One of the most important CarCast function is the synchronization with the USB pendrive: up to now, this operation was done using specific software with a platform-specific look&feel.

Now, after some hard work, we are proud to present new CarCastUSB 2.0: most modern, most efficient and identical on any platform: now, the synchronizations done in Windows, Mac or Linux (for truth, for Linux version there is some time to patience more), will be exactly the same and, wonderfully, with the same GUI in every O.S.

There is also one more surprise: now it’s possible to extract the audio track from the video found in Internet and imported in CarCast by CCWR: at synchronization, without any need for manual operation, audio tracks will be extracted and saved in the USB pendrive, ready to be listened when we will
drive our car.

These are most important upgrades we have release now for CarCastUSB software, and many other are in development, so . . . stay tuned!!!

Most of times we haven’t time: while we surf the web, we found very interesting content but, for some reason, we cannot spend on it the needed time. Then, when we have time, we cannot get that intereresting content any more and, for us, it will be lost forever.

Instead, with CarCast WebRecorder, everytime we find some interesting media content, with a simple click we’ll be able to save it in our CarCast.

At next syncronization, we’ll get that contents in our USB pendrive: from now on we will be able to use it whenever and wherever we want!

Where WebRecorder is coming from ? Why was it developed ?
Well WebRecorder in not just coming “out of the blue” by itself, it’s based over more than one year of work and experimentation on the Firegrab add-on for Firefox.
After one year of work on it we decided, in order to be able to exploit all the advantages of the original idea to rewrite it as WebRecorder, so that we can to provide a more complete environment on the web (CarCast) and on the actual computer platform (CarCastUSB).
Old Firegrab user will already notice the new ability detect more type of items, and the ability to convert the format of the files using CarCastUSB, look for more since we are working on a better detection on rtsp:// and mms:// streams, that are also to be recordable by the integration with CarCast/CarCastUSB.

CarCast project has new component: “CarCast Web Recorder” (CCWR).

CCWR is a powerful Firefox extension that records Internet multimedia contents: it detects and records what you listen/watch over the Internet. Then, with just one click, you will be able to save on your computer or to add to CarCast.

At the next synchronization the new content will be saved (and, if you like, converted in your favourite format) inside your USB key to be played in your car or by your other multimedia devices.

CarCastWebRecorder can be installed on Firefox from: http://labs.carcast.inrete.it/WebRecorder

In order to show what CarCast is really for, we have made this video with the hope to better explain it:

Watch it on YouTube with English captions

CarCast Labs allows you to preview and use the new functions that we are developing for the CarCast platform.
Since CarCast Labs is not a full production environment, there is a limit to the number of item you can manage: you can save on CarCast Labs and on you USB memory stick 50 files at most.
Anyway in order to test the new invitation function and at the same time to get more input from advanced user we have added in “MY AUDIO” page the action “Get more Items” which allows you to send an invitation to a friend or colleague, these invitations besides allowing your friends to register will give you 50 more items for each of them that will complete the registration.
If you don’t have already a friend using CarCast Labs nor an Invitation Code, and you are a blogger or interested for your work/profession/study to try and give us your feedback about CarCast and its new development, you can ask for a Invitation Code sending a mail to us at carcast@staff.inrete.it

While it’s true that in a USB memory stick you will not put all your music (it’ s not like a 160 GB Ipod), it’s also true that while you drive it’s better to have your full attention to the road and not to the browse of a long list of items searching for what you want to listen.

Because of this, the idea behind CarCast is to organize your content in a proper way while you are connected to the Internet in front of your computer, and listen with great ease while you drive.

Nowadays (July 2008) CarCast can be configured to work in three different ways:

• FLAT: everything goes inside the MyAudio folder of the USB memory stick
• FOLDER: you define the different folders inside MyAudio where you want to put the files, so that you can easily find them
• PLAYLIST: organize the music and audio in different playlists to play in your car

Go to SETTING and configure CarCast to work according to your personal taste and the working of your car radio.
For the next weeks we are planning to further improve the playlist management on CarCast with new functions as sorting and easy publishing.

You can find on the Internet a lot web 2.0 “stuff”: with rounded and gommose shapes they will offer you experiences up to a couple of years ago unimaginable. Yes you may even edit images or compile spreadsheets shared with other users, but all this technology still has a limit: the browser, without which these applications do nothing.
The synchronization system on the USB memory stick of CarCast wants to make a small revolution: the browser is only needed to set what we want to have in it, all the rest is done by the USB memory stick itself. And there’s more: synchronization becomes “nomadic”, you just need a(ny) computer connected to the network and nothing more, the USB memory stick thinks the rest.
The software will synchronize the contents of USB memory stick WHATEVER platform you will use: you can synchronize easily on Mac at home, but also on Windows at office and on your geek friend’s Linux in a few clicks.
And then on, traveling by car in the company of your preferred contents!

One of the things that often comes out in speeches is how much of our lifetime we spend on the car for work, to go shopping…
Hours and hours most often lost: how many times, immersed in traffic we wanted to hear this or that program on the radio, only that’s not available in the moment you drive, once we get home or to office, we no longer have the time or the will to listen and therefore we give it up as “lost”…

Now things are about to change!

Thanks to CarCast with any USB memory stick, an Internet connection and a USB in our car, we can always keep us updated and listen to our favourite programmes: just select online the content that we are concerned and, each time inserting our memory stick in any computer connected to the Internet, it will update with new content always ready to be heard while on the car between a traffic light and a jam!