I have started this thread to explore the requirements people have for an in car computer system running on the OS X platform.
Lets cover some of the basic requirements and see if its practicle
..as a windows engineer that runs apple'sunix at home and enjoy the lower administration overhead (no antivirus software needed, more security thru the UNiX OS design and the ease of use in taking well known "Core" blocks and making them work for C O R V E T T E hopefully we can work out the project's viability.
1. with OS X comes native support for voice commands
2. bluetooth and wifi are std
3. a BluetoothGPS unit using
using route66 software or maybe this Other Bluetooth GPS both of which would connect wirelessly -
4. itunes on top with the 80Gb HDD for music (plenty of skins for those that like the winamp level of customization)
5. iphoto which can show/store both pictures and camera clips -and when within wifi-hotspot range, upload event photos to a users .mac website literally within about 15 mouse clicks and the time the uplink takes (there is a simple 'home page' button once you have highlighted the photo's you liked from the 'last roll' -pick a frame and your done
6. imovie can edit clips now or back home
7. idvd can create a dvd in your corvette from footage, pictures to cap off a great day with mates (stunning, trust me, every non geek that sees the output from these four apps with only creative decisions needing to be made and they go off and buy one .... thats why i like the platform, it removes the technical hoops that mere mortals , not so much 'dont have the aptitute for' but simply dont have the time or patience to learn
these systems allow you to get creative without the technical distractions of setting them up
ive seen plenty of folks by a dell for this, and see it a year later gathering dust..
8. web surfing - thats taken care of by firefox precursor Safari ...and Microsoft's IE
9. for fast video survelliance you have iSight a firewire cam with some Nifty features - fast, high frame rates that also allows some software to tweak it turning it into a night-vision cam with a click! -- plus its auto-focus!
10. all these apps like itunes, iphoto, ichat all Self Discover new people on the wifi network - even printers self-configure!
thats right, so you can "your music catalog to the Corvette next to ya" or share your "photo album's" pic up new chat available members without the need to 'hey whats your instant-messenger name'
eg: - i plugged a canon printer for the first time into my airport express (a palm sized brick that is a wifi network, a usb port for print sharing, and a music-output jack to stream itunes tracks to a hi-fi)
i plugged the printer to it, not my laptop, into the airport express and back on my laptop went to print something , selected file / print inside microsoft word (yeah they have Office2004 thats completely compatable...) ...word was open before i ever connected the printer to the wifi box... i chose Print.. and in the dialog that shows 'no printer' has a 'Rendesvous' selectable button, clicking it and waiting a moment and Presto my Canon appears (no drivers, no software, just Print!)
it is poetry in motion...
11. as always, Apple leads the pack (they were first to place usb, first to place firewire, first to place bluetooth, first to place wifi) and next they are releasing an aol-instant messenger compatable chat client that allows for voice calls (upto 10 simultanious voice members) or 3 simultanious video calls think about that for a minute
the car next to you has ichat and their isight web-cam running, so does the guy on your right - being responsible racers you turn on record, and tape your drag action from each cars point of view, live and to disk for review later at the a&w when you celebrate with that burger and root beer
-that is unless one of you had the Callaway Corvette and was over 100 feet out in front for the duration!
12 . what about remote control - SallingClicker's 2 minute download and 1 minute install allows your bluetooth cellular phone to astound you further
-- it can issue itunes commands for music, play , ffwd, prev track - as well as display the current song on your cell fone
-- it can stop start dvd's that are playing on the OS
-- it can even step through slides in powerpoint
-- best of all, it can work as a proximity sensor - walk out of range, your music stops, come home, your music plays where it left off -- and because the whole OS is scriptable with AppleScript you can setup chained events like say 'on entering bluetooth range tell Mail to check mail, tell Safari to open weather page, movie page, corvette forum page, etc etc'
caveat: the software works great with Sony Ericsson's : the T610 is a good unit and are on ebay for 50 bucks or so at the moment... that same fone, with bluetooth link established could share its 'gprs' internet connection incase you were out of range to a hotspot
13. how would you control the unit?
there is a wacom tablet and wand that graphic designers use to draw better than pencil directly into the computer, maybe a portion of that tablet could sit in a square on the center console with the pen...
I have also seen some cool 'rubber keyboards' that are usb-based (or bluetooth?) that are like a beer-mat, and can roll up or 'unroll' into a keyboard -bring it out when you need it?
