Spring Break Jam, South Padre, brought an enthusiastic crowd to the South Padre Convention Center, Saturday and Sunday – March 3rd and 4th.

Jennifer Tailor along side her Nissan 370z Nismo loaded with Memphis gear

“You could feel the energy driving into the convention center’s massive parking lot. The truck and car show drew 582 entries – way better than last year” Heatwaves’ dynamic duo David MacDonald & Bill Elsey told 12voltnews.com, continuing “Our host hotels were sold out. Everyone’s spirits were way up. Looks like all the ingredients are there for a very good 2012 for the Heatwave events.”

Attendees at SBJ scanned the QR code on the Memphis poster for a message from the Memphis Car Audio 2012 spokesmodel Alma Nicole.

John Linn, Memphis Car Audio, related to 12voltnews.com in a Saturday afternoon phone call from the SBJ floor “The show floor is full of spectators and it looks like many more vehicles outside in the truck and car show than the last couple years. The weather turned out to be really nice. Spectators by the Memphis booth are very impressed with the sound in Jennifer’s Nissan 370z – both volume and sound quality. All-in-all this years South Padre is very good.”

“People by the Sony booth were asking the right questions – seems more than a few were interested in adding some new Sony gear to their rides. Our models handed out a ton of free stuff. SBJ was a good way to kick off the 2012 event season” Barry Beller told 12voltnews.com. Beller, with Eagle Distributors, was on site representing Sony Mobile.

The Sony models stayed busy answering questions about the Sony Scion tC in the booth.

SoundStream had strong presence at the event with George Reed, Marketing Professionals, on hand with his red Viper. Epsilon’s Chuck Kinney and Jim Wehling were on hand to show the SoundStream, Power Acoustik and PPI brands. Kinney stated “The SoundSteam 9.3 inch in-dash piece drew so much interest. Local retailer Sound Source was booking installation appoints to install the unit.” Wehling added “There was a lot of interest in the PPI brand. The brand name still carries considerable brand equity for quality and performance.

Acres and acres of vehicles were in the South Padre Convention Center parking lot.

The USACi 4X competition drew 100 plus competitors. Ralph Randall, USACi president, told 12voltnews.com “The USACi competition at Padre never disappoints. This year, once again, it was very good. The lanes ere full and competitors were hanging out to help one another. We had an excellent team of judges. In a first George Reed, the Godfather of SPL, put his Dodge truck through the lanes as an SQ competitor.”

The loaded D’Cache, title sponsor of SBJ 2012, Tahoe on the show floor.

Burnout and hydraulics competitions entertained the crowd outside. The smell of burning rubber and an occasional “Pop” from a tire brought loud cheers.

Club Chaos was the place to be Saturday night for the SBJ after party. It was a place for Spring Breakers to hang and spend time with friends. Manny and the crew were perfect hosts.

The newest member of the WX lineup is the 8WXv2, offering excellent performance in small enclosures at a price that is within reach of any audio enthusiast.

Like all JL Audio subwoofer drivers, the WX’s are centered on a long excursion, DMA-optimized motor system, supported by our patented Elevated Frame Cooling and a highly linear suspension. This means they deliver lots of low-distortion, high-quality bass with all types of music.

JL Audio will be a prominent exhibitor at Spring Break Nationals 26 in Daytona Beach, FL. Make sure you check out the hot demos in their booth.

The car audio and marine seasons – 2012 – are on the immediate horizon. StreetGlow is lighting the way on the car audio side. OPTX Marine will light the waves.

The StreetGlow – OPTX Marine Coast-to-Coast Tour, with Liquid Trends’ Brian Mitchell at the helm hit the road on Monday, March 12th from Modesto, CA. Mitchell, Liquid Trends’ proprietor, has charted a course to Miami FL with many stops along the route. “This coast-to-coast tour will push 8,000 miles before we return to Modesto. We anticipate smooth sailing in the big Chevy Crew-Cab with the Malibu in tow” Mitchell stated to 12voltnews.com.

