Vole gets in sync with Ford

THE SOFTWARE giant Microsoft is installing a new entertainment computer system in a range of Ford cars.

According to News.com, the fully-integrated, flash memory-based system is based on an a Microsoft Auto operating system. It includes an ARM 11 processor, 64MB of DRAM and 256MB of flash memory.

Called Sync, the system will appear in in twelve 2008 models across the Ford family and across the entire 2009 lineup.

The system will mean that a driver can make hands-free calls and to control a range of digital audio via voice commands and buttons mounted on the steering wheel.

Sync-enabled cars can conference call to 12 different phones via an always-on Bluetooth connection. The stereo will read out text messages and allow some form of replying to them from a number of stock responses programmed by voice command.

Expect to see them in Ford's Five Hundred, Explorer, Focus, Freestyle, and Fusion, Lincoln's MKX and MKZ and the Mercury Milan.

More here. µ