My Life in the Tech World

One the features I like about the Lexus navigation system is the traffic display. However, it has shortcomings. It's never helped me to avoid traffic problems. Usually it tells me about traffic problems after I'm already stuck. I hear the same complaint from other Lexus and Toyota owners with the satellite traffic option. Oh wait, dare I mention that the Toyota and Lexus systems are exactly the same?

Blossom and I were having lunch today. As we were leaving we saw a colleague of ours standing in front of the Apple Store chatting with someone. We stopped to say hello.  While we were talking it occurred to me that our  colleague already had his iPad even though he wasn't carrying it with him. He's one of those guys that has everything. The odd part is that it just seems right that he has everything. As we left he confirmed my suspicion. Anyway, that got me thinking about why I'm upset about the navigation system. Buying the Lexus I had high hopes that I would get everything I paid for, everything that I wanted in a car, but I was let down. Yes there are hacks to fix motion lock on the navigation system. Yes, I can probably buy lots of things to fix the other shortcomings. But shouldn't I be entitled to something nice? Don't we all deserve something that makes us a little happier?

About a month ago I had a VAIS Technology VML (MultiMediaLinQ)  installed in my Lexus. The VAISTech device adds a USB interface to Generation 5 Lexus Navigation systems like mine. The USB interface allows you to hook up an iPod, iPhone, iPad (haven't actually tried it yet), other random portable music player, or USB disk drive to your Lexus audio system. I ordered it through the dealer and had them do the install. I was too lazy to pull out the navigation system on my own. Having the dealer do the install basically doubled the cost. On the plus side, they did a great job and after a few weeks of waiting for the parts and a four hour install I now have a cool USB port in my center console. For the first week I had my iPod connected. This worked great. I used iTunes to manage playlists which show up as MP3 CD Folders on the Lexus Navigation interface. I could use all the normal steering wheel mounted controls to switch songs etc. I was pretty happy except that I was limited by th...

I bought a VAIS technology MediaLinQ instead of buying a new car. More on that later.

With the release of iPad coming in a couple of days we were discussing potentially cool applications. Mostly we were trying to think of the equivalent of the iPad Snuggie. We definitely have productive lunch time conversations. One thing that came up was the idea of using an iPad in your car. iPad has great turn by turn navigation powered by TomTom and maybe someday Google will port their Andriod navigation. You can have all your music loaded or available through "Pandora." You can even watch movies on an awesome screen. The only problem with the iPad solution is that you'd need to attach it with a huge wad of duct tape, crazy glue, or some suction cup and cradle thing available at Best Buy or your local Apple store. Then you would need to worry that every time you parked your car someone would break your window and rip it off. It's too big to hide or take with you all the time. Thieves wouldn't bother if it was hooked into your car more permanently, was pai...