MAKE MUSIC NOT WAR The car-stereo aftermarket has been engaged in guerrilla warfare with superpower automakers ever since the first Bose system salvo crossed the industry's bow.
TIME BEHIND the wheel can be a therapeutic escape from modern life's 24/7 connectivity, but that's about to change. At the 2012 CES, automakers, car-electronics suppliers, and wireless carriers announced alliances and initiatives that will make the fully connected car a reality.
At CES 2013, car audio companies and automakers showed that they’re ready to deliver data in almost any form to drivers — from on-demand news and restaurant reviews to location-sharing and even info to create the perfect date — by bringing connectivity and apps into the dashboard.
Summer’s here, and it’s time to hit the road. Automotive entertainment used to be restricted to radio and whatever you brought onboard in the form of prerecorded music — from 8-tracks to discs and later iPods. But now that smartphones and tablets have made Internet connectivity possible in the car, a whole new world of content has opened up on the road.
We gathered five of the coolest connected- car gadgets and took them out for a shakedown cruise.
If you like listening to music in the car, things just keep getting better, thanks to an explosion of technology that allows more options for taking your tunes on the road.
A flat-panel TV is probably in your future, if not already in your home. But many new owners of big-screen plasma and LCD sets find that their setups need some reconfiguring to accommodate these newest and leanest members of their home-entertainment families. In other words, the big and bulky cabinets designed to accommodate large tube TVs are out and thin is in.
Tony Hawk became the world's most famous skateboarder by "going big" and performing maneuvers no one else had even thought of. But when it came to his new home, the avowed "electronics nut" decided that less is more. Hawk in front of his home theater system.
With the drive-in theater largely a thing of the past, could outdoor video be the wave of the future? Taking video outside isn't very practical unless you live in an area with a mild year-round climate.
Illustration by Bill Villareal Ah, summer. The warmth of the sun, the smell of fresh-cut grass, the taste of backyard barbeque - and your music playing too softly to hear on the patio but blasting as you walk inside for more ice cubes. As life migrates out of doors at this time of the year, your tunes don't have to get left behind.
