The AVIC-F10BT isn’t just an in-dash satnav – it’s a complete in-car entertainment system. On top of its 7-inch touchscreen display, the AVIC comes with dedicated cables installed into your glovebox for connecting an iPod or USB device, a DVD player and SD card behind the screen and built-in stereo Bluetooth. There are so many different elements to this product that the only real way to review it is to break it down into sections.

Entertainment
In the glovebox of the car is an iPod cable. It’s quite long, so you could run it all the way to the back, although you probably wouldn’t. Once you plug in your iPod or iPhone, it starts charging and all control goes through to the AVIC system. And it’s a very familiar interface – you get most of the same menus as your iPod, album art and a big “clickwheel” (although it’s really just a big four-way button on the touchscreen that looks like a clickwheel. It’s not a complete translation of your iPod though – there’s no support for Genius or Genius mixes, which is a bit of a shame.

But that’s made up for by the fact that the AVIC supports video. Sure, for safety reasons it’s restricted to when you have the handbrake on, but just the fact that you can play back video from your iPhone on your display is fantastic. If you have rear screens in your car, you can use the AVIC to send video from your iPhone to the rear seats while you use the satnav.

Of course, there’s also the built-in DVD player which will do the same thing, as well as play back CDs (both audio and MP3). The SD card also plays back music, and although I didn’t get to test it, the specs say it’ll play back DivX and H.264 files via either the SD or DVD slots.

There’s also the ability to play stereo Bluetooth through the system, and if your car has steering wheel audio controls, you can get them wired up to control the AVIC, although the car I was driving didn’t have them.

Being a Pioneer car, the audio playback was pretty awesome, but most of that was the speakers. In terms of controls, the touchscreen managed most of it, although there are dedicated volume and track forwards and back buttons on the bottom of the screen.

Bluetooth
The Bluetooth functionality is a godsend. My last car had a Motorola Bluetooth hands-free kit installed that used the car’s speakers, and despite being valued at a few hundred dollars, it had nothing on the AVIC’s Bluetooth. For a start, the AVIC has a screen, which lets you see details a more traditional Bluetooth system could only dream of. Once you’ve paired up your phone, you can see your signal strength and your network on the screen. But the killer is the ability to copy your contact list from the phone over to the AVIC’s 2GB of internal storage, which means you can easily call anyone on your contact list with a few presses of the touchscreen. You also get missed calls, recent calls and a shortcut to your home number easily located on the phone’s main screen.

Considering the legal implications of using your phone while driving these days, this is almost worth the price of admission in itself. OK, not quite, but it’s still the best implementation of installed Bluetooth I’ve played with.

Satnav
There’s a lot to be said for navigation on a seven-inch screen. It’s easy to view, easy to control and, well, that’s pretty much it. Considering I’ve long been lamenting the fact that satnavs tend to be fairly stagnant in terms of new features that are actually useful, having a device with such a big screen was quite refreshing. It uses the latest WhereIs maps, which shows off things like golf courses on the screen as you drive past them. It’s also big enough that it can display your music track information (and album artwork) on the screen at the bottom, even with the satnav running.

There are a couple of other noteworthy aspects to the satnav – first off, it’s a learning device, so if you like to take a particular shortcut, it’ll start directing you that way when you next take that route.

The other big thing is a result of the device been installed – the device will actually track your position when you drive through tunnels. No beeps and messages about lost satellite reception. No confusion about underground exits. In other words, proper navigation wherever you are. And that’s awesome. It really is.

The AVIC-F10BT comes with SUNA traffic, although I have no idea where the TMC antenna is. It’s certainly not running along the bottom of your front windshield, and doesn’t need to be plugged in each time you want to use the satnav.

The Menu
The touchscreen interface is simple. The Home screen gives you the option of Music, Satnav or Phone. But if you press the home button again on the home screen, there’s a customisable page of shortcuts to key functions of the device. Things like navigate home or launching the FM radio. That means you’re no more than three presses from all the key functions of the device, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

There’s a dedicated button on the bottom of the unit that switches between satnav and music control. That may sound like an obvious inclusion, but it’s only when you’re using it that you realise how much sense it actually makes.

