Entune home address shortcut

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Who ever thought simple data entry could get us so worked up? Mentally, we're stuck at a red light, when we want to just be able to push one button and go back to green! Have you ever gotten irritated when you're forced to type in a bunch of personal stuff into a form (name, address, etc) and wish you could just take a shortcut every time you had to? Even if it only saves a few seconds of time, must of us would say it'd be worth it to have that option.

Fortunately, there's a way to do that in the car if your Toyota is equipped with Entune, the multimedia/navigation system that syncs with your smartphone. When you're traveling somewhere and want to get directions back home, you can add your home address to memory so that any time you need to get back, you don't have to go through the process of typing in all of your information on the screen.

1. Start by pressing the "Apps" button next to the display screen.
2. On the display screen, hit the "Map" button, and then the "Dest" button in the lower right corner.
3. Another screen will come up, where you'll want to touch "My Destinations".
4. Look for the the little icon of the house and press "Home".
5. Confirm that you want to set a home address.
6. At the bottom of the list that pops up, hit "Enter Address".
7. Enter all of your information and then "Save New Entry". 

You can also check out the official Toyota video below:

Wondering what Toyota vehicles have Entune? For 2013 models, it's available in:
4Runner
Avalon
Camry
Corolla
Highlander
Land Cruiser
Prius (all models)
RAV4
Sequoia
Sienna
Tacoma
Tundra
Venza

Are there any other tips and tricks you have for using Entune? Share 'em with us!

Why Your Kids Will Want a 2014 Toyota Highlander

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Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Absorbent and yellow...with a new Highlander key?

One of the announcements that came from the New York Auto Show was that the 2014 Toyota Highlander SUV is being built with customer feedback in mind. Specifically, one with Spongebob Squarepants to help better showcase the Highlander as the perfect family vehicle! Toyota group vice president Bill Fay made the statement, saying that a marketing deal will be announced later this year.

While we don't know much yet about how the beloved Nickelodeon character will be involved (a commercial with the Highlander cruising underwater in a bubble? Spongebob jamming out to some "Best Day Ever" and showing kids the Entune entertainment system?) we do know that Toyota is going for a "bigger is better" theme with their new SUV. They've upped the cargo space behind the third row of seating by 34%, added three extra inches to the overall length of the vehicle, and increased seating in the vehicle from seven passengers to eight, thanks to additional seat space in the third row. The automaker also announced that the rear-quarter windows were slightly increased in size, which should help to improve visibility.

The 2014 Highlander will be powered by either a 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine or a 3.5-liter six-cylinder engine. Those who opt for the V6 will get an upgrade from the old five-speed transmission (seen in the 2013 model) to a new six-speed, that is said to improve acceleration and overall fuel economy.

One of the things that most customers might not know about this new car, which I personally think is a great selling point, is the fact that it's now being built exclusively here in the United States, over in Indiana. Those who might have previously overlooked the car for fear of "not buying American" can finally put that argument to rest.

Are you excited for the 2014 Highlander? What do you think a commercial with Spongebob will be like?

CES 2013: Toyota's new dashboard feature

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One of the cooler tech related things to come out this year was recently announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) involving a deal between Toyota and The Weather Channel, which is part of Total Traffic Network (TTN) and Clear Channel Media. The partnership will provide real-time updates of traffic and weather in certain 2013 Toyota vehicles via the dashboard! It will use a combination of text and graphics on the display screen to minimize driver distraction, and help drivers plan for safer trips.

Weather forecasts will come from The Weather Channel's Doppler radar system, and traffic updates from TTN, which will be provided through a combination of maps and incident coverage reports that are updated every two minutes. The system will also include predictive traffic information in 15, 30, and 45 minute increments! Definitely a useful feature if you're headed somewhere on a time limit and worried about hitting pockets of congestion. I'm most interested if it can quickly provide alternative routes in the case of lane closures and accidents.

Now, the two big questions you're probably wondering: How much does it cost, and what vehicles will come with it? There hasn't been a list of what 2013 models will offer the dashboard system as of yet (which I will update as soon as more information becomes available) but it has been stated that the feature will be free to the cars that it is built in. If you've got an Entune equipped vehicle and smartphone, Toyota is also working on the ability to offer both features for those users in the future as well. I think giving older cars the ability to take advantage of these is a good move on Toyota's part. With the advent of smartphone technology and apps, it shouldn't be too difficult to port over.

Do you currently use any apps or similar programs that provide weather or traffic on demand while you're driving? What sort of improvements would you like to see in a system that provides this kind of information?

What is Toyota's "Board of Awesomeness"?

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While the "Board of Awesomeness" might sound more like a college group project or a trivia night name than a team of professionals, Toyota does in fact have a research and design group that is more than happy to identify themselves with the moniker!  

