Articles by Peter Familari

The Japanese car giant has just bought a $35.8 million dollar stake in pedigree audio-video brand, Pioneer Corporation, as part of a plan to boost the audio experience in its cars. Honda will benefit from Pioneer's market leading innovations including touch-screen head units, amplifiers, speakers and sub-woofers. Pioneer's leading-edge in-car and hybrid sat-nav units are also expected to be snapped up by Honda. The significant investment will be handled through a third-party allotment of shares to Honda, says a Pioneer spokesman in Australia. The Pioneer connection comes as more and more carmakers look for premium audio partners, from Bose and Bang&Olufsen to Mark Levenson at Lexus and Bowers&Wilkins at Jaguar. The new deal comes after Pioneer posted a massive net loss of $1.66 billion for its fiscal year, which closed March 31. Pioneer has also hammered out a joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry to develop, build and sell intelligent transport systems, car navigation and audio-video systems. The link will give the Japanese company better access to price-driven Chinese manufacturing systems. Pioneer's latest financial results are no surprise as the global economic slump has hit the world's car and audio-video manufacturers particularly hard. Industry analysts say the way car and consumer electronics brands do business has permanently changed and most will post heavy losses this year. Pioneer has already reacted to the global downturn by ending production of its award-winning range of plasma televisions and shedding staff globally. The brand's core business will now by be led by car electronics, home audio-video products DJ equipment and set-top boxes. Australian car audio fans will benefit from Pioneer's plans to streamline its local subsidiary as it intends to focus on specialist retailers and boosting customer care service. So, your next Honda could have Pioneer's DEH-4150SD CD head unit in the dash. If you get lucky. As well as providing crystal-clear sound quality from CDs and radio, the Pioneer has a USB connection for an iPod or iPhone. There is also a handy SD Memory card slot for drivers or passengers who like to store music on SD cards. And who wouldn't want their Honda supplied with one of Pioneer's 8, 10 or 12-inch subwoofers which have speaker cones made from — I kid you not — volcanic-rock fibres. The new technology adds a new meaning to subterranean bass.

Turn on the ignition, key in your destination and within seconds you hear the voice: “Prepare to turn left in 800 metres . . .”Welcome to the stress-free life of satellite navigation, better known as satnav.Most new prestige cars have it, but we cash-strapped owners of old cars can get in on the act with mobile versions that look like oversized mobile phones, but are much smarter.Information taken from American military satellites enables satnav to provide visual map references, voice commands to pinpoint your location and guide you to your intended destination.These compact units not only get you from point A to point B, but they can be programmed to find you the fastest, most economical or shortest route.Many display the locations of petrol stations, parking areas and points of interest such as historic sites.The portable satnav experience has obviously hit the mark. Sales are expected to double each year for the next four years.The big audio-video brands and phone makers are taking on the established satnav brands for a slice of the lucrative market.Phone specialist Nokia has entered the fray with its first model, the 330 Auto-Navigation, which costs $649.Sony has released its NVX-P1 portable satnav in Europe, though there's no indication when it might come to Australia.Pioneer unveiled its ultra-slim $699 AVIC S2 in Australia in June, and LG launched the $599 LN500 and the $699 LN800 the same month. This cluster of satnavs is poised to do battle with those from satnav specialists Tom-Tom, Navman and Mio.Consumers can expect keen prices; about $499 for a well-built and feature-endowed C220 model from pedigree satnav brand Mio, and $699 for Mio's upmarket C520. Both arrived in Australia in June.So many models mean lower prices and greater choice for consumers, but such a wide choice could confuse first-time buyers.Cutting to the chase, what sets one model above another are the must-have features.The unit has to be easy to use, quick to recalculate a new route if you make a wrong turn, and ideally read out street names in real time. It must also have Bluetooth for hands-free mobile-phone calls.And given that many satnavs double as MP3 players, good sound quality is mandatory, as is the ability to load maps for overseas destinations.The easiest-to-use portable satnavs are so instinctive you can set your destination without having to read the manual.Typically, most portable satnavs have a basic, pared-down set of user instructions. A full and detailed manual, along with software updates, usually are available only on the maker's website.As a fan of satnav, here's another tip; make sure the windscreen cradle supplied with your model has an optional suction cup so you can mount it on your car's dashboard. NokiaModel: 330Price: $649Nokia: (02) 9429 9000www.nokia.com.auUltra-slim, superbly finished and with a pedigree screen quality, Nokia's 330 Personal Navigation Device is a solid performer let down by the lack of Bluetooth connectivity and a speech-over-text feature.Nokia's first portable satnav model is the 330, a “personal navigation device," probably so named because Nokia sees the 330 as having a dual role as a personal portable with MP3, photo and video playback features, and as an in-car unit.Given Nokia's proven track record with mobile phones, it's no surprise to find the quality of the 330's 3.5-inch screen is high. Key in a destination and the data is displayed with plenty of detail and decent levels of contrast, even in broad daylight.The 330 takes eight to 21 seconds to crunch through data and calculate routes, which isn't slow, but it's not as fast as some competing models.On a scale of one to 10, the 330 rates about six for ease of use. The easiest models (Tom-Tom, Mio and Navman) top the scale with ratings of seven to nine.But the biggest let down is the lack of Bluetooth connectivity. Coming from a leading mobile-phone brand the calibre of Nokia, this is inexplicable. The other omission is a text-to-speech mode that reads out street names and provides commands to get you to your destination. PioneerModel: AVIC-S2Price: $699Pioneer: 1800 988 268www.pioneer.com.auPioneer's long-awaited satnav range opened recently with the amazing AVIC-HD3 in-car navigation system.Days later an impressive $699 hand-held model called the AVIC-S2 arrived, and is so good it's bound to make many of its rivals envious.No, the AVIC doesn't have speech-over-text. But measured in terms of price and overall fit and finish, it's an impressive model built to last.Moreover, it has Bluetooth connectivity and, given Pioneer's tradition as a premium-class audio-video brand, the S2 works a treat as an MP3 player.Enter an address on its high-quality, low-reflectivity 3.5-inch LCD touch screen and the S2 responds quickly with clear, distinctive voice commands.Make the wrong turn and the Pioneer is very quick to calibrate a new route.Pairing a mobile phone to the S2 is a piece of cake and, once the two shake hands, the S2 displays a big keypad that you can use to make calls and scroll through your stored numbers.Its use as a high-quality MP3 player requires you to insert your own SD card, which is no big deal.And if the kids like that option they can plug their headphones into the S2's 3.5mm audio input connection. LG Model: LN800Price: $699LG: 1800 725 375www.lge.com.auThe LN800 is one of two new portable satnavs from the big South Korean brand. The other is the nicely priced $599 LN500.Both have text-to-speech features, but the more expensive LN800 has a 4-inch screen and the LN500 a 3.5-inch screen.The more expensive model also has a longer battery life, said to be about six hours compared with the four of the cheaper unit.Sadly, neither has Bluetooth technology.The LN800 is quick to load and recalculate routes, but does have a few foibles, though not serious ones.One is the curious way it calls a roundabout a traffic circle; the other is calling some roads by their codes, such as M1 or M3.On the upside, LG has fitted a decent-quality screen to the LN800 and a light-sensing diode that reacts to the amount of available light and adjusts brightness and contrast levels to suit.Inputting destinations on the LN800 is a cinch, given the large icons and easy-to-read text that shows clearly on the screen.The LN800 uses a 512MB/SD card to load SENSIS mapping data and processes this information using a 276MHz processor, which is not the fastest around.