Apple developing NAVI for Benz ?
 

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.au...06/iclass2.jpg
via autoblog

http://www.foursprung.com/

Who wrote this?

MB has a huge following throughout the whole world, and Apple would be wise to tap into it.

i think it'd be cool to see what improvements they make to the system, seeing how nice apple products are so far. i wonder if that would make gene starts to get mb? :p

this is good news, anything is better than mb nav

The Apple takeover is starting... :D:D:D

:thumbup:

It's about time that more than just a select few realize that the world of Windows is outdated!

Just a thought though... Our Colonel brought this up in our class last semester but it goes with this same kind of theory.

We were discussing where the Air Force will be in 20 years, and one of his debating points was that some of the new-era jets and commands would be integrating the use of Windows or Macs to run things. We debated it for a while, and thought that it would be crazy to allow one company so much access to such a pivotal and integral part of the Air Force. But, considering that a huge auto manufacturer would collaborate with a rather huge computer/lifestyle manufacturer, then maybe it's not such a far fetched possibility... hmmm:uh:

Well two things which would be awesome about this which would be unique to Mercedes if this were to happen:
1) Super iPhone/iPod connectivity... I read somewhere that if you have an iPhone you would connect it and the screen would be cloned on the navigation screen, which could be awesome for quick syncing of a calendar or something.
2) Google Maps. You would be able to use Google Maps as that would probably be Apple's source of the map information. With that said, you would probably get street view directions or satellite image directions right in the car with easy updates.

That would be awesome... I hope it trickles down to Lexus, even though I love the navigations of Lexus.

Mink92890

...and iTV through the nav screen... :D :thumbup:

Let it happen... it will be just another nail in the coffin of Mercedes' reputation for luxury and excellence.

Face it: Apple is a quirky niche brand that only truly appeals to those who choose products more based on cache than functionality. Their market in every realm (except MP3 players, but more on that in a moment) is in the "also-ran, barely-mention" category. They design products for the dumbest consumers--automating every function and assuming the user is too stupid to know how to adjust settings on their own. They even treat their customers like commodities, for example in the way they brushed off the iPod battery fiasco. And now people don't buy iPods because that's the best MP3 player--they buy them because they're "cool", a fleeting sensation that will inevitably move to the next best thing.

So let Mercedes link themselves to a brand that appeals to a tiny sliver of the population, that feels it is superior to its own customers, and that relies on "cool" rather than true innovation or product excellence in order to carry on. Lexus is smart to stick with their current suppliers for nav systems, the same suppliers that have given them an untarnished string of awards for having the best, most complete, and most user-friendly electronics in the industry.

This is going to be very beneficial to MB, I for one am happy and excited for them. MB has needed some new nav software badly.

I wonder what will happen to COMAND if Benz decides to use Apple for their NAV+ICE system? Who's providing the hardware as well - is Benz going to stick to their traditional suppliers of Becker, Bosch/Blaupunkt or Siemens/VDO?

not suprising...MB is little more than a fashion statement

Cache than functionality? What are you smoking. And dumbest consumers, wow... What do you have against people who buy Apple products?

It's true. I didn't even realize they were still making cars. I've been buying only M-B wristwatches, suits, purses, and luggage for the past five years.

IMO, Apples are more user friendly than ANYTHING M$/Dell/HP spews out for Wal-Mart and Costco, but this isn't a computer forum and it is OT...

You both have got to be joking.

That would be awesome for Mercedes. From a not so interface to Apple's type of user friendly interfaces would be great. Sign me up.

p.s. I'm going to have to reboot to Windows to play games.

Anti-mac rhetoric. I work in a cross-platform office and the Macs are far more preferred, by both staff and our IT folks. Plus they last forever. Most of the PC's in the office have died within 5-6 years of heavy use while the Macs soldier on, usually finding a job elsewhere doing at least something... like the 8 year old G4 we have operating our flatbed scanner. Apple is an innovator both in hardware and software. You can't say that for either Micro$oft or Dell. It only strengthens the Mac platform now that you can switch between the Windows environment and OSX on the Mac.

