Logi ZeroTouch from Logitech is a smart car mount for Android smartphones
People are seemingly addicted to their smartphones nowadays. You know what I am talking about. Everywhere I go, I see people glued to their phones like zombies. You know what? I am guilty of this too. While I am texting and tweeting while walking or eating in a restaurant, I never do so while driving -- that is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, many people are guilty of texting and driving. It became so prevalent here on Long Island, that some rest stops on the expressway were re-purposed as "text stops", so people can pull over to interact with their tech.
If for whatever reason you need to interact with your phone while driving -- texting, making phone calls, playing music, etc. -- Logitech has a new solution so that it can be done more safely. The Logi ZeroTouch is a car mount for your Android phone, but it is more than that. It is "smart", meaning that your phone knows when it is in the mount, enabling a hands-free experience.
"Are you ready to hit the road to smarter driving? Today, we're excited to announce that we are paving a way for drivers to stay connected responsibly, with the Logi ZeroTouch Air Vent and Dashboard smart car mounts for Android smartphones. Together with Logitech’s voice-controlled app, ZeroTouch delivers a hands-free (and glance-free) in-car experience that lets you have the best features of a connected car, without buying a new car", says Logitech.
The company also says, "ZeroTouch is a combination of magnetic smartphone car phone mount and voice-command app. The ZeroTouch mount pairs to your Android phone through a Bluetooth connection and lets the ZeroTouch App know when it’s docked in the car. When your phone is docked on the mount, the app is activated and runs in the background, without impairing other smartphone functions or most in-car Bluetooth wireless equipment. The ZeroTouch App offers voice texting, music, navigation and calling functions. When the phone is removed from the mount, the app is automatically deactivated".
Logitech shares the following use cases.
- Text back and forth
- Place calls
- Share your location with friends and family in real-time with Glympse
- Stream music using Spotify and Deezer
- Navigate your way around through Google Maps, Navigon or Waze
You can see an example of the Logi ZeroTouch in action in the below video.
This is one of the rare occasions when hardware and software is an Android exclusive (4.4 and higher) -- iPhone is not supported at this time. While Logitech claims to be working on it, I am dubious that this will ever come to fruition. The nature of iOS makes it unlikely that similar functionality can be had.
If you are interested in purchasing the Logi ZeroTouch, you can get the air-vent mount for $59.99 in red, white, and black. The dashboard mount is $20 more at $79.99 and only comes in black. You can make your choice and purchase here.