Verdict
This device costs $2999, plus installation. It’s the top of the range Pioneer AVIC system though, and offers the ability to control rear screens and audio output if you have a truly kickass speaker setup in your car. It also works with a reverse camera, which can be installed as an optional extra.

But despite all that, $3K still seems pretty steep. But there are a couple of things to consider – if you’re buying a new car, you’re likely to pay that much to get a satnav option, but you’ll probably miss out on the whole Bluetooth and iPod functionality. The other thing is that Pioneer have a cheaper option, which has a smaller screen and fewer functions, but maintains the core aspects of the device (iPod, Bluetooth and satnav) selling for under a grand (plus installation). Considering top of the line satnavs cost almost a grand, that’s incredibly good value. You do need a double DIN free in your car, but if you can spare it and the cash to get it installed, I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this system. It’s a complete solution for most of your in-car needs, and well worth the price of admission.

[Pioneer]

Look at it this way – TomTom’s top-of-the-line Go 930 satnav launched with an RRP of $849. Sure it had maps for the entire world inside, but the Pioneer AVIC system – for just a few hundred dollars extra – adds a proper Bluetooth car kit solution and iPod/iPhone music controls to your car. It includes an AM/FM radio tuner and will also offer you comprehensive reports on your fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and acceleration and brake data.

Sure, you need a car with a couple of spare slots in the dash and you’ll have to pay for installation on top of the hardware, but for the convenience of an all-in-one unit, this is a pretty enticing product.

Pioneer releases a new in-dash multimedia solution with GPS for the car
Celebrating 35 years of world-firsts in both car audio and navigation, Pioneer unveils a new in-dash multimedia solution with advanced GPS for the car. Combining an intuitive 4.3 inch touch screen navigation system with hands-free Bluetooth mobile phone control, MOSFET 50W x 4 amplification power and leading iPod/iPhone connectivity, all at a suggested price of $1,199, Pioneer’s AVIC-F310BT addresses three major concerns of motorists today:
1. How do I navigate to where I want to go?
2. How do I maintain hands-free mobile phone communication whilst driving?
3. How do I continue to listen to and control my music?

A sleek, stylish in-dash solution, the AVIC-F310BT not only avoids the dashboard clutter we are now seeing in cars courtesy of portable GPS units, Bluetooth carkits and iPod cables, but also enables navigation, communication and entertainment features to be operated simultaneously and seamlessly.

The AVIC-F310BT builds upon Pioneer’s in-car navigation experience with a powerful processor that offers performance and features beyond those found on typical navigation systems, said Paul Baddeley, product planning at Pioneer Electronics Australia Pty Ltd.”

How do I navigate where I want to go?
Utilising a full-colour 4.3 inch WQVGA detachable touch screen display, 2GB of flash memory and 2D or 3D mapping, the fast and easy-to-use AVIC-F310BT features voice guidance of directions and text-to-speech technology that enables the unit to provide verbal prompts to specific street names.

By detaching the screen and connecting it via a USB cable to your PC, users can personalise their AVIC-F310BT, find and add Points of Interest to the maps well as analyse their journeys and driving.

The Pioneer-exclusive AVIC Feeds PC application, enables users to import local information and contacts directly from your computer to the AVIC-F310BT.

Enjoy the flexibility of being able to create your own Point Of Interest’s (POI).
Virtually any location, such as camping grounds, ski resorts, stadiums or tourist destinations, can be created as points of interest. You can simply browse Google Maps or Whereis® mapping and push a search result through to AVIC Feeds, which automatically converts the data into a new POI on the AVIC-F310BT. Create driving reports, particularly useful if you need to calculate your travel expenses in a given period, this application will keep track and provide you with an overview of all the journeys you’ve made and the number of kilometres travelled.

You can also see how economically you have been driving. ‘Eco Report’ and ‘fuel consumption’ gives you an evaluation of your acceleration and brake data and also calculates your CO 2 emissions. You can then view a graphical representation of this data on your PC.