Look inside a PC and it's a glob of wires and componets. Look inside a Mac Pro and it's pure elegance. Like the difference between looking under the hood of a Chevy Vega compared with looking under the hood of a Lexus.

That elegance and simplicity carries over in every aspect of design with Apple products. That, in turn, greatly enhances the user experience. The reason people buy iPods is because the interface is logical, simple and elegant, and works seamlessly with thier desktop or laptop at home. And it just so happens that the design is cool as well.

When the iPhone debuts, the phone industry (in a recent survey 19 million said they plan on buying an iPhone) will be put on notice the same way the MP3 industry was. People will pay extra for thoughtful design and innovation, instead of pure, mechanical function.

If Apple decideds to fully commit to the GPS and Navi interface business it will only make a company which is growing stronger every year even stronger still. Also-ran? Don't kid yourself.

Could not disagree with you more.

Today Apple is nothing but techno fashion accessory. Nothing more.

User friendly would allow the user to change destinations while driving, without a Nav override or cutting wires. User friendly would allow me to view my playlists while driving.

Well, since you backed that up with so much rationale, I have to take your word for it.

well since you put it that way...I guess I'll have to agree with you....:rolleyes:

What an ignorant statement. You honestly believe the Black Series CLK 63 is "little more than a fashion statement"?

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=288756

Come on.

This is a great move. My two favorite things on the planet. It's like a Reeses cup.

oh please for $130k there are vastly superior vehicles on the market.

omg

People will pay extra to make a fashion statement.

cause Apple invented the cellphone, digital camera and Blackberry... must be gameover for the competion. :rolleyes:

oh I forget who's processor does Apple now use?

# of engineers who make fashion statements = 0
# of engineers use non ipod Apple products = 0

I really didn't want this thread to degrade into a Mac vs. PC debate, but I guess it's inevitable. It's like Republicans vs. Democrats--there are more similarities than differences, but emotions get involved and people can't be objective.

I rail against Apple because their fanboys so blindly devote themselves to everything the company does. They have not innovated for years, yet are seen as a wonderfully customer-focused company (by a tiny sliver of rabid fans). The iPhone is nothing but a nice repackaging of technologies and components that other manufacturers have offered for years. It will sell (but not like the blind adherents hope in a mass-market sense) to that fringe faithful, simply because it is Apple.

Maybe these people will now buy Mercedes cars, except that Apple's fringe market is mostly made up of starving students and artists. Not exactly your luxury car demographic, is it?

No kidding... Everything is integrated seamlessly together it's amazing. It's true that it's not as customizable as Windows but many people think it's worth the trade-off. After all, we don't have as much freedom having a government, but it's worth it right?

What does this have to do with anything?

Let's see... There are a lot of Lexus fanboys or BMW fanboys on car forums, do you rail against Lexus or BMW? In addition, I'd call the widgets and dock innovations. O and by the way, they are copied by Microsoft... Now who's more innovative? As for iPhone, I personally wouldn't get one but if it's simply a repackaging of technologies and components, please do point out which phone on the market currently has the same functionality as the iPhone? Seriously... And for YEARS?! So how about naming some phones from 2005? I think in order to make that kind of statement, some evidence/support should be included as well.

As far as Apple's fringe market is mostly made up of starving students and artists... What are you smoking? Last time I checked, the cheapest computer, MacBook, is $1,000 and Mac Pro start at $2,500. In addition, do you think that the "starving students and artists" would buy an MB simply because it has an Apple nav system? Probably not, however, prospective MB buyers would probably love the ease of use and functionality of the Apple nav system over say, oh, iDrive?! and buy an MB...

Well said :thumbup:

Like I said, Macs are very user-friendly, while M$ has yet to equal Mac OS X, Windows XP is probably the most user friendly flavor of Windows yet, Vista is still a nightmare that they need to fix. And Apple likes to keep distribution tight, unlike HP, Dell, and Gateway/eMachines which must cave into the demands of Costco, Wal-Mart and Best Buy which is crank out as many machines you can, regardless of quality. That's why I build my own PCs.

