MP3Car.com - Blogs - optikalefx

Mp3Car's Sean Clark on "Why Tablets?"

optikalefx — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:56:26 GMT

Our resident nerd and car computer enthusiast, Sean Clark, won't shut up about tablets. Not a day goes by that he isn't half-rambling on about the potential benefits of integrating a tablet into his already tech-laden vehicle. So, if for no other reason than to give Sean the opportunity to get it out of his system, I thought I'd ask him a few pointed questions about why this tablet trend is going to be so... well, trendy. Here is Sean Clark, in his own words (and even and interjection by Rob Wray).

CAP: Why tablets? What benefits do they offer someone that are above and beyond a car computer?

SC: Off the top of my head, I can think of three big reasons:
a) The screen. You can spend over $1000 and still not get a screen that's as dreamy to touch as a tablet. All of these tablets have glass, capacitive (more on this below), multi-touch displays that have a coating to keep your finger happy. All of these CarPC displays are resistive (more on this below), plasticy, and single touch. There are SOME that are multi touch, and some that are capacitive, but it's inferior technology that cannot compare.
b) The Price. Tablets can cost as little as $600 for a fully functional computer plus a multi-touch screen. That same package is gonna run you close to $800 and you will still have to run a ton of wires.
c) The Software. Software on CarPC's is always growing and always developing. But the market for car PC developers is maybe .6% the size of the Android market, and an even lower percentage of the iOS developer market. You just get access to way more apps and way more customization to the user's liking when you go android.

Rob - I'm not so sure that stat is accurate - and the car PC developers may disagree.

Sean - Well, it's true that there are many more apps, but they may not necessarily be car centric. Rob - I can agree with that. There is just no "front-end" glue holding it all together. Very similar to the Car PC market in the late 90s. A bunch of random software with no glue.

CAP: What are the differences in the monitor and touch screen? Why would this be particularly helpful in a vehicle?

SC: A normal car PC touchscreen is between 7 and 10 inches, is 'resistive,' and single touch. Resistive by definition means that you have to contact 2 layers together at a point to create the touch input. That means you will, on some level, feel the 2 layers. That gives the screen a softer feeling. Which is actually bad. Softer screen means more friction, which means more heat your finger generates when trying to swipe and gesture. Which brings me to my second point: gestures. CarPCs aren't really geared towards gestures. Because the screen is so "one touch," the software and displays are designed to treat "your finger as a mouse." Tablets have been designed to treat your finger(s) as a NEW input device. This means that you're expected to swipe and make gestures with one or more fingers.

Let's take scrolling for example. On a car PC, you would tap down and up arrow buttons. But on a tablet, you just swipe up and down, a much more natural interface for the user to use, and the displays make this all possible for tablets.

CAP: How would you integrate one into a car? What size would you need?

SC: The biggest challenge one faces when installing a tablet into the car is the fact that they don't conform to any auto standards. A lot of cars generally have a double DIN-sized opening (or close to that) which a 7 inch display can be fabricated into. That is to say - the 7 inch screen can be taken apart, and is now SMALLER than the double din size, which means it can be built in. A 7 inch tablet cannot be taken apart. So the bezel on the tablet will make the tablet BIGGER than the double DIN-sized opening. Therefore you will need CUSTOM installation for a tablet. So if you can't blow fiberglass or weld metal, your looking at $1200-$1,500 for a custom installation.

CAP: Where are we headed? Beyond the early adoption phase, what features do you see a tablet performing that might be exciting horizon concepts?

SC: I see room for what we call a "black box". There is still a void with tablets that car PC's still fill: connecting to hardware. Because of all the USB and serial hardware that has been created over the years, you can control your lights, engine features, remote functions, tuning and more with your car PC. None of that exists for tablets (except for the engine diagnostics). A black box would fill this void; it would interface with all of this hardware, and then translate its data to the tablet. Once this black box is made, the tablet will be able to do everything the car PC can do, including all the bells, whistles and customizations car PC hackers love.

Mimics Delight - Jailbreakme.com Released

optikalefx — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:17:18 GMT

Yesterday marks the release of the 3rd 'userland' jailbreak for the iOS family. A userland jailbreak allows an iOS user to install Cydia (the hack app store) by simply visiting jailbreakme.com. So all those awaiting your pre-sale Mimics can get ready for your install by just visiting that link and downloading the "Mimics Driver" app from Cydia.

This jailbreak is good for anyone using an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or iPad 2 running the latest 4.3.3 firmware. If you aren't on 4.3.3, feel free to update as normal in iTunes, even if you are already jailbroken and just wish to update. Note: you will want to back up your Cydia apps if you are upgrading from a previously jailbroken device. As always, backup your phone with iTunes before jailbreaking.

Happy Jailbreaking.

Introducing Mimics. The ultimate iPhone-in-your-car experience

optikalefx — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:53:03 GMT

Mimics Dash allows you to operate an iPhone via a touch screen monitor installed in your vehicle. After installing Mimics Dash, simply plug your iPhone in each time you enter your vehicle and enjoy the convenience of all of your iPhone's apps, music, phone, and navigation features on a safe, easy-to-use touch screen monitor. By bridging the gap between your iPhone and your car, Mimics becomes the ultimate in-car entertainment system.

