Gadgetory

hello I'm the Westway the CNET here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where we're a bit more accustomed to seeing mobile phones than vehicles but nevertheless Ford has announced that it's bringing its eco sport SUV to Europe the Eco sport has Ford's EcoBoost engine inside it that's a one-litre three-cylinder engine it's already out in South America so this isn't a completely new car we're seeing but what is new is some of the mobile voice control tech that you get on the inside so Ford has this service called app link which lets you do voice control for apps once you're sat inside the car and that service is coming to Europe with Spotify in tow now the way that works is you plug your phone in by USB that's if you're using an iPhone if you've got an Android or Blackberry phone then it'll work wirelessly there's no support for Windows Phone though unfortunately once you're hooked up you press this button on the steering wheel which lets you make voice commands so you basically have to ask open mobile apps open Spotify and then you can give orders like shuffle my songs or you can choose specific playlists if you want to hear the available options you just say help to the voice control system and it'll reel off all of the things that you can say as a safety measure once you're actually connected the phone will get this Ford branded lock screen and that means that you can't use the app itself so that you have to keep your eyes on the road and don't get tempted to start meddling with the interface yourself I love the idea of being able to control apps using your voice while you're driving so you can keep your eyes on the road here's hoping the more app developers bring their software to Ford's app link system soon please choose their play was to play Maccabees something you do need to be aware of of course is that while you're driving you probably won't have Wi-Fi and if you've got 3G it's going to be a bit shaky so you'll want to download all of the songs to Spotify offline mode saving them on the phone one slightly less frivolous benefit of Ford's Sync technology is if you have an accident it can automatically send GPS coordinates to emergency services so they can come out and help you as soon as possible I have to say I quite like the style of this car and I even like the orange color that it's got going on here it's going to be coming out at the end of 2013 in Europe Western casino and this is the Ford EcoSport