The Sky Is Cracking

Mark Ramsey, on his hear 2.0 blog, has posted this short presentation from Ford about the new Microsoft Sync in-car entertainment and communication system.

The Sky Is Cracking

1. Thanks to Mark, again, because he keeps finding all this great information!

2. I want this! Do I have to buy a Ford? Maybe. They are evidently ready to go - now. I'm picturing a really strong reason to get that iPhone.

3. In the presentation, they use Virgin Radio, London, a station I began working with almost 10 years ago. So for a couple of minutes, I thought "cool!". Then I realized who they did not use as an example. It is sad that no US radio station or organization (can you spell NAB) figured out how to be involved with this enough to at least get one of our stations used as an example. Wouldn't it have been great if the presenter could have made reference to the "In-Car Enhanced Experience" inititiative? You know, the one that the major US commerical broadcasters are working on to bring new benefits to you through additional Internet streams?

4. Oh. No such initiative? You're kidding, right?

5. The sky is not falling - yet. But is that a crack I see up there?

As they say at the end of the presentation: "Enjoy radio from anywhere on the planet".

The only real barriers to that are size and convenience.

The cell phone has solved the first. And, by setting up cars to accept iPods and hands-free operation of cell phones, the car manufacturers and the governments who are legislating the hands-free requirements are taking care of the second.

Soon, it will be normal for your cell phone to use a wi-fi signal for data (including streaming) if available, and switch to G3 if it is not. Maybe OnStar will even flip automatically to satellite when necessary. All of this will be completely automatic.