Panasonic Z1

Panasonic’s flagship HDTV is its thinnest 54-inch (137cm) plasma HDTV ever, with only 2.5cm depth. They did it by eliminating a third sheet of glass found in all other plasmas except Pioneer’s Kuro and bonding the anti-reflective coating directly top glass. The Z1 employs SiBEAM’s 60GHz 1080p for wireless glitch-free images sent via the included transmitter/media box from up to 10m away. The Z1 has THX picture mode and a custom calibration mode, plus nice bonus features including Viera Cast internet connectivity and an SD card reader for photos. The Z1 delivers amazing performance with full 1080-line motion resolution, accurate HD colour, deep black levels and 96Hz for judder free movie viewing.

The sexiest HDTV of 2009, the TH-P54Z1A has an RRP of $7000 in Australia.

Pioneer Kuro Plasma Screens

The Kuro models offer the deepest black of any high-definition display on the market — without any white-letter-on-black-background halos occasionally seen on plasma TVs. The Kuro models feature hand-selected parts, 6cm depth, custom calibration, 72Hz refresh and control over the internet via its Ethernet connection. The Pioneer uses a single top sheet of glass to minimise internal reflections, with the anti-reflection coating bonded directly to the surface.

In Australia, the 50-inch (127cm) PDPLX509A retails for $6499, while a 60-inch (152cm) size PDPLX609A has an RRP of $12,499.

Samsung Series 8

Samsung has the slimmest LED television in the world (3cm deep). It’s feature packed with wireless connectivity, four HDMI inputs, no edge blur thanks to 200Hz refresh, a PV+C input for connection to your computer or HTPC, and it uses 40 per cent less energy than previous similar-sized LCD TVs. This is a benchmark LED LCD to judge against every other make and model.

All this performance comes at a price. The 46-inch (117cm) UA46B8000 and the 55-inch (140cm) UA55B8000 retails for $4699 and $6499, respectively.

LG LH90QD

This LG has all the hot LCD performance features video freaks crave, including LED backlights for excellent black levels, invisible speakers, and TruMotion 200Hz for increased sharpness and reduced motion blur. This LG also has all the tweaks anyone could ask for including ISF calibration and LG’s “picture wizard” for user set-up without calibration discs or external test signals. The LH90 isn’t the thinnest LED LCD, but it more than makes up for it with its price.

The LG LH90 series is available in 42-inch (107cm) and 47-inch (119cm) screen sizes in Australia. The 42LH90QD has an RRP of $4024 and the 47LH90QD goes for $4944. In case you couldn’t tell, the LH90 series is the value/performance leader of the pack.

Sony XBR

The XBR series is the only HDTV available with separate red, green and blue LED backlights (rather than all white). It’s got accurate HDTV colour, local dimming for deep black levels, enough brightness for a beach house, a 178-degree viewing angle, 100Hz Motionflow technology and Sony’s Bravia Engine 2 signal processing.

There are three screen sizes available in Australia. The KDL40XBR45 40-inch (102cm) version retails for $2999, the 46-inch (117cm) KDL46XBR45 retails for $4999, and the 55-inch (140cm) KDL55XBR45 goes for $8499.

Gary Merson is the HD Guru, the industry’s leading HDTV journalist. He’s been reviewing TVs for well over a decade, and recently wrote a guide to choosing an HDTV.

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]

I was tempted to try to find a late-90s press release for Pioneer’s first 12x CD burner to see how closely the language matched this one—let’s just assume “very”—but a) I couldn’t find one, and b) I didn’t want to diminish Pioneer’s achievement here too much—any device that cuts into the atrociously long Blu-ray burn times we’ve become slowly and begrudgingly accustomed to is a categorically good thing. The BDR-205 is due in October for $US250. [Crunchgear]

Pioneer Launches First 12x Blu-ray Disc Writer

High-Speed 12x Write Capability Lets Professional Users and Enthusiasts Quickly Test, Author and Preserve High Definition Content

LONG BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announces its new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc® Computer Writer, the industry’s first and fastest model to feature up to 12x write speed for single and dual-layer Blu-ray Disc (BD) media*. Ideal for authoring providers and system builders, the Pioneer® BD/DVD/CD Writer provides accurate, rapid performance for demanding professional applications.

“The BDR-205 drive represents our ongoing efforts to combine Pioneer’s engineering expertise with advanced technologies, and our next generation Blu-ray Disc writer is a great example of our no-compromise approach to optical disc product development,” said Steve Cohn, director of optical disc sales for Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. “We are bringing to market the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer to date, and it is just one of the many ‘firsts’ that have come to define Pioneer’s 30-year heritage in optical disc innovation and leadership.”