Jack Panzerella gives the thumbs up to the Coast to Coast Tour.

StreetGlow Founder and CEO Jack Panzarella told 12voltnews.com “We are making great strides in the marketplace. On the car audio side with StreetGlow and with the new OPTX Marine on the marine side. Brian is a true pioneer in the lighting industry – automotive and marine. He did a great job at the recent West Marine Conference. At that venue we began to talk about opportunities the lighting category puts on the table for 12volt retailers. One thing led to another and now the StreetGlow • OPTX Marine • Liquid Trends Coast-to-Coast Tour is a reality.”

Arc Audio amplifiers drive the system on the Malibu.

StreetGlow’s national sales manager Charlie Cotroneo commented “This Coast-to-Coast tour will really put our brands into high gear. 2012 has started very well for StreetGlow and OPTX. We have a strong distributor network in place. This tour will draw even more attention to our brands and the profit opportunities for 12volt retailers the lighting category represents.”

This speaker array on the wake tower will defiantly get attention at stops along the way.

Mitchell continued “Our Tour has several objectives. We will stop along the way to work with StreetGlow and OPTX Marine distributors. We also plan stops with 12volt retailers along the way as the schedule permits. Exhibiting at Keystone Big Show-Midwest in Dallas and Spring Break Nationals in Daytona Beach are key elements of this tour.”

Kieth Mitchell will be the co-pilot on the Coast to Coast Tour.

Mitchell’s 13 year-old son Keith will be the co-pilot on the StreetGlow-OPTX Marine-Liquid Trends Coast-to Coast Tour.

Brian Mitchell is truly a 12volt industry veteran with over 25 years of experience. He has worked on the marine side since 1999.

“Brian brings a tremendous amount of experience to this tour. He has a very strong background in both car audio and marine audio. In addition, he has a vast amount of real world lighting expertise in both areas. We are looking forward to a very successful tour” Panzarella concluded.

Distributor stops on tap along the way include Magnum Sales-Phoenix, Eagle Distributors-Dallas, Houston-New Orleans, LESCO-Dallas, Orlando-Miami, Mid-State-Shreveport and Diplomat Trading in Miami.

OnStar won a Steve award for “Best Use of Technology in Customer Service.” It marks the second year in a row OnStar has won the customer service award, although last year, it won for its customer service department.

More than 3 million calls are received by OnStar advisors each month.

The most popular service requests for the OnStar in-car emergency/telematics system are:

Turn-by-Turn Navigation: more than 2 million requests per month
Remote Door Unlocks: nearly 60,000 requests per month
On-demand Vehicle Diagnostic updates: about 55,700 requests per month

Additionally, OnStar also sends more than 4 million Vehicle Diagnostic emails to customers every month.

Source: OnStar

Chrysler is no longer offering Sirius Back Seat TV as of the 2012 model year. In what was termed a mutual decision, the service has been dropped from Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles as well as a RAM pickup, reports Family Car Guide.

Sirius Back Seat TVInstead, car buyers can opt for either single or dual-screen DVD entertainment systems.

We contacted Sirius XM about the state of Sirius Back Seat TV but did not receive a response.

Sirius Backseat TV was previously available on the following Chrysler vehicles:

2008-2010 Dodge Grand Caravan minivan
2009-2010 Dodge Journey crossover
2009, 2011 Dodge Durango SUV
2008 Dodge Charger sedan
2010 Chrysler Town & Country minivan
2008-2010 Jeep Commander SUV
2008-2009, 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV
2009-2011 Ram pickup

Source: Family Car Guide

Kenwood retailers in the southeast – mark your calendar.

March 12th and 13th, Monday and Tuesday respectively, are the dates of the 2012 Kenwood product training sessions hosted by AVR. Once again the Dave and Busters location Marietta will be the site of this key event.

