New SYNC and MFT announced by Ford

[PratoN]

Originally Posted by oritpro

Now that the cats out of the bag and I don't have a patentable idea anymore maybe I'll start an OpenSource project once I have things working better. There still a few glitches here and there.

w00t!

Good idea with the glitches - you want to make sure it's stable enough to be a daily driver.

[VectorZ]

Is the new SD card free??

[bsp_53]

Originally Posted by oritpro

Well crap, thanks to an article on Slashdot today I ran into this:
http://www.mirrorlink.com/technology.html.................

Wow, now we're talkin!!!

[raptor1956]

Originally Posted by FordIVTteam

Hi, everyone!

The software discussed in the article is version 3.5 and is exclusive to vehicles equipped with MyFord Touch. Most of you already have this installed, but for those that don't, the update will soon be available on SyncMyRide as a self-install.

Please note, if your vehicle's equipped with navigation, it will require the new SD card (A4) to function. You can see your dealership for this now, otherwise, starting in early January, you'll be able to order the card via www.SyncMyRide.com.

As a way of reinforcing our commitment to you, we're extending the warranty for MyFord Touch software and the SYNC module to a total of five years/unlimited mileage for 2011, 2012 and 2013 models of MyFord Touch-equipped vehicles.

Jaclyn

Jaclyn,

Thanks for the update and also for Ford's commitment to the early adopters. This does alleviate some of the concerns that first/second year owners may have about ongoing support to what is clearly an important part of contemporary cars. I have had no issues with MFT (5/7/12 build) but clearly many others have and it's great to see Ford step up on this.

Brian

[DaeHanL]

Originally Posted by JonathanGennick

So those of us with just Sync are sunk? We don't get the improved voice-recognition and the simpler commands?

please tell me there's something in the works for us...

[TiPilot]

Originally Posted by copernicium112

A lot of this (I haven't tested all of it yet) is in the 3.5.1 update. Auto-pairing, the ability to play Sirius stations by just saying the station name or play a radio station by just saying radio station frequency even when you are already on another audio source are part of 3.5.1. I wasn't able to test out my USB source and the ability to say just say "Play <name>" without saying "album" or "song" or whatever yet because I had to do a reboot last night (to get my Sirius traffic back) and my player was still indexing this morning so no voice commands. I'll test when indexing/BVC are complete.

Since 3.5.1 is still on TSB and no "official" announcement has been made by Ford over at SMR, or anywhere else I can see, I can't help wonder if this is really what they are talking about, or at least forms the base for what they are talking about.

Hallelujah!

Can't wait to get this installed...

(Called my dealer yesterday, they were checking into A4 availability still I guess.)

[copernicium112]

Originally Posted by JessicaTi

•More natural voice recognition: Drivers can now simply say “Play <name>” when requesting a specific artist, song, album or genre of music (i.e. “Play jazz” versus “Play genre jazz”)

I did finally get the chance to goof around with this and noticed some odd things. Don't think it is quite ready for prime time. The first thing I tried was using a title that I knew was the name of a song and an album. I simply said said "Play <title>". It gave me a list of four titles to choose from, the first one being what I said so I said "One". That screen disappeared and went back to the map screen (which is what I was on prior to initiating the voice command). The system then told me to "Please choose". Only problem was that it didn't give me any sort of list to choose from. I was still staring at the map screen. After a somewhat awkward silence between me and Sync-lady she finally gave me the "I'm getting impatient" tone and said that both a song and album were detected with that title, which would I like. I said "album" and it started playing the album. Probably should have just done that from the beginning instead of telling me to choose something without telling me or showing me what my choices are.

Another difference in the system is that in all previous versions when I used to tell it to play a song and I had multiple artists that had a song of that same title, it used to give me a list of the different artists in order for me to pick the actual song of that name that I wanted to hear. Now it just starts playing one. Haven't totally narrowed it down yet but it appears it just picks the one by the artist that comes first alphabetically (might be album title alphabetically but so far it appears to be artist). Not a big deal as I can just track-skip one or two times to get to the one I want but just wondering why the change?


Still regularly does the thing where I tell it to "Play song <title>" and it brings up a list of four choices. The first is always the song title I said followed by nothing and the next three are the same song title but followed by artist names, problem being none of those artists have songs of that title. If I tell it to play one of the "fake" ones it says "Sorry, unable to locate song <title> by artist <artist name>." Well of course you can't. It doesn't exist. Why are you throwing up one valid option and three invalid options on the screen and making me select the valid option? Just play the only one that actually exists.

[smizak]

Originally Posted by copernicium112

The first thing I tried was using a title that I knew was the name of a song and an album. I simply said said "Play <title>". It gave me a list of four titles to choose from, the first one being what I said so I said "One". That screen disappeared and went back to the map screen (which is what I was on prior to initiating the voice command). The system then told me to "Please choose". Only problem was that it didn't give me any sort of list to choose from. I was still staring at the map screen. After a somewhat awkward silence between me and Sync-lady she finally gave me the "I'm getting impatient" tone and said that both a song and album were detected with that title, which would I like. I said "album" and it started playing the album.

Same for me, but I said "song" and it just continued playing what was last on the USB stick. I was on the home screen when I tried it. First confirmed bug for me.....

[FordIVTteam]

Originally Posted by JonathanGennick

So those of us with just Sync are sunk? We don't get the improved voice-recognition and the simpler commands?

Originally Posted by DaeHanL

please tell me there's something in the works for us...

Hi, JonathanGennick & DaeHanL -

Our engineers are always working on updates and enhancements. I can't speculate on timing or availability, but announcements will be made here as updates are released:

http://boards.synccommunity.com/n/pf...cmb&listMode=0

Originally Posted by VectorZ

Is the new SD card free??

Yes, VectorZ, the new SD card is free of charge. It can be obtained as your dealership when the update is performed. If you're able to wait, the update will be available as a self install on SyncMyRide soon and the SD can be ordered in January.

Originally Posted by raptor1956

Jaclyn,
Thanks for the update and also for Ford's commitment to the early adopters. This does alleviate some of the concerns that first/second year owners may have about ongoing support to what is clearly an important part of contemporary cars. I have had no issues with MFT (5/7/12 build) but clearly many others have and it's great to see Ford step up on this.
Brian

No problem, Brian, that's what I'm here for!

Jaclyn