How do I maintain hands-free mobile phone communication?
The AVIC-F310BT is equipped with built-in Bluetooth for convenient and safe wireless connection, using a Parrot Bluetooth phone interface. After pairing a compatible Bluetooth enabled cell phone and using the “phone book transfer” function to transfer a cell phone’s contacts/phone-book into the navigation system users can have quick touch-screen access to their contacts/phone-book. All conversations are clearly relayed through your car’s speakers. Three phones can be registered in the system with 400 contacts available per user.

How do I listen and control my digital music collection?
The AVIC-F310BT fulfils the high-quality audio and convenience expected from Pioneer with enhanced playback of MP3, WMA and iTunes AAC music files. The USB interface located at the rear of the unit provides a connection to compatible portable media devices including thumb drives, flash memory devices, and iPod/iPhone music players.

Music files on compatible iPods/iPhones can be accessed quickly using various methods including:
• Alphabetical Speed Search – users can scroll through their music lists by the first letter in the name.
• Link Search – users can recall similar content to what is currently playing by artist, album and genre.
• Passenger Control – allows passengers to directly control the iPod/iPhone device.

The AVIC-F310BT fits into a large number of vehicles with a 2-DIN dash opening, and with 32,768 customisable illumination colours available users can find a colour match for virtually any interior. The unit is also loaded with Pioneer’s legendary Supertuner IIID AM/FM tuner,
two RCA pre-outs, a built-in 50 watt X 4 high-power amplifier and an auxiliary input.

The AVIC-F310BT will be available in August 09 for a suggested price of $1,199.

As inadvertently proved in our uncapped tests, one of the great promises of WiMax is streaming media, everywhere. That’s exactly what Pioneer’s forthcoming PMP is for.

We’ve seen plenty of in-car PND/PMP/entertainment systems before, but the concept has always been flawed: either you had to carry around some kind of portable media, in the form of disks or flash storage, or you had to maintain a media library just for your car. Pioneer’s nameless concept is essentially just a streaming client, which taps into your full media library at home.

Such a device will be more attractive when WiMax—or LTE—coverage is a little more complete and contiguous, but if you live in one of the lucky few markets that has decent access, it could be fantastic. No word on availability or price, yet. [Digi-Info via Electric Pig]

The device itself is about the same shape and size as Linksys’ classic WRT54 router, except a bit slimmer and wider. It’s intended to be bolted to the floor and connected to a car battery, though the freestanding model I tested came with adapters for the cigarette lighter and home outlets. There’s also a mystery serial port, but none of the documentation makes any reference to it.

In areas with good EV-DO coverage, the router works pretty well. Once it’s turned on an running, you connect to it like any WEP Wi-Fi network, and proceeds as expected. The router setup menu is pretty straightforward, allowing you to configure SSIDs, WEP keys, MAC filters, and a handful of radio/transmission settings.

Going back and forth between San Francisco and Fremont, I found speeds to be about what you’d expect from an EV-DO connection. Fast enough to browse standard web pages with ease, and satisfactory enough to stream media, such as music and flash videos. But it will not magically conjure up a signal in areas where EV-DO isn’t so prevalent, so you should definitely check EVDOmaps to make sure you live or travel in an area with good service.

Occasionally (about every 10-15 minutes), there would be a 5 second hiccup in service, presumably while the connection hopped to another tower. It generally wasn’t a big deal, but it did interrupt my Pandora stream, which was going from my iPod touch connected to a car stereo,

Users have complained about Autonet’s lack of features for power users, such as no WPA encryption and port forwarding. Not having WPA encryption is totally valid to bitch about, and I was surprised it wasn’t at least an option. As far as port forwarding options go, I don’t think this router is intended for that type of crowd and I don’t think it’s that kind of device.

This is really meant for you to be able to check email, look up a map, get the latest news, and maybe download a few songs. And seeing as Autonet is going for the minivan/car rental market, I think simplicity was a goal when determining what functionality it would have. I don’t think you’re supposed to be playing WoW or downloading 20 torrents with the router. And with a 1GB cap, which stops service after you exceed the limit, it would be hard to do that anyways.

