OK, so I've been thinking hard about what would really be the best music integration into my car. I have finally, after much research, singled one solitary idea to be the best- the iTouch\iPhone. Now I'm not talking about some mount job here, let me get straight to it.
Take an iTouch or iPhone apart. Connect a 7 inch touchscreen to it in place of the actual stock screen. Next, replace the hard drive with about 128GB Solid State Drive. I would install the drive in a dock so it would be removable. I would also disable coverflow somehow in the device.
Think about it...the iTouch or iPhone has the best iPod interface anywhere! No ipod integration kit, in-dash receiver, or whatever else you want to throw in there can come close. There is a keyboard and mouse included, it's all in the touchscreen. My guess, and it's an UN EDUCATED guess btw, is that when you connect a larger screen to the Touch, it will fill the screen. And hopefully you can just image the SSD to think it is an ipod. You put it in a dock so that you can pull it out quickly to take it inside to update it. Obviously, wireless updating would be great, but this is already a stretch, so I'm not looking for perfection.
There are a few issues to be worked out. First, coverflow. Nobody uses it, and certainly not the entire time. But when the ipod is in landscape, that is all you see. So we would have to disable it somehow. I found a method this afternoon for doing that, but I have not tested it. You could turn off the accellerometer, but you would then have a vertical ipod, which would be stupid and too small. Next, is the power issue. Connecting to the car's power supply and setting up when it would turn itself off, especially when you pulled the SSD. Also, power for the screen would have to be worked out separately. Which leads to the next issue of implementing the Home and Sleep buttons somewhere, which probably isn't a big deal. And getting audio to the speakers, of course. There are many other issues, but this should get us started.
Ambitious? Yes, obviously. But if done well, this could be the closest to perfection of music integration ever. Imagine just having a 7 inch screen in your dash that you could flick to find music!!! BTW, it would also do all the other stuff the iTouch\iPhone do. If you use the iPhone, you could even install the camera in the back and use it as a rear backing up camera thingy. If you have service, it could be your Nav system, you could surf the net! Whatever. That is all icing on the cake though. The real deal will be having that interface on a 7 inch screen in your dash.
So give me some ideas, bring up other issues.
Take an iTouch or iPhone apart. Connect a 7 inch touchscreen to it in place of the actual stock screen. Next, replace the hard drive with about 128GB Solid State Drive. I would install the drive in a dock so it would be removable. I would also disable coverflow somehow in the device.
Think about it...the iTouch or iPhone has the best iPod interface anywhere! No ipod integration kit, in-dash receiver, or whatever else you want to throw in there can come close. There is a keyboard and mouse included, it's all in the touchscreen. My guess, and it's an UN EDUCATED guess btw, is that when you connect a larger screen to the Touch, it will fill the screen. And hopefully you can just image the SSD to think it is an ipod. You put it in a dock so that you can pull it out quickly to take it inside to update it. Obviously, wireless updating would be great, but this is already a stretch, so I'm not looking for perfection.
There are a few issues to be worked out. First, coverflow. Nobody uses it, and certainly not the entire time. But when the ipod is in landscape, that is all you see. So we would have to disable it somehow. I found a method this afternoon for doing that, but I have not tested it. You could turn off the accellerometer, but you would then have a vertical ipod, which would be stupid and too small. Next, is the power issue. Connecting to the car's power supply and setting up when it would turn itself off, especially when you pulled the SSD. Also, power for the screen would have to be worked out separately. Which leads to the next issue of implementing the Home and Sleep buttons somewhere, which probably isn't a big deal. And getting audio to the speakers, of course. There are many other issues, but this should get us started.
Ambitious? Yes, obviously. But if done well, this could be the closest to perfection of music integration ever. Imagine just having a 7 inch screen in your dash that you could flick to find music!!! BTW, it would also do all the other stuff the iTouch\iPhone do. If you use the iPhone, you could even install the camera in the back and use it as a rear backing up camera thingy. If you have service, it could be your Nav system, you could surf the net! Whatever. That is all icing on the cake though. The real deal will be having that interface on a 7 inch screen in your dash.
So give me some ideas, bring up other issues.