What does the board do? They're working together with Microsoft to develop hand gesture technology, where one can control features of a device by waving or moving their hands. According to Jim Lentz, President of Toyota Motor Sales, "Imagine a dashboard where there are no buttons to push… no screens to tap… and your eyes can remain focused on the road. That’s exactly what Toyota is working on.”

He made the statement while speaking at the 2012 LA Auto Show about the future of safety and technology. It makes sense too, considering voice recognition technology isn't perfect when it comes to understanding the different accents and dialects we all have. The combination of voice plus hand gestures working in tandem could prove to be very useful for future car related technology. The end goal is to increase driver safety while reducing distractions.

The Board of Awesomeness team members currently have a skateboard that can change speeds by raising or lowering one's hands. It almost looks like an accessory you'd buy for a Nintendo Wii, doesn't it? 

Some of the technology that they're working on is helping to influence another project in Japan as well. Currently, you can get an Entune infotainment system equipped into most newer Toyota vehicles, but they're hoping to take the hands-free concepts of Entune one step further by giving your car the ability to recognize you. Imagine walking up to your car, having it scan your face, and unlock the doors or trunk for you! Then when you sit down behind the wheel, your car greets you with a friendly "Hello". That's the vision of the SMART Insect, a concept vehicle which Lentz also spoke about.

What kind of motion or hand gesture technology would you like to see in a future Toyota vehicle?

How Can You Tell Someones Drives a Prius?

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If you know the answer to this joke ("they'll tell you") then consider this for a moment: one thing I notice from monitoring social networks and watching tv/movies is that the Toyota Prius seems to catch a lot of humor from people who enjoy making cracks at it. It's almost as if you're instantly tagged as an environmental awareness extremist, an egoist, or a goofball if you drive or support one, because mainstream media is telling us to think that way. For the record, I thought "Horrible Bosses" was a hilarious movie, though I personally blame it for the amount of times I've had to hear "You were drag racing...in a Prius?"

Here's the thing- the people who want to joke about or bash this car know that deep down inside, if they could get 50 MPG and a built in navigation/infotainment system (Entune), they'd jump at the chance. There's a reason the Prius has been around so long and is seen as the flagship hybrid vehicle of the entire automotive industry!

The desire to want to tell everyone about your new car is pretty natural too, so why is it any different to geek out over efficiency rather than performance? As I discussed previously, there is still a notion in some people's heads that you can't buy a car unless it's from Ford, GM, or Chevy, and if you do, it has to be a gas guzzler that goes from 0-60 in less than 6 seconds. Is that really something to be proud of, and yet getting great gas mileage isn't? It seems like a double standard in this case.

As this video from CNET shows, you can recoup the cost of an average car with the gas saved by purchasing a Prius in about 5 years. It's even faster if you drive more than 15,000 miles a year or if you practice hypermiling techniques. On top of that, it has a built in sensor that shows you the average miles per gallon you are attaining on a monthly basis. How cool is that?

Do you think we're too quick to lump drivers of certain vehicles into stereotypes these days? What other shows or movies have you seen where the character is defined by the car he/she drives?

The First Car to Get a Blu-Ray Player Is...

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There's certainly been a change in the past year at the features offered in our rides. As we get excited for the newest iPhones, tablets, and apps, we overlook the fact that cars are staying just as savvy to keep up with our desire to have the latest and greatest things.

You may remember my recent blog post on the importance of music and how drivers, especially millennials, want to have more than just a cassette or CD player in their car nowadays. Toyota answered by offering the MP3 input standard on all future versions of the Corolla, and now they want to keep the tech innovations rolling with the 2013 Sequoia, their full sized, eight-seater sport utility vehicle. What's going to change?

For starters, 2013 will mark the first full year that you'll be able to get Entune, Toyota's entertainment and navigation system that has apps like Bing, iHeartRadio, and more. If you haven't seen it in action, you definitely need to ask a friend with select models of the 2012 Camry or Prius, or visit the dealership to try it out for yourself. However, the big news that has got us excited is that the Sequoia will have an industry first Blu-Ray player built into the backseat.

If your kids (or passengers) have a collection of Blu-Rays they're dying to watch, it's a definite upgrade from the DVD players of yesteryear, considering the only other Blu-Ray player that has been available was a 3rd party one that had to be installed separately.

Some other changes will include a power boost, upping the Sequoia's old 310-hp 4.6-liter engine to a 381-hp 5.7-liter V8 that will come standard on all available models. A blind spot monitor has also been added to assist in changing lanes on the road.

An official release date hasn't been made but we'll be sure to update as soon as we get more information. You can read the official press release and all the changes to the Sequoia at the Toyota pressroom site.

What features are you most excited about?

What is "Intellitouch"?