The bottom line is this: I think soccer mums and road warriors alike will glean some value from the device, which will help appease bratty kids or feelings of disconnectedness while on the road. But at $US500 plus $US30/month, this is not really for someone who plans to use it in a casual manner, or would like to use it more places than the car. If you prefer portability, you may want to look at the Cradlepoint router, but then you still need the USB 3G dongle and you don’t have the freedom to switch between carrier towers.

• Off-board navigation: The GPS is constantly updated, from the maps to the points of interests. It also has a satellite overview and the search language is open: you can write directions without having to follow a format. It looks like the are plugging into Google Maps for this one, although I’m not sure how well the writing will work using their navigation knob.

• Trip assist: This part is quite nice, grabbing information pertaining your planned trip from different web sources and presenting it in a useful manner. You can, for example, see the weather forecast for the trip, as well as giving you the possibility to make hotel and restaurants reservations from the system itself.

• World radio: Instead of using a normal radio, this one plugs into the web to access all the stations available. The menu gives the possibility to access radio via genre. More interesting is the idea of storing your music in a web server and accessing it through the system directly, without the need to connect an digital music player or storing things locally.

• Internet telephony: It has support for voice over IP systems like Skype.

• Web browser: They also include a web browser, in case you need to get more information than the one provided with the thin clients above.

• YouTube: For huh… hmmm. Some reason.

The navigation knob, which looks similar to the Powermate, is simpler than the iDrive 4.0. Our Jalopnik comrades will have to try it to see if their user interface approach is better or not. [Mercedes Benz]

New cradle allowing full integration into the vehicle architecture: Mercedes-Benz makes in-car iPhone® connection even easier

Stuttgart – Whether it be a quick call to a business colleague for an important discussion, listening to favourite music tracks or checking home and office e-mails whilst on the move – the Apple iPhone® is a leading-edge business tool with multimedia capability, available in Germany and other markets. Now Mercedes-Benz allows the iPhone® connection to be fully integrated into the vehicle architecture for the first time – once again pointing the way ahead for the automotive industry. The new Apple iPhone® cradle allows simple switching between the telephone and audio functions. What’s more, thanks to the location of the cradle in the centre console, the iPhone® is within easy reach of both the driver and the front passenger. For ease of use, the iPhone® is controlled via the multifunction steering wheel, while the vehicle display is used to indicate the phone status or music functions and information such as the track title and artist.

Over 100,000 people in Germanyhave already purchased an iPhone® – made by US electronics giant Apple – since its launch in November 2007. By introducing the new cradle for the Apple iPhone®, Mercedes-Benz has made it even easier to enjoy the special benefits of this trend-setting multimedia application, even when on the move in the car. This fully integrated solution – the first of its kind – enables either the phone functions or the audio functions on the iPhone® to be activated. As ever, the device is easy to use thanks to the controls on the multi-function steering wheel, all of which enhances road safety, as the driver’s hands remain on the steering wheel, leaving them free to concentrate on the traffic and the other controls in the cockpit.

Perfect reception is assured as the iPhone® connects to the vehicle aerial automatically when inserted into the cradle. A further advantage is the automatic recharging of the iPhone® battery whilst the phone is sitting in the cradle.

This function means that the iPhone® stays fully charged, which is ideal if the user has to leave the vehicle.

New design to influence the style of further cradles

As well as impressing on a technical level, the Apple iPhone® cradle’s exclusive design allows it to be integrated seamlessly into the interior of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The all-new design is based on a black-and-silver colour scheme that adds hallmark Mercedes-Benz touches. The leading-edge design will be used in future cradles for mobile phones available from Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH.

The iPhone® cradle can be inserted into the centre console – where it is within easy reach of both the driver and the front passenger – with a single click and without the need for any tools whatsoever. The portable device is therefore easy to plug in and unplug.Optional convenience telephony (Order Code 386) must also be specified. The cradle connects to the audio system either via the optionally available Media Interface or the retrofittable iPod®Interface Kit available from the range of genuine accessories. Both variants use an integral adaptor lead that has to be installed by a specialist workshop, ensuring an ideal connection between the cradle and the Media Interface or iPod® Interface.

