My RL, TL and MDX all did everything the Ford does, and did it years ago. the only exception is maybe some of the different ways of saying things. But I could say "Temperature up" or "Max cold" or whatever as early as my '06 RL, as well as "72 degrees". I could also say "102.9 FM and it would go there, as well as "CD 3, cut 4" and play that. And we've always been able to say "Nearest department store (or gas station, or Asian restaurant, etc.)".

The Synch thing is nice, but as someone already said, it's just the American mfr's finally catching up after 5 years.  

The best thing about Ford is that they didn't take the sucker money - er, bailout.
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We're looking forward to finding out how this works in practice when we get a hands-on Sync demo tomorrow. But any skepticism about the voice-command aspect of the system is tempered by the fact that Microsoft provides the backbone for the voice-recognition platforms in Honda and Acura models, which we have found more than competent in our reviews.

               * More direct, first-level commands

          o “Call John Smith” dials the phone number associated with John in a connected phone’s phonebook directly – the user isn’t required to say “Phone” first
          o Direct commands related to destinations, like “Find a shoe store” or “Find a hotel,” place users in the navigation system menu where they will be walked through the POI search process
          o The command, “Add a phone,” will enter the phone pairing menu and walk users through the connection process – users don’t have to enter a phone submenu to initiate the pairing process
    * Quicker, easier entry and search
          o Navigation entries can be spoken as a single one-shot command; for example, “One American Road, Dearborn,” instead of requiring individual city, street and building number entries
          o Brand names are recognized by the navigation POI menu, allowing drivers to look for chain restaurants, shoe stores, department stores and more, as well as regional and local favorites
          o Direct tuning of radio stations by simply saying “AM 1270” or “FM 101.1,” or using SIRIUS station names or numbers such as “21” or “Alt-Nation”
    * Use of aliases
          o Within the climate menu, users can voice-request the same function using several different phrases, such as “Warmer,” “Increase temperature” or “Temperature up” – helping reduce the need for drivers to learn specific commands
          o When requesting a specific song from an MP3 player, users can now say “Play song [title]” in addition to saying “Play track [title]”
    * Personalized access
          o If an occupant’s USB-connected device, such as an MP3 player, has been named, users can simply say the device name, such as “John Smith’s iPod,” rather than the less personal “USB” command

   
    * Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
    * Secure Simple Pairing support
    * Calendar download from mobile phone
    * Technology preview of upcoming support for DLNA media device integration
    * Multi-application access to media index
    * iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 3.x support
    * Message Access Profile (MAP) 1.0