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Navdy gives your car an iPhone-linked HUD
We love our cars, and we love our iPhones, but sometimes we don't love them so much together. Navigation and entertainment apps provide a wonderful road trip experience, but controlling those apps by touch or by voice is tougher -- and more dangerous -- than it should be, even using clever clips to attach the phone to the car. There's a fundamental incompatibility between paying attention to a tiny touchscreen at arm's length and paying attention to large amounts of kinetic energy embodied in a massive chunk of steel and plastic moving at 100 km/h. Apple's CarPlay shim for iPhone 5+ devices will address some of those command and control issues (if you buy a new car, or refit your stereo with an aftermarket unit) by relocating the functional display of the phone to the dashboard, reskinning the UI for simplicity, and enabling both physical switches and Siri-based voice controls for functional operations. That still doesn't clear the biggest hurdle: keeping your eyes on the road as you drive, rather than pulling your focus back to the center console and degrading your driving attention. The limitations of in-dash or phone displays have led to some creative solutions like the HUDWAY directions app, Sygic's HUD feature in its nav app, Garmin's HUD (Head Up Display) unit and others. The app-only solutions are fine at night, but they suffer in the sunlight (not to mention lightly braising your phone as it sits on the dash). Garmin's LED-based unit is fine but inflexible, and only works with the company's nav apps. The upcoming Navdy HUD, however, aims for more flexibility and a slick set of interaction modes combined with a full-featured, correctly distanced projection setup that makes it appear as though the display (driven by your iPhone or Android phone) is floating two meters away over the road ahead. Navdy can draw power and data from your car's diagnostic (OBD-II) port, which lets Navdy display speed and distance-to-empty while opening up the possibility of future features to analyze and manage driving and performance data. All this savvy will come at a price, however: Navdy's pre-order cost of US$299 (versus a regular retail price of $499 when it ships in early 2015) is 2x the Garmin unit's price, although Garmin's HUD only works if you buy one of the company's $30+ nav apps to drive it. The Navdy unit, which will connect to the dash via a combined silicon friction mount and a magnetic interlock, will support nav apps like Google Maps and music apps like the built-in iTunes app, Pandora, Spotify and more. The UI of those apps is distilled down to create a "glanceable" experience, keeping only the critical information a driver needs and eliminating any excess chrome or distractions from the HUD. Even multitasking will be driver-friendly; any incoming call or SMS will only take over a part of the display, leaving speed and next turn visible at all times. Of course, SMS or iMessage alerts can be read aloud; with parental controls, they can be disabled entirely while the car is in motion. The voice and gesture controls of Navdy take the HUD experience to the next level. Dictating messages or directions can be done with Siri natively, but Navdy adds a noise-cancelling mic directly in front of the driver's mouth to improve recognition performance. Gestures can accept or turn down an incoming call, change music tracks and more via left/right swipes and a thumbs-up. Navdy talks to your phone via Bluetooth, and since it uses the OBD port for power it won't clog up your 12v/cigarette lighter plug. For cars made before 1996, Navdy will offer an optional 12v adapter to use instead of the OBD connector. The display quality, in the preproduction unit I examined, was very good. The "floating" effect is quite solid and there was no eyestrain or other sense of looking at something that wasn't really there. With a real-world placement on a hot dashboard in the bright sun, your mileage may vary, but Navdy's founders believe they can deliver HUD technology that will work for both everyday and performance drivers in any kind of driving conditions. Both the discount and full-price Navdy may seem quite steep; it's tough to put $300 into a device that you haven't seen in action. But if the Navdy team can deliver on all the functionality they plan to package into the unit, my feeling is that it will be worth the cost. You can read more about Navdy and place a pre-order at www.navdy.com. Navdy's launch video (produced by the delightful and talented Adam Lisagor) is embedded below.
Pre sets first day and first weekend device sales records for Sprint, almost ruins a wedding
As of late Sunday, the new Palm Pre became the fastest starter ever for Sprint, setting records both for best first day sales and best first weekend sales, according to a Sprint press release. Unfortunately, Sprint doesn't mention a specific number of devices sold (the best estimate so far is around 50,000), or what device the Pre knocked off the top spot -- we'd say the Instinct, if we had to guess. The rest of the effusive PR is spent on extensive self praise, with CEO Dan Hesse calling the launch "the coming out party for the new Sprint." In between plugs for the Ready Now experience, however, unfolds the bizarre story of a groom-to-be standing in line 15 minutes before his wedding. We don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say it's got "feel good romcom of the summer" written all over it.