14. where would you mount the brains - its a macMini its the size of 5 cd-jewel cases, so the glove-box ought to serve - or paint it black and mount it under the glove box facing the passenger, up in the corner towards the depths of the back of the dash, and out of the way of the passengers knees,but still facing out so that ejecting the slot load dvd that has just been burned for a mate is easy and presto he has a copy of him getting thrashed...from three angles, with slide show stills and a music video presentation onto a dvd that any dvd player will play!
15. maybe its worth making the mount for it, like a 'dock' this way the unit can follow you inside as well - good for security and good for work flow, keep the creativity and movie editing going at your desk with your big screen (there are no drivers needed to run other DVI or VGA screens you just plug it, watch it auto reset its size and off you go)
16. the screen - i dunno about the dash area, 7 inch touch lcd would certainly fit that double din area after moving the a/c down like scott fx has done in his thread... and done a beautiful job i might add... but do people really want that to be the focal point in a C O R V E T T E ?
what about a visor mounted LCD display - probably the passengers one , it could flip down to reveal it, and flip up to conceal it - plus it could be swung out wide to the passenger window facing the driver if there wasnt a passenger with him and that way he could view the sat navigation stuff readily (or maybe leaving it in place just folded down on the passenger side would do the trick ... or maybe doing it on the driver visor .... what do you think?
16a. or perhaps like a tv-dinner tray that slides out from the couch and pops into a stand, a 12 or 15 inch screen could be nestled along the passenger foot-well against the tunnel - slide it up and out to allow it to occupy a commanding viewable space floating in front of the dash etc -(is this how the LEO's cruizers have their pc's?)
either of these keep the C O R V E T T E, a ... C O R V E T T E when not moonlighting as a moving video editing/satellite navigation station/word processor/web & email client - allow you to transport the unit away from the car, ...afterall , who wants to worry about their corvette getting nicked, and or their super-in-car-computer getting ripped out?
What I would like from you guys, is your suggestions on what ways the screen/ keyboard combo could work, and other software that you would think is beneficial....
the costs so far:
macMini - $650 (add 1Gb ram (90 bucks third pty) plus the dvd burner option
7inch lcd - $450
powerMate - $45
itunes/idvd/imovie/iphoto - Free with computer
isight - $150
converter to power the pc - $ ??
wacom tablet and pen - 4 x 5 inch pad: $100
salling software for bluetooth fones - $20
...thats kinda it
if your gonna spend 1000 or so bucks, you might was well get a full blown studio that can follow you back inside instead of a sat.Nav screen and little else
first off the keyboard:
it can be found at ebgames and it's a usb device. (that's not my pasty hand )
Problems with the visor screen. I think having a bright screen above your head may be distracting and if you are going on a long trip and your passenger wants to watch a dvd (illegal!) Then it'll be very hard for to conceal this...even if you aren't watching the monitor you'll get a fat fine. I definatly like having the screen as the center piece in the cockpit (with factory nav it's more 'oem' rather then 'bling' now adays to have a screen in the dash) I think it draws less attention then a flip out display. There are other options you can explore...i just cant think of any right now. Give me a minute though....my mind runs rampid some time. The good thing about having the screen in a central location is that you dont want to have to reach far out of your way to operate your computer (even if you have the powermate)... ok i'm back..havent finished typing this reply yet and i though of mounting idea...it's tricky but can be done; i actually saw this on a supra's passenger side door, you can have the monitor swing out from the door panel..
It looks 100% better in person
The camera...personally i would go with a non computer peripheral. Go with a stand alone wide angle spy cam...you get true 29.997 frame rate and they are a lot cheaper for similar quality. also go with black and white for best nighttime visability.
the powermate is great as long as you hack it up. the unit is massive for the car and that would be the center of attention of your car. I bet it wouldnt be that hard to wire the powermate into an audi a6 advant's interface:
the converter...i dont know a lot about macs...havent used them since editing films in college, but i woud think that there will be some dc-dc power supplies with shutdown/startup controller. this is the best way to go, they don't reboot on cranking the engine and they are more efficient then the dc-ac power inverters.
nomatter where you mount the mini, position it so that the spinning disks are perpendicular to the road so they wont crash against each other while hiting a bump.
I think the mac mini would be great in the car, you could have a great project on your hands
feel free to email or pm me if you want help brainstorming some more
Corvette Store
MacMini in the Corvette - warning: loong post