The fully integrated iPhone® is available now for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E‑Class, CLK-Class, CLS-Class, S-Class, CL-Class, SL-Class, M-Class and R-Class. The product will also be offered for the new GLK-Class when this model is launched in October. In Germany, the Apple iPhone® cradle retails at € 249 (including VAT) and is obtainable from all Mercedes-Benz dealers.

The adaptor leads for the Media Interface or iPod® Interface are available for € 39 (including VAT) in Germany.

[eMercedesBenz]

But it’s not just lava basalt that Pioneer have got in these babies. There’s also ceramic compounds to give them optimum strength for destroying your eardrums with doof-doof while you illegally street race your mum’s Festiva optimum sound.

There are a whole range of models that use the new materials, ranging from the $199 10cm 2-way Speaker with 110W Max power handling, all the way to the $399 17cm Packaged Component Speaker System with 260W.

Here’s the full release:

23 April 08
Rock on with Pioneer TS-D Series Speakers made from basalt.
Pioneer Electronics’ next generation TS-D series speakers boast a world first technology; a speaker cone made from basalt, a volcanic rock that improves the speakers’ sound quality.

Pioneer engineers chose basalt because it’s an ideal material for the cone as it’s rigid, heat resistant and delivers more detailed and accurate sound.  Pioneer’s innovative speaker technology takes basalt fibres interwoven with Aramid fibre. The Dual Layer IMX Aramid / Basalt fibre composite cones are designed to deliver accurately detailed sound reproduction.

“Pioneer speaker engineers are constantly looking at different materials that can reproduce the highest sound quality possible. Basalt was chosen for its strength, heat resistance and rigidity. The result is a cleaner bigger sound.” Said Breanna Hanke, Product Manager for the mobile electronics group at Pioneer Electronics Australia.

TS-D1720C 17cm Packaged Component Speaker System 260W Max power handling
 
TS-D1002R 10cm 2-way Speaker with 110W Max power handling   

The new cones consist of a high-tech sandwich of basalt and ceramic components. The basalt, before it is turned into a fabric, is pulverized and melted at more than 2700 degrees Fahrenheit and then drawn into fibres. The combined materials of basalt fibres and aramid fibres are used to reinforce Pioneer’s composite injection moulded polypropylene (IMPP), creating an extremely strong speaker cone that can withstand flexing associated with excessive cone movement and produce an improved transient response in the mid to low frequency spectrum.

The new cones are matched with ultra light weight soft dome tweeters in both the coaxial and component versions. The large soft dome tweeters, made of high quality laminated polyester, use a finite element method (FEM) design with a specially crafted rear chamber that prevents standing waves and creates a loading effect to help produce a wider frequency response. In the coaxial version, the tweeter is placed in a waveguide chamber to control and direct the sound to the listener’s ears.
To further enhance performance and ease of installation, each TS-D speaker comes with a passive crossover network. In the component package, the speakers come with an attractive outboard passive crossover that uses an audiophile-grade film capacitor for the tweeter with a cut-off at 0 or -3dB and a metal core coil for the woofer to produce a smooth, natural response.
The new generation TS-D speakers are available from March 08
TS-D1002R 10cm 2-way Speaker with 110W Max power handling  – RRP $ 199
TS-D1602R 16cm 2-way Speaker with 260W Max power handling -  RRP $ 289
TS-D6902R 6×9″ 2-Way Speaker 360W Max power handling  – RRP $ 329
TS-D1720C 17cm Packaged Component Speaker System 260W
Max power handling (comes with a 16cm spacer ring so it can fit into both 16cm and 17cm holes)
RRP $ 399

For detailed specifications, information on other Pioneer products, technical updates and FAQs, visit
www.pureexperience.com.au
or
www.pioneer.com.au

Consumer Information: 1800 060 853

[Pioneer]