And it's somewhat true about the artists and students using Macs, I see more MacBooks/iBook G3 or G4s on college campuses than Dell Inspirons or Latitudes or any of the junk HP makes(or rather buys from Quanta and "calls" it their own)

Coming from a Systems Admin, former Desktop Support guy for PCs, I would say OSX > Windows. I have worked with PCs my whole life and think OSX is a superior product.

Apple is intuitive, easy to use, and well... It just works and it works right away, rather in Windows, even if it does have the drivers, it takes awhile to load or install the device.

that sounds like what a Lexus owner would say about their car :)

Did anyone read the article and it does say that MBZ will get it exclusive for the 6 months then after if a car manufacturer wants to incorporate it into their car then they can.

I bet you there's a pole out there that asks what people thought of Apple what came to mind. I bet a big chunk of the responses would be 1) Ipod 2) easy to use 3) simple probably not in that order but you get the drift. Most consumers are not geeks and tech savy like some of us here on the car forums or who frequent Gizmodo ro Engadget. So just imagine how nice it would be if Apple were to have a chance to rethink how in car navigation/entertainment is handled.

Isnt ford teaming up w/ windows? or something like that for their infotainment?

Well Foo, we did have to bring our brand new IS250 right back to the dealer for the TPMS sensors (>40 miles). I looked at the dealer paper license plate and scratched my head a bit. It said "RIGHT FROM THE START." Last night the airbag off light turned off for 15 minutes while my gf was sitting in the car. :uh:

LOL not eve Lexus can be perfect. I remember my 06 GS300 had a cam position sensor go bad w/ 3k miles on the clock. O well

And that's now. How will Windows stack up when OSX Leopard hits?

Considering most people still won't touch Vista with a 10 foot pole, I think Leopard will be more than fine. ;)

Actually, I plan on having both Vista and Leopard running on my next Mac. Some of the features of Leopard, such as Time Machine and Stacks, look great.

But back to topic. I look foward to the interface they come up with for cars.

Apple has an educational discount and it is very attractive when they also throw in a free iPod when purchasing a new Mac for college students. And as far as when I was concerned in undergrad, I simply wanted a laptop that I can count on while completing my 10-page essay at 3am the morning of the day it's due. My previous laptops before switching to Apple iBook was a Compaq which overheated and had a hard drive failure, and a Dell 600m, which overheated as well.

As fas as artists go, it is undeniable that Apple has always been great at graphic design/video editing/music composing/picture editing applications. I personally believe that if the softwares they need to use are offered on both XP and a Mac, the stability and security of Mac would sell itself. A lot of times though, the software needed for something simply isn't available on OSX and there is no equal product available. But it doesn't say anything about the quality of Mac, simply the software company's lack of resource/capability to crossover to expand their market.

I can personally vouch for other fields as well. As far as biology research goes, especially in the field of genetics and related areas, the top software only comes in OSX flavor. In addition, for softwares that support both XP and OSX, most researchers feel much safer and confident leaving the Apple running for 5 days/nights at a time running calculations (proteomics), and turn off the XP at the end of the day. Take a walk and visit your local university's researcher's offices, I'll bet you'd be surprised on how many Macs you find.

10 foot pole? How about a 10 foot cattle prod :D

Vista is just a WinXP/Win2K cored WinME with a quasi-OSX UI.

That probably has more to do with the application ports than the OS. My Windows machine run 24x7 and are rarely every rebooted. No problems. They generally only get rebooted when a Windows update prompts me too, which I grant, is too often, and one of the most ludicrous weaknesses (that they can't apply OS patches without rebooting).

I tell everyone who asks me though - if you want the easiest machine to use, get a Mac. If you want fewer confusing errors and prompts that have no good answer, get a Mac.

Its the IClass or I-Benz!!!

Lol, please don't tempt them.