AFF Technical Resources - Ford Announces Applink for Australia

Ford SYNC Applink™ confirmed for Australia, giving drivers voice control over their favourite smartphone apps

Pandora, TuneIn Radio and Kaliki among the first available apps for Ford customers in Australia

AppLink Catalog app will allow Ford customers to discover AppLink-enabled apps, while assisting developers’ apps to be discovered by new users

Ford SYNC AppLink will be available in select Ford models in Australia in 2014

SYDNEY, 13 Aug, 2013 – Ford customers in Australia will soon be able to enjoy an enhanced driving experience via SYNC AppLink™-enabled Ford vehicles.

The first three apps available for Ford AppLink in Asia Pacific – and Australia – by Pandora, Kaliki and TuneIn Radio, mark new ways for customers to bring their favourite smartphone apps into their vehicles via simple voice commands.
“AppLink gives drivers voice control over their favourite smartphone apps when their phone is connected to SYNC,” says Ford Executive Vice President of Global Marketing, Sales and Service and Lincoln, Jim Farley.

Ford SYNC AppLink will be available in select Ford models in Australia in 2014. With Ford SYNC AppLink, customers can control applications on their smartphones from the driver’s seat using voice controls, through the Ford SYNC voice-activated connectivity system. The first three apps available in Australia will give drivers voice control access to some of the world’s most popular internet services.

Pandora – Pandora is free personalised internet radio. Simply enter a favourite artist, track, comedian or genre, and Pandora will create a personalised station that plays their music and more like it. Rate songs by giving thumbs-up and thumbs-down feedback and add variety to further refine your stations, discover new music and help Pandora play only music you love.

TuneIn Radio – TuneIn lets people listen to the world’s music, sports, talk and news from wherever they are, with over 70,000 AM, FM, HD and Internet radio stations and more than two million on-demand programs streaming from every continent. With well over 40 million monthly active listeners, TuneIn is the most popular way to listen to live online radio.

Kaliki – Kaliki is a smartphone app that collates the top news stories from major newspapers and magazines and provides an audio version for on-demand playback in the customer’s vehicle. The Kaliki Audio Newsstand app lets Ford drivers of AppLink-enabled vehicles to listen to their favourite news and magazine stories.

Along with the apps from Pandora, Kaliki and TuneIn Radio, Ford has announced that customers around the world will be able to more easily discover and download new AppLink-enabled apps through the Applink Catalog app. The AppLink Catalog app will be available for customers to organise and list all available apps, and automatically connects customers to the app store of their choice for downloading.
Ford’s SYNC in-car connectivity system is currently available for Australian customers in the Focus, Focus ST and Ford Kuga. From September 1, SYNC will be available in the new Fiesta and Fiesta ST.