Gizmodo: visteon

CES 2007: Wireless Car Gadget Charger from Visteon

Travis Hudson — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 12:53:29 EST

Visteon, known for the high-end audio equipment, will be jumping on the cellphone and car accessory bandwagon with this wireless charger that will be officially unveiled at CES next week. This device can charge anything from cellphones to MP3 players to PDAs and even digital cameras. It appears to fit conveniently in a cupholder, and plugs into the cigarette lighter to charge the gadgets. – Travis Hudson

Viateon to unveil wireless charger for your car at CES [MobileMag]

Tricked Out Scion Features First Portable HD Radio

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:00:22 EST

We haven't seen that many tricked out Scions before, but this one here is essentially a living room on wheels. In addition to the usual car tech like a Bluetooth hands-free calling kit and GPS navigation, it has the first ever portable HD Radio receiver (shown far right), the HD Jump. (HD Radio ups the clarity of FM stations to near CD quality sound in addition to displaying artist/music info). The car also has a wireless charger for your gadgets, a Boston Acoustics Audio system, and an entertainment center based on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (we woulda preferred a built-in 360). The car is being shown at SEMA (Speciality Equipment Market Association) in Las Vegas. More pics of the car after the jump.

First Portable HD Radio Receiver

Charges your gadgets wirelessly

Game Boy Advance is featured in the entertainment center

– Louis Ramirez
Visteon Unveils Innovative Mobile Electronics [via GizMag]

Visteon Adds Game Boy Advance to In-Car System

tgrumet — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 13:53:34 EST

Thank Visteon for thinking up just one more way to keep everyone quiet on your next roadtrip. The company has added Game Boy Advance to its Dockable in-car video experience, which features a 2.5 pound, flip-down media player with a large, 10.2-inch screen. The player can also be undocked and toted around with you to use just about anywhere—including another car. Use the high-speed Game Boy Advance game link cable to plug in another Game Boy and play against others or you can just watch DVDs. It's also compatible with CD-based files, including MP3 and WMA.

The Week in Cars - The Best of Jalopnik

Travis Hudson — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:30:01 EST

This week in Jalopnik: A proposal for an electric car—share network in Europe; the Jaws of Life becomes hybrid-friendly; an automotive supplier says USB drives could replace CD changers; a really remote starting system for cars is launched; and some joker fulfills a childhood slot-car fantasy.

With Europe's 30-satellite GALILEO network coming online in 2008, entrepreneurs got the call to develop something to use it for, other than finding the nearest Denny's (the European equivalent, of course) or geo caching in the Pyrenees. One particularly well-received suggestion, as the BBC reports, is a car-sharing service for electric vehicles. Cars would be tracked by satellite, and subscribers would be able to go online to find the nearest car, use it, then leave it wherever they wanted. The problem of charging the cars' batteries would be solved by a secret society of generator-wielding monks.

Hurst's hydraulic Jaws of Life has been helping first-responders free trapped car-accident victims for decades. Now, growing concern among police and fire personnel about being zapped by hybrid cars' high-voltage systems led the company to update the indispensable tool. The new model, the Jaws of Life, No Seriously, includes insulation and other features to prevent the rescuers from becoming the rescued.

Visteon, an automotive technology supplier, says Flash-based USB drives will begin replacing CD changers, possibly as early as next year. Sell those iPods, kids. I guess this means all those other competing technologies can just go ahead and hang it up. Gotcha.

With Guidepoint, an aftermarket automotive convenience service (think OnStar) and future purveyor of scary drama-in-real-life commercials, is offering subscribers a new online function. Instead of having to talk to a call-center rep to free trapped keys from a locked car, users can go online and unlock the car themselves. The system also comes with a remote-start function that's either a tremendous source of convenience on cold days, or a boon for social-engineering hackers employed by auto-theft syndicates.

And finally, from New Zealand, a slot-car cam. Nuff said.

[Jalopnik s The Week in Cars appears every Friday]