Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Leaked 'iOS in the Car' Screenshots Show Possible Design Evolution

This looks great.

I recently installed the Parrot Asteroid Smart in my car. It is a double-DIN capacitive touchscreen running an old version of Android. It is essentially an older Android tablet bolted to the front of the tuner/amp electronics. It lets me run Android apps (I've got Google Maps, Google Nav, iGO GPS, TuneIn Radio, GasBuddy, you could even technically run Facebook, Netflix, and yes, Angry Birds). It has great Bluetooth connectivity (one of Parrot's strengths) too. It can use my phone as a hotspot or you could connect up an LTE dongle.

http://www.parrot.com/catalog/products/parrot-asteroid-smart/

Looks like many solutions out there (like AppRadio) want to use the car display as an interface to your phone, where the real smarts are. The Parrot is different because it can run its own apps rather than just give you an interface to apps running on your phone. It is extremely customizable. My only wish is that they used a more recent SoC (or issue an updated model with newer hardware).

91946d1378701320-parrot-asteroid-smart-android-head-unit-install-parrot3.jpg

(real photo from my car, forgive the poor iPhone photography)

Lots of people have home-brewed their own solutions by essentially mounting an iPad or Android tablet on their dash.
 
Last edited:
Odd resolution for screenshots (800x400) but I would like to think this heralds the end of the Home button. That's probably wishful thinking, though - it's generally better not to have to push your iPhone's Home button while it's mounted, lest it fall/shift. Plus, with TouchID and all... Doubt we'll see Home disappear any time soon.
 
needfx said:
updating the car's iOS sounds like fun
Click to expand...

A friend has a Ford with their MS based system in it… the car system actually crashes about every 20 mins when I was in it. Driving along and blue screen of death… Last I heard Ford wasn't able to fix it and it seems to be a widespread problem. A good example where an over the air update is needed!
 
Having mobile phone functionality in a car sounds like a bad idea to me. We need to be focusing on the road.
 
You know I hate to say this, I'm usually the first one to defend Apple. However this weekend I took a road trip from the bay area to tahoe and finally to reno. There were sooooo many damn errors with maps. Most the time it was wrong one way or another. There were even missing freeways...
 
My Honda is 11 years old now and I still haven't broken 100k miles. Still I dream of the day I am ready to buy a new car with all the iToys integrated in it. But frankly I don't like the center console approach because the driver is always looking to the one side instead of straight ahead. As the icar is developed I hope this evolves with heads-up displays and on the steering wheel displays. That along with the iwatch to detect if you are falling asleep, and the speed sensors connected to the imap to determine if you are going to fast.

There really is a lot that can be done to be disruptive in the car industry as well, but apple please buy Tesla before Google does. we do not need another nest
 
Will this be tethered to our iPhones?
Well we now need a SIM card for our cars?
 
Apple and Tesla need to unite in some way. That would be my biggest complaint of the Tesla Model S and X, UI sucks.
 
Wow! Those cyan on top of dark gray is Android! How low has Apple Design team come, too sad.
 
musio said:
hope we see aftermarket stereos with screens so you can plug your phone in and drive
Click to expand...

I was seriously hoping to see some prototypes at CES this year. So disappointed with Alpine and Pioneer's offerings. Pathetic, I think iOS in the Car and similar things Android is doing is the way of the future for aftermarket.

My App Radio 2 works, but no where near my expectations. Seriously just want my iPhone functionality (modified for dash) on my 7" screen. Let's get to it Alpine. Pioneer at least has a somewhat modern interface whereas Alpine loves the 90's.
 
Cuban Missles said:
My Honda is 11 years old now and I still haven't broken 100k miles. Still I dream of the day I am ready to buy a new car with all the iToys integrated in it. But frankly I don't like the center console approach because the driver is always looking to the one side instead of straight ahead. As the icar is developed I hope this evolves with heads-up displays and on the steering wheel displays. That along with the iwatch to detect if you are falling asleep, and the speed sensors connected to the imap to determine if you are going to fast.

There really is a lot that can be done to be disruptive in the car industry as well, but apple please buy Tesla before Google does. we do not need another nest
Click to expand...

Agreed... a HUD would be cool. Garmin does market one that is compatible with their nav software running on your iPhone (Garmin HUD) but it still seems a little hokey.

As for your car, you could probably upgrade it if you wanted fancy toys and driver aids. As long as you've got a standard double-DIN mount you could install all kinds of neat units, like AppRadio 3 or the Smart that I'm running. You could hook up a backup camera, an LCD monitor output for the kids, etc.

I have thought about using custom microcontrollers to do sensing, for example parking radar displays or blind spot monitoring.
 
I'm hoping that iOS in the Car has an internal mode, for those without fancy touch screens in their cars but have a mount, turning the phone into something more easily operated while driving.
 
c0LdFire said:
Please don't tell me you're actually enough of a sheep to buy an entire car for this as opposed to just buying a new stereo...
Click to expand...

Well considering my car has a built in nav screen and aftermarket stereos generally suck (and are a PITA to retrofit) I'd consider a new car.

Would love to use Waze 100% integrated into the nice 8" LCD in my car. Would love to have the integration with streaming media apps, other apps. So yeah I would consider a new car if I could get 100% integration into the infotainment system. It makes sense - my phone has awesome capabilities that can be infinitely upgraded. Make a good interface from that into the car and I'm sold.
 
jonnysods said:
This kind of makes me wish that iPhones had software home buttons like the Nexus 5, 7 and 10 does.
Click to expand...

The car is actually one place where you might really want hardware buttons. It's easier to reach over and hit a button by feel without taking your eyes off the road.

I would want a hardware home button (that would bring up Siri if you held it down), a separate power/standby button to quickly blank/mute everything, and either separate volume +/- buttons or a volume dial. My Parrot Asteroid uses an on-screen volume slider, and it's actually not very practical to reach over and tap-tap-tap or swipe around the screen while you're driving. 99% of the time I use the hardware volume buttons mounted on my steering wheel instead.
 
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
That's what the AppRadio 3 allows. Turns my iPhone 5 into a 7" touchscreen in my dash.

Image
Click to expand...

Is that a real screenshot? As far as I understood the AppRadio3 couldn't exactly mirror you iPhone's screen as the picture you posted.
Would you mind to explain?
This was one of the reasons (the lack of it) that I ditched the purchase of the AppRadio3 in favor of patience waiting for iOS in the Car news.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back