All About Japan Autos

Daily Auto News

Ford announced last week that its SYNC-equipped vehicles would become rolling WiFi hotspots beginning in 2010. Now comes another revelation about the automaker’s popular multimedia system.Ford will become the first to offer iTunes tagging through iPods on SYNC-equipped vehicles.

Autoblog explains how it works: “[I]f you you have SYNC with HD radio, when you hear a song you like on an HD station you can press the ‘Tag’ button, and the system will note the track. When you plug your iPod in, it will suck up all of those tracks in a ‘Tagged’ playlist. You can have another listen through them and then buy the ones you want from iTunes.”

According to Ford’s press release, “up to 100 tags on SYNC can be stored until the iPod is connected.”The feature will be free on SYNC- and HD radio-equipped vehicles.

Ford is the first automaker to offer this capability, but the idea isn’t new. CNET points out that “its announcement comes nearly a year after consumer electronics company JVC began touting its KD-HDR50, an in-car stereo system that comes with a built-in HD Radio tuner that incorporates iTunes Tagging.”

Anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch probably knows they don’t need JVC or Ford’s system to tag songs they hear on the radio. A free app called Shazam accomplishes the same thing – of course, it’s a lot more distracting to use since you have to pick up your iPhone to open the app.

See how Ford models fare in our rankings. Plus, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.