Dynamic Performance for an Array of Professional Users

When utilized with a properly configured PC, the drive’s Low Vibration Mechanism Design improves overall writing accuracy, especially for those preserving copious amounts of critical data. Designed for maximum flexibility, Pioneer’s writer provides significant solutions for multiple user groups, including:

* System builders can confidently recommend the sophisticated BDR-205 to their clients, noting the drive’s unique design, robust build quality and high grade parts
* With 50Gbytes** of storage space on a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, professional users can utilise the BDR-205 to rapidly test high definition feature films during the authoring process, as well as to back up large volumes of data with ease
* Besides up to 12x write speeds for Blu-ray Disc media, Pioneer’s new computer drive also provides read and write speed performance up to 16x for DVD and 40x for CD media

The new BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc computer writer begins shipping October 2009. The retail version of this product, the BDR-2205, will be available Q1 2010 for $US249 MSRP.

Pioneer has been an innovator of optical disc technology since it shipped its first LaserDisc products, the precursor to DVD, to the consumer market in 1980. Pioneer went on to introduce the first DVD writer for video authoring use in 1997, the first DVD recorder as a VCR replacement in 1999, the first DVD/CD writer for home computer users in 2001 and the first Blu-ray Disc writer in 2006. Pioneer Corporation is one of the original Blu-ray Disc Founders. More details can be located at www.pioneerelectronics.com.

It has a 6in E-ink display at 800 x 600 pixels (170dpi, 8-level greyscale), a touch panel supporting handwriting input, supports a variety of media, has built-in 1GB NAND Flash (expandable to 4GB with MicroSD), Bluetooth/WiFi, USB host support, and 3G connection to internet or input devices, a 400MHz processor and 64MB SDRAM.

Supported formats in eBooks are: pdf, epub, mobi, prc, txt, html, fb2 and rtf. Other supported files are JPEG and MP3. Pioneer is spruiking its “excellent” battery life, with 16,000 page turns on a single charge.

Price? $599. Available now, apparently. Check out the full specs over at Pioneer.

The screen is able to display song info, album art, wave data and other advanced song info. In addition to the WQVGA screen (480×234), the CDJ-2000 brings a number of enhancements over its predecessor. For starters, it has a touch-sensitive area called the “Needle Pad”, which lets users jump to a specific song point with the flick of a finger. Secondly, the turntables can now act as a MIDI controller for other devices, with all of its 35 buttons at the ready for musical manipulation. Lastly, it comes equipped with Pioneer’s “Pro DJ Link,” which lets you plug and external data source into one turntable, and access that data on any other CDJ-2000 turntable linked up to the system.

But here’s the kicker—we’re gonna have the CDJ-2000 system setup at Giz Gallery ‘09, where DJs will be testing their skills on the new hardware.

NEW PIONEER CDJ DIGITAL TURNTABLES BRING THE ART OF DJING TO NEW HEIGHTS

CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 Enable DJs to Access Their Music Directly from the Players

Long Beach, CA (September 17, 2009) – Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. Professional Sound and Visual Division, the leader in Pro DJ products and the innovator of the CD turntable, today launched two multi-format digital turntables, the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900, with features that put the performance back into the art of DJing and reduce the need for laptops to access music files. DJs of all experience levels can enhance their mixing and scratching capabilities using proprietary technologies such as rekordbox™1 music management, Pro DJ Link, Needle Search and USB and SD card connectivity.

“Understanding the expanding needs of today’s evolving DJs, Pioneer’s new multi-format digital turntables allow DJs to access, search and control their content directly from the player itself,” said Matt Dever, Vice President, Professional Sound and Visual Division. “The new CDJ players provide the same legendary quality standards and playability of the CDJ-1000/800 with the added convenience of native playback of key digital media file formats accessed through a multitude of compatible media, whether it’s on CD, DVD, portable hard drive or flash memory device. In addition, both models are HID compatible with today’s top DJ performance software, making these players the natural selection for any performance DJ.”

Prepared For Any Performance
Adapting to today’s variety of media formats, the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 enable playback of MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF audio files from CDs and USB memory devices, and from DVDs and SD cards as well on the CDJ-2000. A USB port located on top of the turntable enables users to quickly connect an external storage device such as a Tonium Pacemaker™ or a hard drive packed with music files, minimizing the need to bring a laptop computer to performances.

