Inrete’s first Automatic smart USB adapter was one of the first attempts to tie cloud services for music and podcasts directly to your vehicle through a dedicated device, eliminating the need to tether phones and mess with them while your hands should be at 10 and 2.
“Automatica is for the car what the DVR is for a TV: a smart device that extends the usefulness of your expensive gear to the modern Internet age” states Giorgio Bernardi, President of INRETE. “With Automatica your car becomes a real Internet connected car now, without having to replace it.”
When we first went hands on with it, we came away impressed with the concept, but felt there were certainly some things that could use some ironing out to improve the experience in real life. Inrete hopes their Automatica Mk2 will address some of those wrinkles and finally bring a little cloud convenience to your car’s built in stereo.
The Mk2 adds a better body, high gain antenna, content adaptation, and mobile management among other new features. It also supposedly adds a last played folder to ease resuming playback in long form content, which was one of our big complaints the first time around.
We’ve got a review unit in route from our friends at Inrete, and can’t wait to put their 2nd generation Automatica to the test. Stay tuned!
