Blue & Me - Fiat and Microsoft Collaboration

The Fiat Linea, which was presented in Istanbul last October, now makes its market. Some models of Fiat Linea is equipped with a system called Blue & Me powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile. The car has Windows Logo on its steering wheel and dashboard.

Blue&Me, the result of the collaboration between Fiat Auto and Microsoft, is changing the way people communicate and listen to music on the move.Using a series of voice commands, without taking your hands off the wheel you can telephone and listen to incoming SMS messages, interpreted on your Bluetooth Blue&Me mobile phone, consult your phonebook and listen to MP3s. Blue&Me supports most mobile phones with Bluetooth technology.






The car was developed by Tofas A.S., the 50-50 joint venture between Fiat Auto and Koç Holding which is listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Manufacturing of Linea is in the plant in Bursa, Turkey (fully operative, output will reach 60,000 units per year) and is marketed in a number of European and non-European countries: Spain, Germany, Morocco and Finland. At a later date, the Fiat Linea will also be manufactured in Brazil, India, China and Russia.

About Blue & Me






Instead of costly and rigid hardware, Fiat Auto and Microsoft is offering a platform that can be adapted to most mobile phones, digital media players and other mobile devices. The customer is free to change them with new models without compromising compatibility with the car.






Blue&Me guarantees maximum security levels and user-friendliness. The voice-activated system, the complete integration of steering wheel control buttons and information on the dashboard display will allow users to utilize any Bluetooth-based mobile phone - even if it is in a pocket or handbag - without removing hands from the steering wheel.


Thanks to a modern voice-recognition system, no preliminary voice training is needed, and even incoming SMS messages are read aloud to the driver. And even in Turkish in the local Language .


Among audio functions, it is possible to listen to music stored on a mobile phone, in the newest smart phones, and in MP3 readers or USB removable sticks. All this thanks to a USB port, in the glove box, which enables the connection to any digital device with the correspondent port.


The collaboration between Fiat and Microsoft allows Blue&Me to be based on an open platform, compatible with the largest number of devices such as mobile phones, Palms and MP3 players, with the real benefit of continuously catching up with market innovations, thus maintaining the perfect integration with the car at an entry-level price.






Here are the some of details of Blue & Me :






The hands-free system


The Blue&MeTM hands-free system uses exclusive universal voice-recognition technology: regardless of who is speaking, the system does not need time to learn the voice.


After pairing your Bluetooth mobile phone with the system, which you only need to do once, and by downloading your phone’s phonebook, you can make and receive phone calls simply by speaking: all the commands can be given without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road.


Up to 5 different mobile phones can be paired with the system: should more than one paired phone be present in the car at the same time, Blue&MeTM connects with the last phone used.


You can call a number by dictating the number, digit by digit, or simply by saying the name of the person you want to call, provided they are in your phone’s phonebook. Alternatively, you can use the steering wheel controls to scroll through the phone book on the display on the instrument panel.






SMS Reader


If you receive an SMS, you can have the system read the message for you out loud! It can even interpret abbreviations and smilies! What could be easier or safer?






Musical entertainment


With Blue&Me you can listen to all your favourite music in the car, in MP3/WMA/WAV digital format.


All you have to do is connect your Media Player to the USB port in a handy position in the centre of the dashboard: a USB pen-drive, an MP3-player or a smart phone, or even an I-pod. The only requirement is that the files downloaded are not covered by music copyright, such as iTunes files.

When you connect the device to the USB port, the words ‘MEDIA PLAYER’ immediately appear on the radio display, indicating the music source you are listening to.


Using the voice or steering wheel commands, you can select the music track you want to listen to by browsing through the various folders and files shown on the instrument panel display: in an instant, you will hear your selected track

http://www.4wdonline.com/A/Engines.html

Nitrogen Inflated Tyres for Cars

Towing a car to the petrol pump station after every few days to check air pressure is a tedious job. This can be avoided by inflating the tyres with Nitrogen as pure Nitrogen once pumped into the tyres retains the pressure for about six months. Besides this, it has many other advantages.



Compressed air which is normally used to inflate car tyres is a mixture of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% water vapour and other gases. Oxygen reacts very easily and when introduced into the tyres through compressed air penetrates the tyre walls and causes under inflation. This also causes the decaying of the rubber particles. Additionally, in an air inflated tyre, as oxygen enters through rubber there are possibilities of steel belts and the steel bead rusting.



