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Honda Boosts iOS Car Integration with New HondaLink Services for 2014 Civic, 2015 Fit
Following last week's announcement of Siri "Eyes Free" integration for select Honda and Acura vehicles, Honda today held a Google Hangout to announce even deeper integration for the 2014 Honda Civic and 2015 Honda Fit.
The new Civic, which goes on sale tomorrow, and the upcoming Fit, which launches early next year, will offer an all-new Display Audio interface featuring a 7-inch touchscreen that will be familiar to smartphone users, offering easy access to a variety of features.
Leveraging the large touchscreen display, new HondaLink apps for iOS will allow users to seamlessly connect their iPhone 5, 5s, or 5c to vehicle systems for accessing online content. The suite consists of four iOS apps now available:
Honda's Google Hangout offering more information on iOS integration with the new Civic and Fit is archived here.
The new Civic, which goes on sale tomorrow, and the upcoming Fit, which launches early next year, will offer an all-new Display Audio interface featuring a 7-inch touchscreen that will be familiar to smartphone users, offering easy access to a variety of features.
Offering one of the largest touchscreens in its class, Display Audio uses the familiar pinch, swipe and tap functionality of a smartphone to access audio, phonebook, media, vehicle information and available navigation features.
Icons resembling smartphone apps are displayed on a 7-inch, high-definition, capacitive touchscreen, making the interface intuitive and easy to use.
Leveraging the large touchscreen display, new HondaLink apps for iOS will allow users to seamlessly connect their iPhone 5, 5s, or 5c to vehicle systems for accessing online content. The suite consists of four iOS apps now available:
- Connect App – Provides convenient access for many services including location searches, local weather, messaging, Maintenance Minder alerts, service scheduling by phone, and access to the Owners Guide. Users can tap for weather updates and store favorite destinations for quick routing with the Navigation app.Beyond the new HondaLink features, the Civic and Fit with Display Audio will also be the first Honda vehicles to have factory installed support for Siri Eyes Free, with the compatibility for 2013-2014 Honda Accord and 2013 Acura RDX and ILX models announced last week arriving as a dealer installed accessory.
- Navigation App – For the first time Honda is offering a comprehensive cloud-based navigation app for purchase [$59.99 in the App Store] that includes 3D mapping and continuously updated traffic information. As the first navigation app developed by an automaker with mapping data provided by HERE, a Nokia business, this app offers a variety of location search options including search by point of interest, text search, or previous locations. Routes can be pre-planned on a smartphone and will display on the vehicle’s touchscreen. Turn-by-turn routing guidance is available through the vehicle’s audio system as well.
- Aha App – provides access to an extensive and diverse selection of audio content across multiple genres and demographics, plus featured new stations, Internet radio, podcasts, audiobooks, news, Twitter and Facebook updates and nearby location listings for restaurants, coffee houses, hotels, weather, parks, and gas stations. Users can tap to personalize stations or add favorites via smartphone or directly through the Display Audio interface.
- Launcher App – Finds and organizes Honda-approved 3rd party apps so they can be quickly integrated into the Display Audio system. Approved apps can be found through the Launcher and shown on the Display Audio screen for easy access.
Honda's Google Hangout offering more information on iOS integration with the new Civic and Fit is archived here.
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Top Rated Comments
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68 months ago
I knew automakers wouldn't go for the full "iOS 7 in the Car" feature. It's too integrated and overrides their own crappy UI with a nice, useful Apple interface.
68 months ago
...so basically it does everything the built-in maps and google maps does? i dont get this.
Only Honda has control of the apps that can be shown on your dash screen, so they're basically using this to sell you the privilege of displaying maps on that screen for $60.
That's something iOS in the car would have done for free, and probably with a much better UI.
It seems like they're competing with iOS in the car instead of adopting it. This is very disappointing news from a consumer perspective.
68 months ago
SIXTY dollars for a navigation app? WHAT?!
Sounds like a lot, but just a few years ago, car manufacturers were routinely charging an additional $1.5K to $2.5K for a crappy in-dash screen that did nothing but navigation, with really stale/sketchy map data. And map data had to be updated through a disc, which you could get from your dealer for several hundred dollars. So, progress.
68 months ago
- Aha App - provides access to an extensive and diverse selection of audio content ...
"Take on me..."
68 months ago
another closed system that will probably have zero API access for 3rd party developers. in other words, more of the same.
68 months ago
Looks lame
Yet another car manufacturer trying to reinvent a wheel that Apple and Google have already done much better.
Does Honda really think I want to use their crappy navigation app over Apple's? I can talk to Apple Maps. I can press one button on the phone (or steering wheel) and say "Give me directions to....". I can say "What's my ETA?" I can say "Cancel directions." Also, next year, when Apple Maps take another jump, I'm likely to be able to speak more sophisticated commands to the mapping program. Also, I can do all of this through a bluetooth connection, instead of having to physically plug the phone in.
Can Honda's app keep up with that? Of course not. So they stupidly build their strategy on a custom app that costs $60, and will never match what I already get for free with my phone.
Terrible. They should have supported iOS in the Car via a Bluetooth connection. Problem solved (at least for iOS users).
Yet another car manufacturer trying to reinvent a wheel that Apple and Google have already done much better.
Does Honda really think I want to use their crappy navigation app over Apple's? I can talk to Apple Maps. I can press one button on the phone (or steering wheel) and say "Give me directions to....". I can say "What's my ETA?" I can say "Cancel directions." Also, next year, when Apple Maps take another jump, I'm likely to be able to speak more sophisticated commands to the mapping program. Also, I can do all of this through a bluetooth connection, instead of having to physically plug the phone in.
Can Honda's app keep up with that? Of course not. So they stupidly build their strategy on a custom app that costs $60, and will never match what I already get for free with my phone.
Terrible. They should have supported iOS in the Car via a Bluetooth connection. Problem solved (at least for iOS users).
68 months ago
Honda's Google Hangout offering more information on iOS integration with the new Civic and Fit starts now (https://plus.google.com/events/cajv718v950chj5updqr2o92sd4).
Hosting a Google hangout to reveal an iOS integration for there cars... weird.
.
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