Ford Motor Company’s wireless division announced today that AppLink, a downloadable application for its Sync in-car communications and “infotainment” system, will allow drivers to use voice commands to control certain apps on their mobile phones. Available first on the 2011 model Ford Fiesta, Applink will work initially with Android and BlackBerry devices, and will allow users to control apps such as Internet radio services Pandora and Stitcher and Orangatame’s OpenBeak twitter app. AppLink will work on all Sync-equipped vehicles starting next year, and will also be upgraded to work with Apple’s iPhone. Ford also said it is readying a website for mobile app developers who want to adapt their software to work with the Sync system.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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