harman

Harman International, in looking for a way to personalize the in-car experience, found that the most unique thing everyone carries is a phone. In its demonstration of a new dashboard electronics system, Harman pointed out that people are more likely to loan someone else their car keys than their phones.

At the 2012 Geneva auto show, Harman used Rinspeed's Dock+Go concept car to show off the new system. In the car we had a number of smartphones, each equipped with near field communications, belonging to a variety of different people (set up for the purposes of the demonstration). … Read more

I nearly fell off my couch when I saw Harman Kardon and JBL ads in the middle of the Grammy Awards show on Sunday night.

Audio-brand awareness in the mainstream is mostly limited to Bose and Beats by Dr. Dre, but now it looks like Harman, the parent company of AKG, Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson, Lexicon, and Infinity is starting to flex its muscles. I spoke with Chris Dragon, the senior global marketing director of Harman, to learn more about the campaigns.

JBL's "Hear the Truth" ads will feature many of the world's top musical … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Remember when Aha Radio's claim to fame was robotic text-to-speech reading of Facebook status updates? You've come a long way, baby.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Aha by Harman announced a handful of new content and hardware partners, the ranks of which include Subaru, Honda, and Kenwood.

The two automotive partners, Subaru and Honda, will be building Aha Radio connectivity into their vehicle's infotainment systems for the 2013 model year--which means we should start seeing the fruits of this union as early as this fall. After pairing a smartphone running the Aha Radio app, drivers … Read more

Harman Kardon's SB 16 established that the company could charge a premium for its sound bar ($600), but actually back it up with superior performance.

Harman is upping the ante even further with the SB 30, the company's newest sound bar selling for a whopping $800. From the outside, you don't seem to get much more for your money, with it featuring a similar exterior design to the SB 16 and a wireless subwoofer. But inside, the SB 30 is packed with drivers, including six 2-inch woofers and seven 1-inch tweeters. Harman is also touting its dual … Read more

JBL and Infinity, both brands of Harman International, will show aftermarket amps and speakers to enhance car audio.

JBL detailed its GTO series of amps in a press release, highlighting the amps ease of installation. The amps come with RCA-to-bare-wire adapters along with a CD to explain installation.

Once installed, the audio output can be fine-tuned. JBL fits the amps with color-coded knobs and LEDs to tell an amateur installer when the configuration is optimized.

The amps range from 640- to 1,935-watt maximum power output, and include multichannel and mono blocks among the GTO range. Prices run from $199.… Read more

These five cars have the best-sounding stereos we've tested all year.

To get good sound in a car, you used to have to visit an installer, who would rip out four tinny speakers and replace them with six-by-nines, a sub, and an amp. But now many automakers are partnering with known audio companies to put high-quality audio components in cars at the factory. These systems are designed specifically for each car by professional audio engineers. We picked out five cars with the best-sounding audio systems we heard this year. These systems produce the kind of sound that will have you driving around the block until your favorite song finishes playing.… Read more

The first version of the Harman Kardon SoundSticks came out around the same time as the translucent iMac G3, and there's a reason why they look so similar: both were designed by Apple's lead designer, Jonathan Ive.

There are three parts to this PC speaker system: dual 10-watt satellite speakers and a 20-watt subwoofer that sits on the floor.

But even though Apple has since moved away from the see-through design, Harman Kardon retains the clear plastic transparency across the board, this time lowering the intensity of the internal blue lights so they aren't quite as distracting … Read more

At the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, Harman International demonstrated Aha app integration it developed for Ferrari. It's a big-name client for a little-known product, and may herald future Aha implementation with other automakers.

Aha gave CNET an exclusive look at the implementation ahead of the Frankfurt auto show.

Using an iPhone running the Aha app and connected to the Ferrari head unit, a number of cloud-based services became available, such as Slacker, Yelp, Twitter, and traffic reports. If you touch the Aha tab on the head unit's audio screen, the list of services appears in a vertical … Read more

When it comes to integrating mobile entertainment apps with vehicle infotainment systems, manufacturers have been slow to embrace Androids. Harman announced this week that it is the first big automotive technology partner to fully integrate Android devices, which will let users control mobile apps using the vehicle's head unit.

Some Harman infotainment platforms already integrate preapproved BlackBerry and iPhone apps, such as Pandora and Facebook. Newly added to the platform is support for Android's Open Accessory Protocol. Similar to Terminal Mode, this new feature means some apps on an Android device equipped with the protocol can be integrated … Read more