Joe Hanson

“Matt Yeager will present the 2012 Kenwood product lineup to our dealers. Kenwood’s 2012 line is exceptionally strong and Matt will cover features and show our dealers how to relate those features as benefits for consumers looking to add aftermarket enjoyment, safety and convenience to their rides” Joe Hanson related to 12voltnews.com.

The marquee inside David & Busters announced the Kenwood meeting last year.

Dinner and refreshments will be from 6PM until 7:15 both evenings. The product training sessions will begin at 7:15 and run until 8:45.

“In past years we have had excellent participation from our dealers who are truly committed to growing their respective businesses. The time of making a quick buck selling car audio is long gone. The professional, well trained and intelligent 12volt retailers are doing well. These dealer training meetings are an important part of our efforts at AVR to make the Kenwood brand number one with our dealers” Hanson concluded.

In 2012, JL Audio is unleashing the latest edition of the legendary Slash amplifiers. The Slash v3’s feature an all-black look that is pure, sexy evil, with significant changes under the hood as well.

The patented Class D output circuitry in the monoblocks has been enhanced to deliver 20% more power than the previous generation amplifiers. On-board signal processing includes a parametric equalizer and highly advanced crossover controls.

The companion four-channel amplifier is the 300/4v3, offering 75W x 4 from JL Audio’s patented Absolute Symmetry Class A/B output stage.

All models feature JL Audio’s R.I.P.S. (Regulated Intelligent Power Supply) technology to maintain consistent power over a wide range of load impedances and supply voltages, as well as Advanced Rollback Thermal protection to keep your music playing under the most demanding conditions.

Have you seen the newest car stereos? They’re AWESOME! Built-in navigation, satellite radio and Bluetooth connectivity.

If the last option makes you drool, you’re in luck. A company called Satechi lets you add Bluetooth capabilities without yanking your radio from your dashboard. I took it for a test drive.

Hardware

At first glance, the Soundfly View Bluetooth FM Transmitter looks like a pretty simple device. It’s an LCD screen on the end of an 8.5” goose neck adjustable arm that plugs into your cigarette lighter plug. It has the usual assortment of buttons including send call, end call, previous track and next track buttons along with a selection knob. As simple as it looks, it can pull off a lot of tricks.

Phone Calls

Pair your phone with the Soundfly View (a pretty easy process once you read the included manual) and it’s a speakerphone. When a call comes in, the number will show up on the screen. Press the green button to answer the call and voila! The audio is piped through your car stereo via a line-in jack or the FM transmitter while the device picks up your voice through the built-in microphone. I drive a late model Nissan and people on the other end of a phone call said I sounded great. If your radio supports RDS (where the radio station info and track name pop up on your radio automatically) the Soundfly will actually show the caller ID info on your head unit. Cool, right? Overall, the phone features worked well and, once setup, were easy to use.

Music

The Soundfly’s biggest feature is pumping music into your car. As with the phone option, you can use either a line-in cable or the FM transmitter to get audio from the Soundfly to your stereo. Once that connection is made, there are several ways to pump music into the unit.

The easiest way is to plug your iPod or other MP3 player into the Soundfly with a 3.5mm cable. This is a typical headphone sized plug. This works great but if you’re using the line-in jack on your stereo anyhow, the Soundfly would be pointless. If you’re using the FM transmitter, this is a great way to connect your mp3 player to a stereo without a line-in jack.

You can also plug an SD card or a USB thumb drive directly into the Soundfly and play your mp3s straight from memory. If you already own a storage device, the Soundfly essentially becomes your mp3 player. The screen makes it easy to navigate your music collection.

The coolest way to connect your music is to stream it wirelessly from your phone to the Soundfly via Bluetooth. The technical name for this is A2DP . It sounds great and keeps the cable clutter to a minimum in your car. Some phones will even display the song track info on the Soundfly if the correct Bluetooth profile is supported. On my Samsung Nexus S 4G, this feature did not work.

