Sony Xperia converts flash motors into fancy remotes Sony will pre-load RealVNC's server onto all its Xperia handsets in 2012, enabling cars to control phones and customer support to reach out and touch you right on the screen. VNC is a widely supported standard for using computers remotely, and already allows one to take over a desktop PC from a mobile phone. Cambridge-based …
Why is this needed? You can already make/receive calls, listen to audio and control your phone's audio player via Bluetooth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth_profile#Audio.2FVideo_Remote_Control_Profile_.28AVRCP.29).
Ok, so you may not be able to send or receive texts (while I am not sure if Siri can send and receive texts via bluetooth, you need an iPhone for that).
In fact, the only thing you definitely can't do via Bluetooth is use Apps.
Don't get me wrong, I think VNC is a great thing, in it's place. I'm just not sure that place is using a car to control a mobile phone.
1. Would you prefer to see your SatNav app on a 7 in screen? Or you want to continue staring in the 4in phone sceen? Granted a lot of in-console displays are too low and require taking eyes off the road for my liking especially for "french" (close to the steering wheel and high up) driving position, but as people say - size matters.
2. Would you want to pay for a extra SatNav in your car which is not updated and not maintained while you have it on your phone anyway?
3. Do you want to pay an extra mobile contract for your car to pay for the cost of traffic updates? 4. Would you want to sit in a traffic jam and wonder can you get your hands safely on the phone and the KLM/EasyJet/FlyBlue/Whatever app to rebook your flight or you can do that off the car console which is well within reach.
5. Ditto for booking.com and looking for a hotel in a city you have never been before? And have that integrated to SatNav straight away so you do not waste time figuring out how to get there.
6. Do you want to keep looking for a place to stick a holder and leave the privilege of having a proper "pocket" for the phone only to BMW iDrive customers?
7. Have you noticed by any chance that running the screen and the video acceleration using an average SatNav app on an average mobile phone nowdays drains the battery faster than it can be charged? It is nice to have a SatNav app, however, it would be even nicer if you could drive from the Netherlands to the Czech republic without swapping batteries at every petrol station. If you display remotely you take two of the big power hogs out of the equation so even an Xperia Arc may last cross EU while being recharged off a car charger.
Shall I continue the list of questions?
I for one am waiting impatiently for our VNC supporting overlords. So the moment there is a good AutoMotive VNC 2 DIN stereo it will be going straight into my vehicle.
You are partially correct, there is no security built into the protocol, in the same way that security isn't built into HTTP. (You have to bolt-on SSL / TLS to make it secure) . Unlike HTTP though, VNC doesn't send passwords in the clear.
Security / Encryption is also easily bolted onto VNC too. UltraVNC (My Personal favourite) uses an encryption plugin system, and Real VNC includes AES encryption as part of their paid-for package, so I'd expect that this system would have that, seeing as its developed by the same people.
I hope it was British expertise involved, given the brand is owned by foreigners (I have nothing against foreigners owning british brands and running them well / sensitively, but would obviously be nicer if British minds were the brains behind the nuts and bolts of this).
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