My 11 GT/CS we had was great with the sync as is my sisters 12 Explorer. She had some initial updating issues but all works great now. I do not miss it in the 08 at all as it is not a real big thing for me to have a phone at my disposal when driving.

 

So it appears to be a quality control issue then.

Regardless, they are dumping MS for a reason.

 

going with RIM isn't going to be any better since they are always about to go under. Android would be the best bet, considering even the high end aftermarket navi decks are using it.

I just installed a new deck that is made to "keep" sync. The reality is that I'm only keeping it for phone calls, even then, the deck could handle it on it's own. they both have bluetooth, and sometimes that's in conflict anyway whether i want to use the pandora app on the deck or stream audio from the bluetooth on sync.. but I could just as well stream the bluetooth through the deck.

but yeah, i'm having a hard time justifying keeping it.

 

Sometimes mine just goes on break and turns everything off. I ain't lying. It's happened twice. Then one time it did some really weird stuff that I'm not even sure what it was trying do. Hit aux and the cd started playing.

As far as my phone here's a dufus story you can tell your kids.

I was trying to sync my phone and it wouldn't sync so I looked up the compatible phones and it wasn't listed. (no I don't use iphone, I don't need it)

So I found a new flip phone on ebay that was compatible for 50 bucks, like new. But it wouldn't sync either.

Damn I thought. Then I realized when it said to enter the number in your "device" to start syncing, my device was my phone, not my shaker radio. Now I have two phones that will sync. Yes, the other one, although not listed does in fact work. But I guess it's so old they didn't test it.

 

It will probably work, but there could be some features that wont work on it.

 

QNX has been around for a long time. It's used in a lot (a LOT) of embedded systems; things like industrial control systems, medical applications, aircraft flight control, etc. QNX had been around for 20 years before Harman bought them, and RIM has only owned QNX for 4 years. If RIM goes under, someone is going to snap up QNX right away. It ain't going anywhere.

that last bit is the important part. whatever Ford does, basing something on QNX is not tying yourself to Blackberry. See, QNX is a really bare-bones operating system. It's basically a kernel and a collection of APIs. It has no "native" apps, no native GUI, nothing like that (save for the basic unix programs, but you're not going to be using cp, rm, mv, ls, or junk like that on your car stereo.) If you base your software on QNX, you have to write your own GUI, hardware drivers, and apps; you basically have to do all of the user-facing stuff from scratch. what Blackberry's latest phones run is not "QNX," it's BB10. BB10 is a huge glop of Blackberry-written software running on top of that minimalist QNX OS.

And it's important to realize that running your stuff on top of QNX doesn't mean it'll be good. The Chrysler "MyGig" media/navigation radios from 2006-on were running on top of QNX and they were incredible pieces of junk.

the only reason Android is attractive is because you don't have to pay anyone to use it*. You still have to do all of the hard work porting it to whatever SoC (system-on-chip) and hardware you're using, and it won't prevent you from writing bloated, laggy, slow crap to run on top of it.

* well, you don't have to pay so long as you don't include the Google apps and Play store.

 

I have used BT interfaces on three other cars, SYNC is by far the worst, followed closely by the VW system.

 

honestly, Bluetooth is a ****ty protocol. It's real easy to screw up. I've not had a Bluetooth related problem with SYNC like, ever. The system I did have a problem with was in a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado; if while streaming music from my phone I had the poor taste to change the volume level on the Toyota's radio, the music would then stutter and skip for a couple of seconds afterward. Bluetooth is a f***ing mess. you have to pray that the manufacturer of the host (your PC, or SYNC, or whatever) got it right, and you also have to pray that your device manufacturer also got it right, or else you're in for a world of cussing everyone out.

 

I think sync is fine. To be honest I cam from a Mercedes to my '10 Mustang and I thought sync was miles better than the MB. It has its qwerks, but its not bad at all.

 

The Sync in my 2014 Mustang GT works fine with my iphone 4S. But I do have an issue with Sync. If you forget your phone, Sync will tell you that "Phone is disconnected". But not until you are 2 blocks away from home! Why doesn't the system check for the phone before I leave my driveway!!! Somebody wasn't thinking when they designed the boot sequence!