Earlier this year Microsoft and Ford unveiled Sync, an in-car communications and entertainment system that is expected to be a factory-installed option for various 2008 model year vehicles.
This patent however details a "car stereo including a docking station into which an off-the-shelf handheld computer can be docked," and additionally, it hints towards support for a multitude of devices. The stereo would also include a memory system that will "maintain a record its current state when it is undocked from a particular type of appliance," so when you plug back in, everything starts up where you left off.
Not to be limited by digital audio players, the patent also allows for "another interface form [that] may allow the user to select from resources such as GPS, internet, a printer over USB, etc."
[View Patent (PDF) via Engadget]
Yeah....I'm not sure I'd want any MS software near my car's computer. The thought of having to reboot on the highway is a bit scary...
I wonder how this is different than this http://www.crutchfield.com/S-xpNNxChZTtl/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=300&I=099AVN2210
I know one is an mp3 and the other a GPS but I would think they are pretty much the same thing
> Yeah....I'm not sure I'd want any MS software near my car's computer.
I don't know, this Pocket PC I'm posting from is far more stable than ANY Palm I've owned. Just sayin....
Sirius_Minde -- it's different because it holds a Zune!
>>"Yeah....I'm not sure I'd want any MS software near my car's computer."
Christ!! Imagine the BSOD while you're merging onto the highway??
Thank you, no.
Umm....what about prior art? If I pop this into Google: +"car stereo" +docking -microsoft I get over 89,000 hits. I think it's been done.
I plan to patent breathing next. You all owe me royalties for your next and each subsequent breath. Oh and before you think you can get out easily, I'm going to patent the process of dying as well.
Ugh.