Oxidation further lead to overheating reducing the life of the tyre and may also results in blow outs. An under-inflated tyre is very much prone to friction resulting in steering problem.



Whereas Nitrogen is a inert gas. Nitrogen is cooler, lighter, and does not cause any kind of rust on the steel or aluminium rims. As Nitrogen inflated tyre does not heat up, the life of the tyre is longer, braking is efficient, and also gives good fuel economy.



Nitrogen is pumped into the tyres with the help of ‘nitrogen inflators’ which generates nitrogen from the atmospheric air. The inflators cost around Rs 3 Lakh in India. Since it involves a heavy investment, the petrol pump operators are forced to charge for filling the tyres with Nitrogen. Unlike the Nitrogen gas filling, compressed air is available in most of the gas stations in the country without any charge. The Nitrogen gas filling cost ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 200 per vehicle and can be filled in any kind of tyre.Advantages of Nitrogen Filled Tyres Easy FillingUnlike compressed air filled tyres, it do not requires regular filling. The tyre pressure only need to checked every six months to enjoy a smooth drive. Moreover replacing compressed air with Nitrogen is a very simple process. All the air should be completely removed from the tyres ensuring the tyre is entirely devoid of air and then the Nitrogen can be filled. Even tubeless tyres can be inflated with Nitrogen gas without any hassle. Nowadays many garages are now offering Nitrogen fills for tyres instead of conventional air filling.



Improves Fuel Efficiency
As Nitrogen molecules are lighter than compressed air, it imparts very less load on the car keeping the weight at low scale which in turn improves the fuel efficiency by 5%. It ensure minimum leakage and maintains a proper pressure inside the tyre compared to compressed air which further helps to get good fuel efficiency.



Reduces Corrosion
There is no moisture in the pure Nitrogen therefore the nitrogen filled tyres are rust free. Crude nitrogen can also be treated to reduce the amount of water vapour before making available for filling.



Eco-Friendly Nature
Nitrogen is a colourless, odourless, and non-toxic gas that forms about 78% of the Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen is much cooler and does not heat up the inner lining of the tyre (rubber) which gives out toxic gases that are not environment friendly. As mentioned above, Nitrogen inflated tyres increases fuel efficiency which eventually reduces CO2 emission. Thus Nitrogen inflated tyres are eco-friendly compared to conventional tyres.



Long Life
In the air inflated tyres, when other material blend with oxygen it causes oxidization. Oxidisation ages the rubber resulting in poor strength. Air tyres also sometime experiences high temperature which cause tyre blow out. In contrast, use of Nitrogen in tyres increases its life up to 25%.



Safety
Nitrogen inflated tyres are much safer than the air filled tyres. 90 percent of compressed air filled tyres often burst due to pressure drop which in many cases is the cause of car accidents. While Nitrogen helps to maintain a accurate tyre pressure reducing the chances of blow out and hence any road mishap. Moreover, Nitrogen being a inert gas have no fire risk. This is the reason why they are mostly used in Formula 1 and other race cars.

Improves Ride QualityThough not very significant, still nitrogen inflated tyres are believed to enhance the ride quality of a car. This is mainly due to its light nature.



Disadvantages of Nitrogen Filled TyresCost - Filling tyres with nitrogen is costly compared to compressed air. Nitrogen inflated tyres also require more maintenance.



Availability - Nitrogen gas is not available at any petrol pump station. They generally found with specialist tyre dealers service centres.



Pressure Maintenance – The pressure of Nitrogen inflated tyres if not adjusted at optimum level may counteract the advantages of nitrogen inflation. Even addition of a small amount compressed air would affects the tyre performance.



Nitrogen used in other Arena Apart from Private Motoring•NASCAR - NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) teams use nitrogen as it helps to predict the tyre fluctuation accurately. Though nitrogen fluctuates with temperature change, but it is comparatively lesser than conventional air.

•Commercial Airlines – All the commercial aircraft tyres are Nitrogen inflated. This helps to resist the freezing of water vapour at high altitudes which would give an unbalanced situation when landing. Some of the aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing use nitrogen membranes in their On-Board Inert Gas Generation Systems (OBIGGS). The OBIGGS is an on-board system that uses dry nitrogen-enriched air "blanket" for the fuel tank instead of flammable fuel-air mixture. This on-board system reduces the risk of fire inside the aircraft engine thereby ensuring safety.