Intel and Parrot pair UMPCs with cars
Mounting a UMPC into a car is nothing new, but Intel joining forces with Parrot (the company who puts Bluetooth in your life) to encourage it by developing an in-car UMPC entertainment system certainly is. The team is currently prepping a Bluetooth Gateway for a mid-2007 release that will enable UMPCs to connect automatically, wirelessly stream audio content, and access PIM data and email using voice recognition and speech-to-text technology.
The gateway will be hidden behind the dashboard, but there’s no mention of any kind of mount or docking station so I don’t know where the UMPC is supposed to go. Backseat passengers are said to be able to IM, surf the Internet, and play games on the device, too, which I’m not sure is entirely possibly using just their voices. Besides, a game of Tetris controlled by people yelling "turn" and "faster" doesn’t sound like a good idea.
[Tech Digest]
