Pioneer's Magnificent Multi-Media Medium Master Piece

Owen Gillespie
DTC 375: Language, Texts, & Technology
January 25, 2009

Pioneer’s Magnificent Multi-Media Medium Masterpiece

Pioneer’s AVIC Z3 has changed and shaped the way entertainment, navigation, and especially communication is used in a vehicle. The AVIC Z3 is the most state of the art piece of equipment a vehicle can be given. It has voice command capabilities, 30 Gigabyte hard drive, Bluetooth hands free communication, XM satellite radio, and the industry’s finest navigation system. Not to mention many more options. Many individuals think that they communicate at the highest level, think again. When you have capabilities of communicating with your vehicle with the same options at a faster rate than at home, you experience a sense of communication technology you could never imagine. Therefore making it a “multi-media master.”
The voice command capabilities of this system are unbelievable. You can ask it or tell it to do anything that pertains to the vehicle. The processor is in its second generation and can understand just about anything you tell it. You have the ability to say simple things like “search” or you can give it complex statements like saying a city name, street name, and address. You can tell it radio, XM, I-pod, Bluetooth, DVD, rear monitor on, or navigation and it will switch to the source that you have chosen. If it doesn’t understand it will ask you questions until it gets you what you want. It has full voice command capabilities over your phone through Bluetooth. You can say “call home” or “call whoever” and it will do so. It is like having a passenger you are telling what to do without having the passenger. I never thought that I would be telling my car what to do.
The thirty gigabyte hard drive is pretty self explanatory. It can store any media that you can import into its library. I have all my music (and some movies) stored into it which can be accessed by song title, author, genre, albums, audio books, compilations, composers, and podcasts (also done through voice command). It also asks if I would like to record any of the media that is inserted into it (whether it is DVD or CD). I have pictures of my daughter, places I’ve been, and things that make me happy stored on it. Between my I-pod and I-phone that are connected to it, I have more memory than my laptop itself. Not to mention, I have a dock for my laptop in the car too.
The Bluetooth aspect of the AVIC Z3 is very important to me as far as communication goes. I can do everything that a normal Bluetooth earpiece does times 10. When someone calls, my music is muted and I have every bit of information I have stored about that person displayed on the screen (home, cell, work, address, e-mail, etc.). At that point, I have the ability to answer or decline, in which case the person’s voice is displayed throughout the vehicles speakers or the music comes back on (if declined). Calling is very similar, I can tell the system to call whoever, and it brings up information about that person and I tell it to call work. Now here is the cool part; when I need access to the internet, I can pull over and use the internet through my phone anywhere I may possibly be. It can be a little slow, but at least I have it. One of the other cool combinations between my phone and the AVIC Z3 is that I have many people’s pictures stored in my phone; therefore I have a picture display of the person I’m talking to for more of a sense of reality.
XM satellite radio has a large variety of media which helps keep me involved with what is going on in the world, entertain me, and also a program to re-route me in the event of road closures and accidents. I spent a lot of time on the road in the past and would jump in the car in the morning and listen to the news. It gave me a sense of reading the paper while I was driving. I also frequently listened to games that I was unable to see in the evenings. XM satellite radio has over 100 channels of music, comedy, talk radio, and much more. So entertainment is endless. To complement all of this, XM offers XM Nav Traffic. This is a program which alerts you to traffic conditions and gives you alternate routes if there may be traffic jams, accidents, or road work.
The final medium that many travelers do not take advantage of is a navigation system. Many “old timers” use the traditional map. There is no problem with maps until you look at when they are printed and realize that they do not match up to the roads, new roads, and altered exits. Highways, interstates, county roads, streets, etc. seem to change and be updated faster than we realize. People move to new housing developments that are simply not on maps. With Pioneer’s navigation system, you get yearly update disks and XM Nav Traffic updates it continuously. With 12 million points of interest and frequent updates, it’s pretty hard to get lost.
In conclusion, this multi-media extravaganza is a medium in which I never thought my life time would never see. I have more resources and fun in my car than I ever thought possible. Imagine being on a long trip in an old station wagon with an eight track player and your children screaming. I was one of those children growing up. Now I see my daughter sitting in the back of my IS300 watching movies (using wireless head phones) and me being able to do more that I do at home at the tone of my voice. Vacation travel is almost better than the vacation. If anyone is interested or has any questions regarding this enjoyable masterpiece, visit http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/Navigation/In-Dash/AVIC-Z3.