Things I’d Change

There are a few things I’d change. First, the goose neck is a touch too long. This may make sense in your car but for me it stuck out too far. If it was half the length, it would be perfect. I’d love it if it came with a few different lengths that you could screw in.

Navigating the menus on the Soundfly wasn’t always as intuitive as I would hope. It took me a few minutes to find the menu needed for the initial pairing. It helps to spend a few minutes reading the included directions (but who really does that?) Otherwise, you may waste a few minutes, as I did, trying to figure it out.

Pop, pop, pop. For some reason there are pops when using A2DP audio. There was a pop in between podcasts, a pop in between songs on Pandora and pops when I switched apps. It sounds to me like it’s ending the audio connection and then reconnecting. My phone doesn’t do this with other A2DP units so I’m guessing this is something within the Soundfly. It’s not a huge deal but mildly annoying if you have the volume cranked up.

Conclusion

With those minor grievances aside, the Soundfly View is one of the best ways I’ve found to add Bluetooth capabilities to a car radio that doesn’t support it. It auto connects when you turn on your car so once your phone is paired, it just works. The unit looks good and the adjustable arm lets you custom fit it to your car. For $80 it’s a lot cheaper than forking out the cash for a fancy new radio and may just be the device that can hold you over until it’s time to buy a new car with Bluetooth capabilities built-in.

HARMAN, the global premium audio and infotainment group (NYSE:HAR), has been awarded a coveted Technology & Development Award by Toyota Motor Corp. The award, which honors innovation that helps the Japanese automaker develop a full line up of vehicles from sedans to SUVs with state-of-the-art technology, was presented to HARMAN executives on February 23 in Nagoya, Japan.

“This honor represents the commitment we have to working with Toyota to develop the most sophisticated audio and infotainment systems that buyers across all price points have come to expect,” said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Chairman, President and CEO of HARMAN.

Recent innovations HARMAN has introduced with Toyota include:

The Toyota Touch & Go and Toyota Touch & Go Plus multimedia systems offer flexibility and affordability for the automaker’s European models, including the new Yaris, Verso S, Avensis, Prius and Hilux. The system offers advanced Bluetooth and USB functions including e-mail and SMS integration along with downloadable applications from the Toyota Customer portal. The navigation system was completely redesigned and offers a more user-friendly interface with new features such as safety camera and speed limit warnings along with online POI search capabilities through Google.
The Toyota Entune™ multimedia system, which blends advanced automotive navigation with the connectivity and entertainment features of smartphones. Through voice commands, drivers can make hands-free calls, control music from multiple sources and interact with the navigation system. The system works with Android phones, Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. Entune is available on the Prius (pictured) and Camry, with more to come.
The 2012 Toyota Prius, Prius+ and Camry are the first cars to offer the JBL GreenEdge™ audio system. GreenEdge reduces power consumption and heat generation while offering superior sound quality. GreenEdge audio components weigh less and take up less interior space.
Mark Levinson premium audio system with GreenEdge technology making a more efficient and powerful audio system was recently launched on the all new Lexus GS. Harman also provides JBL audio systems for a range of Toyota vehicles around the world including the Toyota Highlander, Land Cruiser, Avalon , 4-Runner, Sienna, Tacoma, Tundra, Verso, and Venza,.

About HARMAN

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.2 billion for twelve months ending December 31, 2011. The Company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.

Mercedes-Benz appears to be the first auto maker to include Siri in its infotainment system.

Mercedes A-Class radioDrivers of an all-new A-Class that makes its debut on March 6, will be able to use Siri voice to access applications.

With Siri, drivers use natural speech for commands to send messages, select music, and make appointments. They can also use Siri to check the weather or stock prices.

The new A-Class fully integrates with an iPhone so that all key functions are displayed on the car radio screen. It also works with apps including Facebook and Twitter and Garmin navigation.

Users must download a new Daimler free app called“Digital DriveStyle App.”

Other apps that work with the car include AUPEO! (a European version of Pandora) and a Car Finder app.

Source: CNET, Telematics News