Porsche announced today the integration of Aha™ (a unit of HARMAN International Industries) as part of a new Online Services option. According to the release, Aha is a free service that seamlessly organizes and integrates your favorite content from the web between your phone and car, so you can easily access it wherever you go, including in your Porsche. It will be available as a $210 option on any Porsche equipped with the latest generation of the Porsche Communication Management (PCM) system.
To use the system a Porsche owner must first download the free Aha radio app for the apple iOS or Android device. The app allows customers to access and organize their favorite content from the web into personalized “radio”-like stations. This content can then be eamlessly enjoyed inside their Porsche though the same PCM interface used to control other typical entertainment and navigation functions.
Aha™ offers the following content options:
- On-demand music services, entertainment, news, sports, internet radio, podcasts and audiobooks
- More than 30,000 stations, with new content added all the time
- Read aloud access to social network feeds, including Facebook™ and Twitter™
- Traffic and weather reports
- Personalized restaurant recommendations
- Google POI search
Production of Porsches equipped with the Online Services option has already begun. A Porsche Cayenne GTS equipped with Online Services and Aha will be available for demonstrations to media at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 8-11, 2013 at the Aha by Harman tent at the Central Plaza (# CP-13) at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
After looking on the Apple app store, it seems reviews are mixed regarding the app itself (vs. Porsche's integration with the technology). However, it's the app that drives the technology. After reading through the various reviews, I think we would take the risk and include this option. It's only $210 bucks and it sounds like it has great potential. Even if it doesn't work perfect yet, you can be assured that Porsche will force the issue with HARMAN if their are problems. Afterall, fixing issues with an app is as simple as updating it once a new one is available. If anyone of you has tried it yet let us know your thoughts.
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This from the Company that wouldn’t give us cup holders for years. The old engineers from Weissach must be turning in their grave’s.
Whatever happened to the pure driving experience, you know, the stark, functional interiors, the firm ride, the visceral sounds and the feel that let you know everything that was happening? Yes, today’s Porsches are faster, more comfortable and maybe even more reliable (although that is really tough), but their specialness is gone. M daily driver is a modern, comfortable, fast conveyance, but the happy dreams go with the cars that still required the driver to, well, drive.
Glenn,
I think times, people and desires change. What’s wrong with being faster, more comfortable and reliable? I love our ’73 911 and the way it drives. However, I like our ’97 993 in its own unique and special way and our 2009 Cayenne for its comfort, towing capabilities and luxury appointments.
Porsches original cars are incredible icons of the time but not necessarily what people want today (at least according to sales figures). Just look at the most recent Boxster Spyder. We don’t have exact numbers but anecdotal evidence, and talks with those that know, point toward the fact that more of them were ordered with radios and A/C than without. Even when Porsche provides an update version of its historical self, people still choose to modernize it.
Today, Porsche is an “aspirational brand” and I believe a lot of kids still dream about the day they can afford their first one. We were driving the all new Boxster recently and were stopped at a red light. A family sedan pulled up next to us with two young boys in the back seat. When I looked over at them I noticed they were staring at the Boxster, so I waved. The youngest of the two (maybe 10 years old) rolled down his window and said to me, “you know, I’m going to want one of those when I grow up!”
BTW, I’m not suggesting that you must be uncomfortable for the car to be fun (I have AC and radios in all my cars–well, the track car doesn’t really)–my CTTS is comfortable, fast, utilitarian and as SUVs go, fun. I just want a new car with some of the feeling that the older cars had in spades. Yes, the masses want the be coddled and pampered and blinged to the hilt (Porsche eschewed the masses’ notions during the Ferry days) so that the neighbor can envy you. My father was laughed at for buying that funny little car when I was a kid–I love(d) it. If I were king, Porsche would build the cars it does today (as a nod to speed, techno advancement and the market’s demands) and it would build a lighter, simpler car to keep its true heritage and brand identity going–the Boxster series is the closest we have and the Spyder was the closest of those.
Anyway, I digress. I still love Porsches, new and old.
Understood and well said.