and getting behind the wheel of a MyFord Touch-equipped mockup vehicle, we're not laughing – but we are smiling. It's impressive tech, so follow the jump to see some videos and check our impressions.

First up was a walk through of what Ford is calling its App Ecosystem. The company is exposing software libraries that will, in theory, allow any Bluetooth device to communicate with the vehicle. That means Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm and whatever else you want are in the game. Applications will be able to write to the SYNC display, have the car read text to speech, receive voice commands and receive some data from the car. Exactly what data remains to be seen, but full ODBII will not be available – at least not initially. Dreams of a boost gauge widget on your Droid remain unfulfilled.

Existing apps can easily add SYNC support, and on display was Pandora, Stitcher and Open Beak (a Twitter client). Pandora quickly connected to the car, displaying the current artist and track and allowing the driver to select new stations simply by speaking. You can even give a thumbs up or a thumbs down just by moving a thumb to press the SYNC button. While in action the phone's screen is disabled, preventing distractions, a definite theme of the Ford team.

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Source: Autoblog