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Much like a crazy professor who never stops inventing, Toyota has some new projects they've been working on (and this time, it's slightly less ridiculous than the "mood sensing" technology they introduced earlier this year). 

They're calling their first new application "Intellitouch", and describing it as an electronic touch-sensitive controller. While it's not exactly known what it'll do at this point, the bloggers over at Car and Driver have predicted it's going to be an interactive dashboard system where you can touch and see information in front of you. From the looks of it, they're designing it to be somewhat similar in vein to Ford's MyFordTouch and Cadillac's Cue system, but with many more enhanced features.

Toyota also filed a trademark application for "eBin", which are storage containers for electronic devices that would allow inductive charging. Or in less technical jargon, the ability to wirelessly charge an electronic device! The thought of being able to drop my cell phone onto a special "charging mat" and then see the battery start to regenerate is pretty exciting. Especially since I'm the kind of person that hates having tons of wires connecting to and from my smartphone when I'm in the car.

What do you think about these new projects Toyota is working on? Should they become standard features in all newer cars once they're released?

Music and Millennials

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Staying trendy is key when it comes to movies, entertainment, and technology.

My friends used to talk about going out and picking up the latest album from their favorite artist. There was a time when having a cd collection was something you showed off, with big binders full of discs for your friends to browse through as you drove somewhere. I remember when Outkast's double album, Speakerboxx/The Love Below came out. Even if you weren't a huge fan of hip hop, you bought that cd and made sure everyone could see it. Now? Not so much. Step into your nearest Best Buy and the music section is but a fraction of what it once was 10 years ago. Today, where digital downloads reign supreme, most of us require an auxiliary port in our car so we can listen or stream music from our smartphones and mp3 players.

Well, after reading a LA Times article on the habits of millennials and their declining taste in older movies, I imagine the same has happened with their preference for the ways in which they listen to music while driving.

As Neal Gabler puts it in the article- "Young people, so-called millennials, don't seem to think of movies as art the way so many boomers did. They think of them as fashion, and like fashion, movies have to be new and cool to warrant attention."

He compares the newest Spiderman movie to the one that came out a decade ago with Tobey Maguire, saying that Maguire's version is ancient in comparison (doesn't that make you feel old?)

As far as Toyota goes, they've taken steps to make sure people's spidey senses are still tingling with their cars. We often focus on safety features, but with my generation, convenience and trendiness are key. Starting with the 2012 Corolla, Toyota listened to customer feedback and finally added much needed USB and auxiliary ports to all models of the car, giving drivers music options other than the cd player. Nice! Entune is also starting to become more widely available on most newer Toyota vehicles as well. It combines a bunch of useful applications, such as Bing, iHeart radio, and data services (so you can find restaurants, weather, traffic, and other useful info all on the fly).

I think we're going to see a whole lot more connectivity between cars, drivers, and smartphones in the next year or two. We might not perfect something as crazy as the self driving car that soon, but hands free entertainment options for drivers are going to become a lot more accessible and available. How long do you think it will be before cd players go the way of the 8 track and cassette players, and are no longer featured in cars? 

Gamification: Does it Have a Place in the Automotive World?

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Unlocking achievements, badges, perks, comparing your score with your friends...all of these are concepts of gamification, which is slowly creeping its way into every aspect of our lives.
I can attest to the addictive nature of it, seeing as how I use FourSquare constantly. Every time I check in to a new restaurant or public place, my phone tells me how many virtual "points" I've earned, and how I stack up to my friends who are also on the site. What does that make me want to do? Why, visit more places to beat my friends of course!

As consumers, we already see some examples of gamification already, when it pertains to the automotive world. Ever get a flyer in the mail from a dealership that has a scratch off sheet, or a key attached that could possibly unlock the door of a new car that you can win? Those are both examples, albeit on the sales side of things. However, more and more companies are using gamification to make doing what we often assume are mundane or repetitive tasks more fun. Thinking about this gave me an idea- could the concept of it be used in the car world as an educational device to help make better drivers out of everyone?

Imagine the following hypothetical scenarios:

A. You're driving a new Toyota and the Entune display has an option to show you how efficient you're driving. It is able to record how much MPG you're getting, and measure how often you are slamming the brakes or accelerating too fast (resulting in decreased fuel efficiency). Then, it takes the data collected from you and awards you points for driving your car optimally. You could unlock badges such as the "Green Machine" for driving, say,  X amount of miles without having to fuel up your car. Or you could get points for utilizing other hypermiling techniques. The system can compare how well you're driving with your friends or other strangers across the country, giving you a sense of friendly competition.
Best of all, the virtual points you earn could then be used as some sort of virtual currency, perhaps allowing you to save a bit of money on getting your vehicle serviced in the future, or go towards a donation to charity.

