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Now I’m definitely not a car guy, but there’s one thing that’s kept my interest during car commercials lately.  The hands-free media technology, Ford Sync, is revolutionary and a big contributor to restoring Ford’s tarnished reputation.

We’ve seen how much American car manufacturers have been struggling lately – highlighted by GM’s huge free fall.  There were many different contributing factors including rising health care costs, a focus on big cars and SUV’s at a time when gas costs were the highest ever, a reliance on huge factories when demand was falling, etc.  But the biggest problem with American automakers was the lack of innovation.  Chrysler, Ford, and GM were profitable for so long that they became completely set in their ways.  They did the same things with the same workforce.  The only changes were slight manufacturing improvements, and minor design differences.  There were no game changing innovations, and that’s exactly what American automakers needed.

Enter Ford Sync.  This wireless media technology allows you to hook up your mobile phone and MP3 player to your car’s dashboard so that you can operate everything via voice command.  First of all, this helps make you a safer driver.  You no longer need to dial numbers on your cell phone or even hold it to your ear while driving.  Ford Sync also allows you to send hands-free text messages which is a huge benefit since texting while driving has been compared to drunk driving.  The other major benefit is that Ford Sync allows you to stay connected when you’re commuting.  With Twitter, Facebook, and social media becoming a major part of our lives it’s sometimes difficult for some people to go without checking their networks.  With the new Ford Sync API, many of these applications will be soon built into Ford Sync directly.

Like I said earlier, I’m not a car guy at all.  I’ve had my ’96 Corsica for over 6 years now and I don’t feel any real urgency to trade up.  I honestly have no idea whether Ford Sync would be practical for me because I haven’t looked into the kind of cars it works in or more importantly the price.  But I do know that when I start looking for a new car that a car with Ford Sync will be one of the first that I look at.  For me, I really don’t care much what my car looks like or how fast it goes.  All I need is for it to get me from point A to point B efficiently and safely.  I’d also like my commute to not feel so wasted.  Besides listening to audio programs, there’s not much I can do in the car without risking my safety.  Now that I have my Motorola Droid I’m definitely guilty of texting at times and even attempting to read emails.  I know that’s not very safe so I’d love to be able to do that hands-free.  The thing is, I know I’m not near the worst offender.  Connected, hands-free technology is a huge need for our generation.

Ford Sync alone is not enough to return Ford, and American automaking back to prominence.  The biggest positive is that Ford broke from its traditional path and caught onto a major trend.  This is only the start of more good things to come.

Tonight I made a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond.  It’s not a store that I visit frequently…in fact I can’t remember the last time I’ve been there.  My friend is getting married in a few days, and they registered wedding gifts there.  Now I didn’t have a bad experience there, but what should have taken me 10-15 minutes turned into a 40 minute affair.

I didn’t even mind that the cashier couldn’t figure out how to work the printer for the gift registry (she got all red and embarrassed when the tech guy finally came over after about 5 minutes of awkward silence and me asking random questions and showed her that all she needed to do was put paper into it.)  This was actually pretty entertaining.

What did bother me was after I was given the 4 page print-out of gifts, I was on my own to search through the mountains of kitchen utensils and bedroom accessories to find my friends’ favorite stuff.  The problem is the merchandise is stacked all the way up to the 25 foot ceilings, and there are 5 different brands for anything you could possibly think of.  To make a long story short, it took me forever to find the stainless steel spoons and multi-purpose cutting boards that I was looking for.

Couldn’t Bed Bath and Beyond mark location on their registry print outs just like a library or bookstore would do?  If I knew the spoons were in section “A6″ or simply “Utensils” it would be so much easier than going to the kitchen area of the store.  On my print-out I would automatically see where I need to go based on the gifts that I want.  It’s not like technology or organization is a problem for Bed Bath and Beyond…they have a massive (and very efficient) gift registry system that spans the entire country.  This type of system is needed more at Bed Bath and Beyond than most other stores.  During my chat with the printer-challenged cashier I asked her how much of their business is through gift registries.  She said it was about 75%.  That’s huge!  So that means 75% of the people are coming into the store trying to find specific items on a list and they’re not interested in browsing for things that they personally like best.  It’s not a big deal to browse when you’re looking for yourself, but when you’re looking to buy an item for your friend that they’ve already picked out you want to get right to it.

Maybe the confusion is by design.  Bed Bath and Beyond wants you to have to search for gifts so that hopefully you come across something you want yourself.  But honestly, I felt intimidated and overwhelmed searching through those aisles.  I kept thinking how I wasn’t looking forward to picking out items for my own wedding this summer (although I did find a few cool things that I definitely wouldn’t mind having!)

Will I go back to Bed Bath and Beyond?  Probably, because I’ll have more friends getting married, and I might need something once I get my own home.  Am I looking forward to going back?  No, because it’s really overwhelming.

Make it easy for your customers that are looking for something specific to find it quickly and get out.  It will make their experience so much more pleasant.  Are there any other compnaies that have this same problem?

To all Cell Phone Providers/Manufacturers:

I’d like to purchase a new phone.  I’ve had my LG camera/flip phone for about 3 years now, and I’ve put off purchasing anything new because there hasn’t been anything worth buying.  My current phone just works, and I’ve been thrilled with the $40-$45 per month that I pay.

But it’s time to get something new.  Everyone at work and quite of my friends have iPhones or Blackberrys.  I read blogs like Mashable and Techcrunch and hear about every single cool new augmented reality app and everything else you can do on the iPhone.  Now the Motorola Droid is coming out on Verizon and a slew of other Android based phones.

Here’s my situation:

• I’m currently on Verizon and am very happy with the level of service.  From all I’ve heard in the news and from friends Verizon has a much better network in my area than any other carrier
• The people I call the most are all on Verizon including my fiance, my family, and a mix of my closest friends
• I barely use any non Verizon to Verizon minutes so it makes sense to either stick with Verizon or have a plan that allows me to include select numbers that are free on any network

The features that are most important to me include:

• Applications – I want to be able to do things like track my running, update Twitter, find local restaurants, etc.
• Full web browsing
• Camera with video
• GPS with turn by turn directions
• Ability to store music and podcasts and hook them up by headphone jack so I can listen to them in my car
• Wi-Fi
• Decent browsing speed
• Multi-tasking of apps

I’m flexible on some of the features, but I’d really like to find something that includes them all.

Is there already a phone out there that meets these specifications?  If you can provide this you’ll have a happy customer for quite a long time.