Microsoft/Barclay Road to Offer In-Car Music Downloads and/or Streams

Details are still sketchy, but Barclay Road announced that they have created some sort of "portable music system" that will "allow hands-free mobile phone communication andother wireless information transfers in the car, including email andmusic downloads."

A statement two paragraphs later in the press release from a Barclay Road spokesperson painted a different picture, however, describing the system as not relying on music downloads, so much as on streaming from a user's own computer:

"Our audioprojection system should be able to send a stream of music content from acomputer and direct it to any audio producing equipment including but notlimited to car stereos, home stereos, handheld devices, computers, laptopsand cell phones."

The technology doesn't sound terribly new (think Orb), but Barclay Road has some powerful allies. Its Sync product will run Microsoft technology, and both General Motors and Ford have agreed to build the technology into their cars.