B. What if traffic cameras instead turned into a speeding ticket lottery? Where abiding by  the law could earn you a bonus that those who break the law would have to pay. This would give drivers the incentive to slow down and create less accidents as a result of positive reinforcement. The stipulation could be that every driver who doesn't get a traffic violation during the year gets an entry, and there can be one or multiple winners drawn who get a percentage of the revenue generated.

Do you think the trend of gamification should spread into more aspects of our lives?

Future Society of the Non-Verbal

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Do you own a landline phone? Have you considered getting rid of it and only using your cell phone? As technology continues to improve, we find ourselves abandoning old ideas and flocking to newer, more efficient methods of communication. Just look around and see if you spot anyone still rocking a pager or beeper.

That being said, it's no surprise that texting is quickly overshadowing the traditional phone call for many of us today, especially amongst younger generations, who are embracing it at younger and younger ages. Whereas a phone call typically requires one's full attention, focusing on conversation with one person, texting does not. It is faster, more convenient, and allows you to easily hold multiple conversations at once. We have gotten to the point where communicating via text message has become a social norm, and can even express emotion through this medium, thanks to emoticons.  :)

Unfortunately, the situation in which we are most likely to text also happens to be the worst for multi-tasking: driving.  Your eyes are taken off the road, and your likelihood of having an accident is 23 times as high compared to non-impaired drivers. 35 states have banned texting while driving, and there are even states that ban cell phone use in the car completely, due to the amount of injury and risk it presents!

Despite bans on texting while driving, many of us continue to be guilty of doing it, and end up weaving about our lanes in traffic, or speeding up and down erratically. That's a lot of potential danger just to get back to our friends and let them know that we aren't ignoring them.
Here are a couple ideas you can try out to keep you safer when driving:

1. Drive Safe.ly
This app for iPhone and Android offers a free as well as paid version. It allows you to set up an away message when you are driving, and auto responds to incoming texts. The app will also read incoming texts sent to you, so that you don't have to look at your phone.

2. Voice to text 
Most smartphones allow the user to press a button on their keypad which allows them to speak into their phone and translate their voice into a text message. While not perfect (the software doesn't always understand exactly what you're trying to communicate) it keeps your eyes more focused on the road, and not as much on your phone, worrying about typos or the auto-correct inputting something silly. The good news? Great strides are being made in voice recognition software, and continue to get better (just ask anyone who owns the newest iPhone and has used Siri).

3. Hands free options (Entune)

Being able to utilize technology while keeping your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road is the closest thing to a win-win situtation for both drivers and anti-texting advocacy groups. For that reason, an infotainment system such as Entune is recommended. You can check gas prices, weather, look up businesses on Bing, and use voice recognition to pull up directions. Toyota is also hoping to add full voice recognition functionality early in 2012  so that you will be able to send full e-mails and texts with your voice.
Entune is currently available on select vehicles, such as the Prius V, 2012 Camry, and 2012 Tacoma, with plans to become available in more vehicles next year. You can try out Entune by running the simulation online or by heading over to Lou Fusz Toyota and taking a test drive.

Tech My Ride: Entune

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You gotta love technology. Not only does it help to simplify our lives, it keeps innovating and keeping us excited for what’s to come. Remember life before smartphones and GPS? Those were scary days, weren’t they?
That being said, Toyota is debuting a new navigation and infotainment system, Entune, which is currently outfitted in select vehicles, such as the 2012 Camry.

So, what does this thing do? Why should you care?

Entune works by syncing with your smartphone and giving you quick access to apps and information on the fly using its large display screen. When you purchase a new Entune equipped vehicle, your salesperson will help you setup the system so that is syncs specifically with your phone. What's cool is that when these apps and services on your phone update, such as Pandora, Entune will automatically sync to the latest versions as well. Even cooler is the fact that it’s an all-in-one system. You get a CD player, HD radio, DVD player, blue tooth capability, and USB/auxiliary ports, with a 7’’ LCD screen to navigate or access your content.

To put things in perspective, think of Entune as Inspector Gadget. It has tools for every situation! You can check the weather at your current location, or wherever you plan on being. If there's traffic ahead, such as a closed lane, Entune will alert you ahead of time. You can even have the system create a detour route for you on the fly in case of heavy highway congestion or road closures!

Along with those features, you can also use the built in gas app to search for nearby gas stations, and Entune will compare prices so that you can find the best deal. Want directions? There's a button that will let you speak out a business or address, and Entune will automatically find the best path for you to take.
Early next year, Toyota is hoping to add more voice recognition technology (similar to iPhone's Siri) so that you can utilize voice commands for just about anything, such as saying "I'm hungry" to pull up nearby restaurants.

 Entune-equipped vehicles come with 3 free years of service, and Toyota will add the service to more vehicles next year. Check out the Toyota website for more on Entune, or visit the Lou Fusz Toyota showroom to take a test drive and try it out for yourself.