If you stuck Bill Ford and Bill Gates in a room together and didn’t let them out until they came up with a neat automotive computer device, Sync would be the result.

Ford’s Sync is a new in-car communications and entertainment system that integrates every telephone and music player a family can muster on a road trip into one central system.

Better yet, it harnesses the power of voice activation, a car technology that’s existed since the late 1970s but without any decent applications – until now.

What’s best about Sync is that it’s available on 12 Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln models this year. Highly priced luxury cars wish they came equipped with the kind of in-car communications system that Fords now boast.

Sync hosts just about any digital media player, including the Apple iPod, the Microsoft Zune, and most USB storage gizmos. The driver and passengers alike can access their mobile phone and music player via voice commands. Even the names and numbers stored in the cell phone’s address book are automatically transferred to the vehicle.

Here’s what’s even cooler: For chatterboxes, there’s no need to hang up in the middle of a cell phone call as you enter your vehicle. Just touch the “telephone” button on the steering wheel, and Sync will instantly connect to a Bluetooth phone.

Sync also converts text messages from your phone to audio and reads them to you over the speakers. The system is smart enough to translate such commonly used text messaging expressions as “LOL” and :-).

We’re laughing out loud right now.