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Home of NAIAS to be updated

The spiritual home of the NAIAS is set to be rejuvenated. The Cobo center in Detroit, home of the North American International Auto Show for over 24 years, is part of a $221 million project that will see it extended and renovated extensively. The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority have announced that many of the improvements to the Cobo center will be ready for the 2012 NAIAS, although the project is unlikely to be finished until 2014.

Pioneer App Radio officially unveiled

Pioneer has officially unveiled the App Radio that AutoWeek told you about earlier this month. Now that it's willing to talk, Pioneer claims that the radio and audio system is "the first in-vehicle product designed to utilize the processing power, storage capacity, network connectivity and apps of the iPhone and iPod Touch as the primary source for its information and entertainment capabilities." That does sound a lot like what Mini Connected and, in a more platform-agnostic sense, Ford Sync are doing. Pioneer said it couldn't speak to the similarity of those systems, but Ted Cardenas, director of marketing for Pioneer's car-electronics division, briefed us on installation of the device and what Pioneer is doing to minimize driver distraction.

Ford racks up $2.6 billion profit

Ford Motor Co. reported a second-quarter profit of $2.6 billion as U.S. sales rose 20 percent and the automaker continued to gain market share.