I'm in shock here. Some time last year I went car shopping with a buddy of mine who was looking to buy a Ford Mustang. One thing in particular he was really wanting was the Microsoft SYNC system in it. I remember sitting in a loaded GT at a dealership and having him plug in his iPod and try to use the voice commands to pick/play music. It was a horrible experience that barely worked maybe 40-50% of the time. We went in expecting Star Trek and came out with dashed hopes. Fast forward to last night I'm reading the stereo manual for my C w/Nav and I notice the voice commands section. I LOL'ed at the though of it, expecting it to be as bad as the Ford system was. This morning I popped in a 32gb flash drive (about 1/2 full) and fired up the voice prompts. First attempt, "Play Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon".. works! Gotta be a fluke... 2nd attempt, "Play The Beatles Abbey Road"... works! omg... 3rd, 4th, 5th attempts all work.. first shot. WTH?!? Voice commands in my Prius C work flawlessly and the same functionality in a $35,000 Mustang didn't? What is this? Bizarro world? I'm in awe right now... seriously.
I was quite impressed as well. I found the voice commands for the nav system less tolerant but the media commands work great! The only thing I don't like is that I cannot just simply say something like "Play Artist, Iron Maiden, All Songs" and have to go "Play Artist, Iron Maiden" and wait for it to read through the list of options before I can say "All Songs". Has anyone else had similar aggrivations or found away around this? I find it really ruins the smooth user experience that the default media command of "Play <artist name> <album name>" gives.
I THINK you can say "Artist Iron Maiden" and as soon as the list comes up you can immediately hit the voice button again (cancelling the reading of the optoins) and say "All Songs". Still have to press the button again but shave a few seconds off the experience. Going to try it on my way home.
Forgive me, for I'm at work and can't check the manual... Is this available in the lower models? And are voice commands only for USB? Pretty nifty either way My boyfriend has a Mustang with SYNC, but he hardly uses it. We're both more likely to shuffle through all our music and skip songs by hand than use voice commands I'd have fun playing with it, though!
The voice command button is missing on the C1&2, you have to have a C3 or 4 to get the voice commands.
For me the voice commands are almost a must at this point. When you have a huge amount of music available on a USB drive or an iPod it's a real bear to navigate through it by rotating a dial when you want to listen to something specific (plus it's almost impossible to do safely while moving). I'm so friggin excited that it works in the C This car just keeps getting better and better every day I own it.. LOVE this thing.
These page seems to indicate that you can simply call up the Artist and then say Yes to confirm and it will begin random play? Or you could directly call up the album name and do the same? ron
I recall this morning when I said "Artist Pink Floyd" I was presented with several options, one of which (I think it was the 3rd) was "All Songs" so I could say "All Songs" or "Line 3" and it would execute that command. I'll have to try it again in a couple hours when I leave to see if there's another way.
I like that the BT voice command system can dial your phone for you simply by stating the person you want to call. That works pretty good... when the phone will stay connected through BT. The thing I don't like about calling up the songs on the 3 level stereo is that you cannot browse your flash drive by folders. It sees all the songs on the drive and does not differentiate between different folders you have setup on the flash drive... unless I'm missing something?
Aha! I think that's the difference.. I said "Artist Pink Floyd" not "Play Artist Pink Floyd"! Correct in my experience. My system seems to be using the ID3 tags in the MP3s on the drive. I haven't read the manual fully but I know there's a way to browse by folder if you're using a CD.. maybe there's a setting to do the same with a USB drive?
I haven't found it after reading the manual and also playing with the unit looking for that feature with USB selected. I know it's available in the stereos in the levels 1 and 2.
Sounds like it's a missing feature then. One thing I haven't tried that is supposedly supported is playlists. I guess I can use WinAMP or some such tool that creates standard playlists on the root level of the USB drive and the car will recognize them? That'd be pretty cool (but time consuming). The only feature I really miss is gapless playback. The system has a very short gap between songs so it's not horrible. I'd probably have to go iPod if I wanted to get gapless back, but I hate leaving it in the car all the time. Probably just stick with the 32gb drive and deal
First let me say that I do not own a Ford of any kind. Big fan of some of their products though. You are far from the first person to complain about the Ford Sync but I have never had any problems when I have used it and my neighbor has great luck with his. Have not tried the voice commands on the Prius. It is the wife's commuter car.
