connected car

How does one switch from developing smartphone cameras to working on cars? Maybe it's that they both have to do with going mobile?

Damian Dinning, head of imaging and photography for Nokia for almost a decade, told mobile-photography blog PureView Club (which is, of course, focused on Nokia's PureView technology) that he's leaving the phone maker and heading to Jaguar Land Rover. Dinning said staying on at Nokia would've required a move to Finland, which wouldn't have jibed with his family situation.

PureView, you may recall, is the technology involved with Nokia's 808 PureView phone, … Read more

In the Season 2 premiere of Always On, the Google Nexus 7 takes a beating. Well, it wouldn't be fair to say it takes a beating. It receives a beating, and frankly, doesn't handle it very well. It's one of our more dramatic Torture Tests, and I think it points out that sometimes, you do get what you pay for when it comes to quality and durability. The Nexus 7 is a great tablet in many respects but, well. It's not the toughest little thing. You'll see what I mean.

We'll find out in … Read more

At this year's CES, Harman International's Aha announced a partnership with Honda. Today Honda hosted a conference showing how that partnership would play out with a new service called HondaLink. This new connected service will let drivers listen to a variety of Internet-based stations, featuring everything from Slacker radio to Yelp listings of nearby restaurants.… Read more

Verizon has agreed to buy Hughes Telematics for $612 million, bolstering its efforts to hook cars up with wireless service.

The New York telecommunications company said today that the all-cash deal would expand its ability to serve the fleet and automotive telematic industries. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, and Verizon said it plans to retain the existing management team and its headquarters in Atlanta.

The connected devices -- or machine-to-machine -- business is increasingly seen as the next growth area for the wireless industry. The opportunity to connect cars with entertainment, safety, security, and maintenance … Read more

Come take a spin in the 2012 BMW 650i for a taste of the connected-car era that is well and truly joined.

The automobile is fast becoming the largest mobile electronics device, and in just a few years having a car that connects to the Internet will be the new standard.

Juniper Research studied the automotive telematics market in eight key global regions, and predicts more than 92 million vehicles with Internet connectivity will be on the road by 2016. Smartphones integrating with vehicle electronics platforms will fuel the growth.

Infotainment systems such as Ford's Sync AppLink, GM's IntelliLink, BMW's ConnectedDrive, and Toyota's Entune are key players driving this trend. In just a few years, these advanced technology … Read more

According to a study, high fuel economy and robust smartphone integration are the features most important to Generation Y car buyers.

They came of driving age when hybrids were already mainstream, and to them a hybrid power train is as reliable as conventional internal-combustion-equipped cars. To find what this increasingly important demographic wants in a car, consulting firm Deloitt LLP conducted its annual review of Gen Y consumers aged 19 to 31 in the U.S., China, and Europe. While previous generations may have lusted after horsepower and engine, Deloitt found that these savvy consumers are eyeing high fuel economy … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sporting booths and displays suitable for a full-fledged car show, major automakers showed off their varying connected car strategies at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

But the automaker displays at CES only held a smattering of cars, the space primarily being taken up by standalone dashboards and kiosks showing in-car navigation, audio, phone, and app screens. I never doubted the benefits of data feeds in cars, as integrating Google search with a navigation system is far better than relying on some static, outdated points-of-interest database.

Knowing the glacial pace of automotive development, what surprised me was how quickly automakers … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Today's automakers are embracing the Internet cloud by building connected cars, and Ford is no exeception.

To find out more about Ford's strategy, I sat down with the company CEO Alan Mulally and Chief Technology Officer Paul Mascarenas at Ford's massive booth at the Consumer Electronics Show here, ahead of Mulally's keynote address. (Scroll down to listen to the podcast.)

When I asked Mulally why a car company would be at CES, he said, "We're clearly a technology company and we're providing very important technical solutions through the mobile application devices we … Read more