LS460: Is internet connection possible?

[JFNash]

Is there any way to have internet connection in my LS?

Any solution should do (through mobile phone via Bluetooth/ installing additional hardware...)

All thoughts are highly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Burnaby]

Nothing out there yet, but I'm sure they're working on it...

[AlMuhairi]

you can have internet connection in your LS460, but its going to require you install a car PC and a couple gadgets and will probably need to use a video interface such as NAVTOOL.

You can visit mp3car.com and look up at different specs for a car PC and internet solutions. You wont be able to use the LS460 navigation touch screen and would have to use an external keyboard or mouse.

[miniz]

Sure, get a smartphone, tether it to a laptop and off you go. Or just buy a netbook or a laptop and stick a 3G access card into it. Internet access anywhere you get cell signal.

[Burnaby]

Using those approaches, you could connect a donkey to the Internet. What I would consider connecting an LS would ideally be using the Navi LCD and inputting with a wireless keyboard, so we're certainly quite a distance from seeing this approach, although it certainly is not impossible assuming that all the Wifi issues would not be an impediment.

Park yourself outside a Wifi hotspot like Starbucks or Safeway with a laptop, like I've done on many occasions, and you've got a great solution at a very reasonable cost. In the end, it really depends what you want from the Internet - music, business apps, Youtube, etc...

[AlMuhairi]

Burnaby, true, but 3G with at&t you can be pretty much connected everywhere...I saw some setups use a knob to input letters and stuff....I would really suggest that if you are going to be using the internet in the car that you do it while parked not driving around.

[JFNash]

Originally Posted by Burnaby

What I would consider connecting an LS would ideally be using the Navi LCD and inputting with a wireless keyboard

This is exactly what I had in mind. In fact, I thought 2010 would be the year that internet would be made available on the LS460, but I seem to be wrong.

So it's the time to find a twist to make it available myself

Thanks for your input Burnaby!

Originally Posted by miniz

Sure, get a smartphone, tether it to a laptop and off you go. Or just buy a netbook or a laptop and stick a 3G access card into it. Internet access anywhere you get cell signal.

I can insert a 3G SIM card in my ThinkPad, so I don't need a smartphone to get connected. But the thing is that I would like to take advantage of the enough technology that is already available in the car. The car has it's own computers, so internet should be no big deal (maybe Lexus is saying well we want you to have one more reason to upgrade to LS4XY 2013).
Thanks for the input miniz!

Originally Posted by AlMuhairi

You can visit mp3car.com and look up at different specs for a car PC and internet solutions. You wont be able to use the LS460 navigation touch screen and would have to use an external keyboard or mouse.

Great start. I'm going to look at the website as it seems to offer so much useful stuff.

And you are right I'd like to use the touch screen as the input device (I don't see any reason to have a keyboard and mouse for this purpose). The hurdle that is facing me is that it doesn't seem quite possible to have the nav system connected to internet via Bluetooth. Then another problem that is I would need a software application (or a bunch of them) to take advantage of the internet connection.

What am I going to use it for? Well, my basic need is audio stream. There are so many services that provide audio content on the internet that I would like to have on my car (since I spend so much time driving and I'm sick of taking my iPhone with me every time I go home to update my podcasts and audio content).

Other applications will follow (google search, reviews, places to go, and probably checking emails and.... imagine).

As of now, I can use my iPhone to do some of the stuff I would like to do. But employing the car's gadgets is my ultimate purpose.

Thanks for the great stuff guys! Appreciate it.