#fordsync

Ford’s new Sync Connect app lets you remotely start your car

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"Wait, there's one more thing."

"When's the most dangerous and the most useful time to use your iPhone? While driving of course."

The iPhone 5S has already generated a lot of rumors and speculation but I'd like to add to the fuel and suggest some possible feature enhancements based purely on my own imagination. Apple and Ford already have a partnership via a Bluetooth connection between iPhone and Ford Sync. If you've ever used Bluetooth in your car or with any Bluetooth enabled devices you know the experience isn't intuitive, elegant, or even reliable. It's cool, don't get me wrong. I love my Bluetooth headphones and feel very futuristic when I wear them but I mainly love them when they work and get pretty annoyed at carrying around the dead weight of headphones with a dead battery.

What about carrying around a dead iPhone? I lost my charge the other night and had to right the Tube here in London for half an hour without any sort of entertainment because my phone was dead. What if every time you took your iPhone into your car it worked, you didn't have to make a Bluetooth connection, and it charged itself?

"We've introduced new features into the completely reconfigured iPhone 5S that will automatically and dramatically change your relationship with your phone, again."

I've read plenty of speculation about Apple's long-awaited introduction of NFC functionality as well as the much-ballyhooed patent Apple filed years ago suggesting that you can just set your iPhone next to your Macbook and, voila!, it charges up. No cords, no hassle.

Imagine if they combine the introduction of both NFC and remote charging with an updated partnership with Ford? Imagine going to the Ford dealer, buying the new Ford Fusion hybrid with an iPhone thrown into the mix for free. Not only that but your brand new iPhone 5S works with SYNC. In fact, it is SYNC. It's a new iPhone app that comes pre-installed and allows you to use a new version of Siri to effortlessly control all media, radio, and iPhone functionality using your voice. On top of that, every time you get in your car you top off the battery.

"We think iCar is going to fundamentally change the relationship between consumers, phones, and how they get around. And we're only just getting started. We anticipate rolling out similar functionality with other major automakers over the coming months and are in the beginning stages of exploring how we can make this work for people who travel on public transit. In fact, we're announcing a pilot with CalTrain that charges the iPhone 5S for all passengers automatically, without any effort on their part."

Obviously all of this is made up and I'm not even sure this is technologically feasible but a recent analyst suggested that the only way Apple is going to stay in the game will be to introduce a killer new smartphone feature to reverse the slow-roll commodification of smartphone technology.