Palm Pre goes on sale nationwide, line forms on the right
Oh, hey, look at that: you can buy a Pre now! As of 8:00AM on the East Coast, the phone went on sale at Sprint stores, with Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart also retailing the phone today as Saturday dawns across the country. After Sprint's invite only pre-Pre launch event last night, we still saw plenty of folks lined up outside Sprint's "flagship" New York store in the Flatiron Building before the doors opened. Apparently people started queuing around 5:00AM, with Chris Lee and Randy Williams the first through the door -- replacing a Treo Pro and a HTC Mogul, respectively. Like last night, the process took about 40 minutes, but a lot of that is spent waiting for a small pit crew of Sprint employees to swap over your address book, so if you forgo that we'd say you can be in and out in 30, which should still be plenty of time to savor the moment. Word is that the Flatiron store has about 100 units, but it's clear that inventory varies widely between locations and retailers -- Touchstones seem to be a much rarer commodity. We'll be checking out some other launches across the country, so stay tuned, and be sure to send in your own pictures and impressions! Some word from the wilds: Tipster Brad says that his Best Buy store in Orlando has only 9 Pres available, and they're giving them out one by one on an appointment basis -- he was fourth in line, so he'll be going back at 12:15PM to pick his up. Unfortunately, their Touchstone stock is zero. Kevin C. Tofel was fourth in line at his local Sprint store, which purportedly had 30 phones in stock, but he picked up the last of the Touchstones. We just checked in at the Bryant Park Sprint store in New York City, and while Pre inventory is cool, they are all out of Touchstones. We're starting to think the supply of those is quite limited. We also hear that at least one tenacious gentleman got in line at 6:00PM yesterday, and spent the night outside the store in order to get his first.
Palm Pre goes on sale to a select, drenched few
We just got to witness history, folks: Alfredo Rodriguez waited an hour in the miserable New York rain for the privilege of snapping up his Sprint store's very first retail Pre at this evening's invite-only Premier customers event. The man paid in cold hard cash, and after a tedious 40 minute purchase process that involved a bit of activation, some nice tutorials, a quick address book sideload from his old Touch Diamond and whole lot of peripheral upsell, Alfredo was one of the world's first satisfied Pre customers. The last time we saw him Alfredo was still playing with his new phone, and gives the device two thumbs up. He's particularly digging the keyboard -- what Touch Diamond user wouldn't? -- and the flip-up mirror. Word on the street was that there were about 80 units available at the store, but while we couldn't squeeze an official number out of Sprint, they did confirm that they'll have units available for the launch tomorrow as well. Be sure to let us know how your own local launch treats you! Update: We've swung by the Chicago launch on LaSalle Street to scope out the scene -- follow the break for the eye candy! Update 2: There's now also a video from the New York store after the break.
Palm Pre available at a single store in NYC on launch day? Unlikely.
The Pre launch continues to befuddle -- sure, we finally know that June 6 is when the magic happens, but the mechanics of actually snagging Palm's baby on that day are still pretty mysterious, and that's leaving a lot of room open for misinformation. Today's cloudy tea-reading comes courtesy of an ever-changing list of stores on Sprint.com that are marked as having June 5 "special hours," which some are reading to mean that only those stores will be blessed. We don't buy it. First, we've been told specifically that all stores will have Pre stock, even if it's minimal, and second, the special hours distribution just doesn't seem right to us if it's really correlated with Pre stocks: New York, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco are each currently showing just one store within 50 miles as having special hours, and Philly, Atlanta, and Houston have none listed at all. That's a way different list than when our friends at jkOnTheRun checked earlier, and it's a recipe for total launch chaos if it's true -- but we're guessing the real deal is that all stores will get stock, but only one flagship store in each major metro area will be going all out on launch day with special hours.Oh, and if you're planning on avoiding all the drama and just rolling into Best Buy on the 7th, we'd say think again: Boy Genius Report says that the Blue will go "weeks after launch with little or no replenishment." Ouch -- guess Sprint CEO Dan Hesse wasn't kidding around about shortages. Bottom line? Keep calling your local Sprint store to see if they get any information about the Pre, and keep it locked right here as we lead in -- we'll be working hard to let you know exactly when and where your best bet'll be.Read - Sprint Store LocatorRead - Boy Genius Report on Best Buy stockRead - jkOnTheRun post
Sprint puts a vacation blackout on May -- Palm Pre launch likely?
Well, we're circling in, folks. Hot on the heels of learning that Sprint employees have the Palm Pre in hand for training, there's word from all sides that Sprint has put a vacation blackout on the month of May for retail employees, which would seem to imply that the Pre will be launched sometime in there. We saw similar vacation freezes on AT&T's end for both iPhone launches, and those ended up fairly accurate. We haven't seen this memo personally, or threatened any Sprint employees for confirmation with shivs fashioned out of Samsung Instincts yet, so we'll keep an eye out for any other information to confirm or deny. Meanwhile, check out this Pre holster![Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Cingular Premier customers can pre-order BlackBerry Pearl
Apparently today was the agreed upon date to launch (or "prelaunch," anyway) svelte new mobiles that we'd been waiting ever so patiently on, as this discovery comes just hours after Motorola officially released its MOTOFONE F3. While we've known the BlackBerry Pearl was coming, sneaked a few peeks of it in action, heard all about the pre-release reviews, and had strong suspicions (twice) that it was headed to Cingular, today we can finally say it's here -- well, almost. Accessible through Cingular's Premier web portal, the Pearl is available for pre-order as an interestingly-labeled prelaunch affair. While the design nor the specs have changed up on us, we're finally getting some concrete info on the price; it'll run you $579.99 straight up, or around $179.99 after corporate and web discounts, and while we're sure plain ole consumer pricing will be similar, you'll (probably) only snag this jewel for under $200 if you sign away your cellular soul for a couple years.[Thanks, Scott V.]
