DominoKeys.com » remotes http://www.dominokeys.com/blog Management, Tech, IT, Lotus & More-- The professional blog of Kevin Hansen Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:26:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 iPhones & Keys http://www.dominokeys.com/blog/2009/12/19/iphones-keys/ http://www.dominokeys.com/blog/2009/12/19/iphones-keys/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:20:54 +0000 Kevin http://www.dominokeys.com/blog/?p=619 A few weeks ago I posted an entry asking (begging?) GM to consider an iPhone app that would allow me to start my car from my iPhone. I don’t want it because its cool (well, that’s part of it) but because their basic and advanced remotes have horrible range … and I live in MN, where its cold and the last thing I want to walk within 25 feet of my car, start it, then go back inside to wait for it to warm.

Moving on … this week I noticed a post about an iPhone app Mercedes is working on as a additional remote for their cars. That’s perfect considering my other car is a C-class. Here’s the down-side of this app: no remote start. It simple mimics the functionality you have on your existing key fob. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to start your car for a moment (as I illustrate my point to this entry):

With current key/fob:

  1. Remove remote from pocket
  2. Press button – car opens

With proposed iPhone app:

  1. Remove iPhone from pocket
  2. Press button to activate iPhone
  3. Slide finger to unlock iPhone
  4. Swipe to screen containing your MB remote application
  5. Press icon to start app
  6. Wait a moment
  7. Press button to open car – car opens (I’m just going to assume that it does it as quickly as well – which I somehow don’t think will be true.)

So there you go, GM. Simply hurry up and build the app I talked about and you’ll have a GREAT new feature Mercedes doesn’t even have! Again, I’m available for beta testing.  :)

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