Both the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 turntables include rekordbox™, Pioneer’s proprietary music management software that organizes and catalogs a DJ’s entire music library. When music files are imported to rekordbox, the software analyzes each file and prepares them for use specifically with the new CDJ turntables. Key elements of Pioneer’s rekordbox software:

* Analyze:
o Beats Per Minute (BPM) Data – BPM / Tempo information for each song is identified and processed into rekordbox for use by the DJ in preparing and performing a set.
o Waveform Data – The waveform of each song is identified and then displayed on the bottom screen for quick data visualization and for use with the needle search function on the CDJ-2000 turntable.
* Customize:
o Tag Info & Artwork – Edit and customise the file information to performance needs.
o Hot Cues, Cue Points, and Loops – Prepare and customise cues and loops as well as create and manage hot cue banks.
o Playlists – Create, edit and manage customised playlists for various performances.
o Beatgrid – Utilizing the new Quantizing feature, cue points and loops can be set perfectly on-beat. The Quantize feature ensures cue points are set accurately and automatically, correcting and synching beats during manual looping or a real-time cueing, preventing off beat mistakes.

Pioneer CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 page 2

Users can then transfer analyzed music files to their preferred storage media and play them directly from the new CDJ turntables. The software offers song information that can be viewed easily during performances on the CDJs’ large displays to quickly search and access content by genre, title, BPM, etc. Also, as analyzed tracks are played through the CDJ products, the turntables automatically create and save a play history enabling users to review past performances on their PCs.

Pro DJ Link

The new turntables feature Pioneer’s Pro DJ Link that enables up to four CDJ-2000/900s to be connected via the Link Port to share a single music source, whether it is a hard drive, USB and/or SD memory card. Once linked, users have the ability to quickly find, display and choose the music file from a connected source through the CDJ’s built-in display and control knobs. A quick turn of the knob lets users scroll through created files and folders and a push of the knob confirms the song choice.

Advanced Connectivity

The new turntables feature a 24-bit/48 kHz sound card and HID and MIDI control compatibility via USB port. Up to 35 controls on the surface of each player can be used to trigger other devices, such as DJ effecters and software by way of HID and/or MIDI.

The HID controls were implemented into the players for superior interfacing with software, faster communication speed over MIDI, audio/visual streaming and two-way information on displays. HID enables easy, precise and native control of DVS systems such as Serato™ Scratch Live, Native Instruments’ Traktor series and MixVibes Cross2 without the need for time-coded discs.

CDJ-2000 Enhancements

* LCD panel and Graphic User Interface – The flagship CDJ-2000 features a large WQVGA 6.1-inch full-color 480 x 234 LCD panel for displaying song titles and jacket art as well as detailed track information so DJs can select songs at a glance. The wave data of each song is also illustrated on screen, showing high and low amplitude to further assist DJs.

* Needle Search – Helps DJs instantaneously get to a specific part of a song with a simple touch of the Needle Search pad. Found directly below the CDJ-2000’s high resolution LCD panel, the touchpad lets the DJ “place the needle” and jump quickly to a specific part of a music track.

* Jog Dial – Adjustments for tension were enhanced from previous models allowing the DJ to further customise the feel of the jog dial from a light to heavy sensitivity. Four illuminated areas on the sides of the Jog Dial aid the DJ in finding the desired spot on the plate in dim lighting environments.

CDJ-900 Enhancements

* Slip Mode – When activated, Slip Mode silently continues song playback during a loop, reverse or scratch and continues audible playback at the exact time when the loop, reverse or scratch is ended creating smoother transitions.

* Advanced Auto Beat Loop – The CDJ-900 generates a four-beat loop at a touch of a button creating a customised sound to provide more time for DJs to blend in transitioning music.

The Extras

For more accurate tempo control while mixing, each player is enhanced with increased frame increments of 0.5 frames that allow the DJ to set a cue point or loop point with more precision.

To achieve the highest sound quality, both the CDJ-2000 and CDJ-900 were equipped with the audio industry’s highly respected Wolfson DAC processors, delivering a very transparent, accurate audio signal resulting in a highly improved signal-to-noise ratio and increased headroom.

The CDJ-2000 will be available in November 2009 with a suggested retail price of $US2,150.

The CDJ-900 will be available in December 2009 with a suggested retail price of $US1,600.

Pioneer offers a complete line of professional DJ Equipment through its Professional Sound & Visual Division. Its DJM series of mixers has become an industry standard at clubs, studios, mobile rigs and homes around the world, known for its high quality sound and reliability. For more information, visit www.pioneerprodj.com.

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. is headquartered in Long Beach, Calif., and its U.S. Web address is www.pioneerelectronics.com. Its parent company, Pioneer Corporation, established in Tokyo in 1938, is a preeminent manufacturer of high-performance audio, video and computer equipment for the home, car and business markets.

