parrot

With its low-profile design, the Parrot Minikit+ doesn't command a lot of the driver's attention. That's a good thing.

It even knows to turn itself on when you enter the car thanks to its vibration sensor and automatic power feature. Beyond a basic setup and the occasional charging, you'll likely forget that this slim Bluetooth speakerphone is suspended from your car's sun visor...waiting.

That is until a call comes in and the Parrot Minikit+ springs to life and starts talking to you with its odd, robotic British accent. You'll then be able to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The Parrot Asteroid Android-powered car stereo is back at CES, and this time it's brought a few new family members.

First up is the Parrot Asteroid CK. This 3.2-inch-screened device installs on the vehicle's dashboard, providing Bluetooth hands-free calling, A2DP audio streaming, voice command for dialing, and digital audio playback from a connected iPod, iPhone, USB storage device, or SD card. You can Bluetooth-tether a smartphone or connect a USB 3G dongle, and the Asteroid CK can connect to the Internet to stream music from the cloud or access geolocation services. The CK does not appear … Read more

There's more than one way to automate tasks in Windows, but the Task Manager and macro options fall far short of many users' needs. If you find yourself wishing you could automate any repetitive task in Windows, try WinParrot, the "Windows parrot." This portable freeware lets you create, record, and play macros automating virtually any task or process in Windows. While it's not difficult to use, beginners will find it a bit overwhelming. Those users with a passing familiarity with code and text files will get the most out of this flexible tool's many options … Read more

Ford and Toyota team on car tech, Audi announces plug ins & hybrids, In-car internet radio explodes, and we take you - but just one of you - for a ride in the Scion iQ.

• Ford and Toyota team on hybrids for trucks, SUVs

• GM teams with LG to develop electric vehicles

• Audi plug-in hybrid rumored to be coming in 2014

• BMW to integrate MOG app

• Cadillac drops the cloth and top on new Ciel concept

Remember the Parrot Asteroid that was previewed at CES 2011? It was to be the first car audio receiver to be based on Google's Android mobile operating system. Well, it's here and I got my hands on it.

Like no Android device I've ever seen Although the Asteroid is based on Android 1.5, you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at it. The interface of the single DIN unit looks nothing like any Android device that you've likely ever seen. It's been heavily simplified and optimized for in-car use. Half of … Read more

Few things warm the heart quite like a goofy publicity stunt. P.T. Barnum once had an elephant plow a field. German phone manufacturer Gigaset is right on Barnum's wavelength. Animals get attention. In this particular case, the animal is a chatty British Gold Macaw on Facebook.

OK, let's review. We have a parrot. We have Facebook. Put the two together in a live-chat format and you get people from around the world jawing with a bird over the Internet's most popular social-networking site.

I had the opportunity to briefly interview the bird (actually, it's a team of three birds taking different shifts). Certain keywords are likely to set him off. I was instructed that he likes peanuts, but that he was much more interested in the topics of chocolate and dogs.

In all this excitement, it might be easy to forget exactly why we're talking to a bird on Facebook in the first place. The parrot is supposed to pitch Gigaset's new L410 hands-free clip for cordless phones. He's a lousy pitchman. His obsession with chocolate completely overrides his ability to speak eloquently about the clip's tech specs.… Read more

Google has acquired a Dublin, Ireland, company called Green Parrot Pictures to help improve the quality of videos posted on YouTube.

The company's technology "helps make videos look better while at the same time using less bandwidth and improving playback speed," said Jeremy Doig, director of Google video technology, in a post on Google's YouTube blog yesterday. It's been used in "Lord of the Rings," "X-Men," and "Spider-Man" films and apparently Google now wants to benefit from it as well.

Doig said the acquisition will help improve video marred … Read more

The AR.Drone helicopter demo was going really well, until the 'copter, under the expert pilotage of a company employee, veered out of control from its demo arena and smacked into a CES attendee's head. Fortunately, the foam bumper on the drone was installed, otherwise the guy might not have laughed off the collision.

Shortly thereafter, in a demo set up for me of the new AR.Drone dogfighting game, Flying Ace, one demonstrator mercilessly (virtually) pounded another pilot's copter, which hovered motionless, locked in place by the Wi-Fi interference that plagues this conference every year (check out … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Parrot is best known for its Bluetooth hands-free products. But if the AR.Drone is any indicator, this isn't a company that's afraid to come out of left field with a seemingly random product. Enter the Parrot Asteroid, a car audio receiver powered by Android OS. Yep, you read that correctly.

The Asteroid is a single-DIN receiver with a two-part faceplate that is split between a physical control panel that is detachable for security and a large, fixed 3.2-inch LCD. The unit features three USB ports it can use to connect to digital audio sources or … Read more