1 rekordbox is music file management software developed by Pioneer in cooperation with MixVibes for use in combination with Pioneer products.

2 For more information on the version that improves compatibility when connected with the CDJ-2000, please see the MixVibes website at http://www.mixvibes.com.

Pioneer is a registered trademark of Pioneer Corporation

Rekordbox is a trademark of Pioneer Corporation.

MixVibes and CROSS are trademarks of MixVibes Companies in the United States and other countries.

Pacemaker is a registered trademark of Tonium AB.

SERATO and Scratch LIVE are trademarks of Sigma Audio Research Limited.

TRAKTOR is a trademark of Native Instruments.

Wolfson is a registered trademark of Wolfson Microelectronics.

Bluetooth being built-in would be nicer, but still, not having to connect to your iPhone 3GS or iPod touch 2G (or other Bluetooth device) is kinda neat.

The XW-NAS5 (pictured top) also has auto track volume levelling, an “Advanced Sound Retriever” to improve compressed music, built-in radio, and a hippy ambient sound generator to sooth you to sleep.

We don’t know pricing yet, but the speakers are slated to arrive this season. The basic XW-NAS3 will only be white, while the S5 will have a few different colours, including red and black. [Pioneer]

Project ET, also known as Project ETAP, is due sometime next year for an undisclosed price. The system is essentially a Linux-based networked computer with a 1TB hard drive and Blu-ray player.

OK, so what? Here’s a full list of what it can actually do:

• Play Blu-ray movies
• Managed Copy (backup) Blu-ray movies
• Connect to video services like Netflix (though not Hulu)
• Stream stuff like MovieTrailers.com with a polished, non-web interface
• Link you to buying related movies/products through an unobtrusive interface
• Support Windows Media Center
• Be controlled through Android phones and iPod touch
• Load 128 USB connected drives (which it encrypts in some cases)
• Rip music in FLAC and PCM
• Automatically include the album art and lyrics
• Stream LastFM, Rhapsody and support Rhapsody downloads
• Integrate third party home automation devices
• Update Twitter
• And do everything listed above through a SlingBox-like, web-mirrored interface

All of this sounds great, but if the UI is either slow or ugly, none of the features matter. Luckily, the interface is easy to navigate, tastefully designed, and oh yeah, fast. In fact, Blu-ray JAVA loads 6x faster on the ET than the PS3.

None of these features are set in stone. Pioneer explained that, depending on public response, they could pull the hard drive completely or ditch Blu-ray. They just want to create an internet-connected media machine to trump everything that’s come before. And…well, they’re certainly in contention.

We’d just like to see DVR and CableCard support. Because then it would pretty much do everything.

The main UI page, this one’s on pictures, which can be pulled off a server or the local hard drive.

The picture UI is incredibly fast—pictures selected in the carousel on the bottom of the screen pop up full-res nearly instantly.

This is how you navigate through albums.

Not my favourite song, but this is what playing music looks like.

Inside the music interface, where it’ll prompt you to buy related stuff from online stores you select, both digital (stream or download) and plastic (delivered to your house).

Lyrics!

Oh yes, Twitter integration.

It’s telling you to please buy Bolt stuff. Pleeeeease.

Hey look a managed copy of Bolt we just made.

This is the box that makes it happen.

The remote running off the Nokia N810 worked perfectly—everything on the screen showed up on the N810 totally in sync.

The iPod touch integration was a little jankier since it uses a web interface (because of SDK limitations), but still okay.

Technical issues willing, we’ll get you a video of the interface in a bit.

The back of the gadget is rounded and its symmetrical form makes it comfortable for both righties and lefties. Doubt this will be hitting anytime soon, but I’ll be dreaming of it in my hands while my poor Flip looks for a lens pump. [Yanko Design via Ubergizmo]

This according to the guys at HDguru, who proclaimed the new $US2,600 set was easily the “New King of HDTVs.” In some cases, they said, the Panasonic was able to best the KURO.

The V10 distinction carries with it the same NEO PDP panel as its cousins in the recently released G10 plasma line, but adds in a bevy of new software and hardware features, including three colour modes, a thinner profile (2.8cm deep at top and 8.4cm middle), and a 96Hz refresh rate for 24Hz sources. The V10 line currently comes in 50 and 54-in. models, with larger 58 and 65-inchers due out in August.

And lest you still remain on the fence about this HDTV, know that HDGuru changed their frickin review system from four to five hearts to accommodate all the wonderful new awesomeness provided by Panasonic in this pricey new HDTV. [HDGuru]

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.