Here's how it works: The touch interface is interpreted by the module and transmitted via Bluetooth to your iPhone. Genius! Now you can control your phone from the monitor! The Module draws power from the Lilliput monitor, and video is supplied to the monitor via the Apple HDMI dock connector (optional). Audio is supplied to your aftermarket amplifier* via the 3.5mm jack on your iPhone (optional). Choose the Mimics Cable Option and we'll give you all of the necessary cables needed to get video and audio out from your phone and be able to charge while driving.

Made specifically for your vehicle, Mimics Dash is engineered to be an easy install (or have your local car stereo shop do it for you):
1. Remove your existing dash panel
2. Install the Mimics Dash
3. Install an aftermarket amplifier* of your choice
4. Connect the Mimics Cable kit and you're ready to go

Pre Order NOW
Everything you wanted to know about Mimics
Talk about Mimics in our forums

Comments

Looking for a Car-PC? Maybe you already own one...

optikalefx — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:28:12 GMT

Attached Images

Who said anything about no hardware?

optikalefx — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:52:01 GMT

Attached Images

Imagine car computing. Without the computer.

optikalefx — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:05:12 GMT

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Mind, exploding. This week's new products are that hawt.

optikalefx — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

[table][tr] [td]Our new [URLT="http://store.mp3car.com/picoLCD_256x64_graphic_auxiliary_display_with_Vist_p/com-136.htm"]PicoLCD[/URLT] is the ideal...

Ford CTO Paul Mascarenas on vehicle technology and safety

optikalefx — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:30:00 GMT

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For a sneak peak at the future of vehicle technology, check out Rob Wray�s interview with Ford CTO Paul Mascarenas. In it, Mascarenas explains how Ford plans to deal with several of the increasingly complicated issues facing the industry. How will Ford promote the technological gains stemming from vehicle data collection without sacrificing consumer privacy? Will there be an opt-in feature for drivers, similar to the ones we see in the computer software world? Mascarenas also discusses how Ford intends to keep pace with the consumer electronic world as it relates to the driving experience. His open architecture strategy minimizes the amount of hardware installed in the vehicle, ensuring that consumer electronic development will still be able to interface with an aging car or truck. He even discusses already-developed functionality that allows drivers to control non-critical vehicle function with mobile devices.

Mascarenas also lays out his multi-pronged strategy to tackle the ever-contentious driver distraction issue, in which he argues that Ford has often pre-empted state-based regulation with voluntary or industry-wide standards. While Mascarenas believes that further federal regulation is and will be required, he emphasizes that Ford continues to minimize the amount of time required to make adjustments while driving, and voluntarily pushes for stricter company- and industry-wide driver distraction standards in order to provide the safest driving experience possible.

Finally, Mascarenas discusses the relationship between the commercial and consumer vehicle technology. Because he views Ford vehicles as tools for business owners, he believes that increased functionality will ultimately increase business productivity. On the other hand, the commercial vehicle world gives Ford the opportunity to develop new technology that will eventually end up in the consumer sector.

A quick flying lesson with the AR Drone, by Parrot

optikalefx — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:53:00 GMT

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After goofing around with it at the office last week, we decided to post a quick review of the AR Drone by Parrot. Since shooting the video, I also managed to fracture the Drone's cross-bar, which costs a reasonable $25 to replace. So, while it's not the cheapest or most durable gadget, it is a lot of fun, and definitely less expensive than some other flying hobbies--like building your own model plane from scratch (and then crashing it in the office).

Nokia QML Rapid Development - CES 2011

optikalefx — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:02:00 GMT

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Sean Clark from mp3Car speaks with Justin from ICS, who has made a demo piece of software to highlight how easy it can be to develop QT apps. These apps are built using QML, which is specifically designed for creating user interfaces.

Some of the really attractive features of this new QML is that it has great animated transitions and state changes built into the language. It can even give you that "flick to scroll - bounce at the end" feeling.

Now, photoshop can be utilized to design these interfaces. This creates a method for rapid development where the designer creates the interface in photoshop and the programmer can then work with each photoshop object as a QML item.

check out http://qt.nokia.com and http://www.ics.com/ for more details

Open Source Vehicle by Local Motors - SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:28:00 GMT

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Sean Clark from mp3Car talks with Ariel from Local Motors, a company that is pioneering open source and community driven vehicles.

Building these vehicles is a 4 step process. First is creation; where Local Motors will take input from the community for all of the parts that will combine to create the car. Next is the development stage where the vehicle is put through theoretical testing and different scenarios to make sure its safe. 3rd is build. Users can actually go to the micro factory in Arizona and help build their car in 6 days.

Finally users can mod the vehicle with and "app store" of car parts. These parts are really easy to create because all the data for the car is open source.

Blind Spot Detection System by AutoI - SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:45:00 GMT

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Sean Clark from mp3Car takes a look at the Blind Spot Detection System by AutoI. This system comes in 3 parts. The main unit, the sensors, and then alert bar. There are also optional mirror lights that can be attached to the system.

What makes this product unique is that the sensors use ultrasound to detect cars between 15 to 20 meters away.

Audi TTS Drives itself at SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:37:00 GMT

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On-Air Personality: Sean Clark Videographer: Mike Palotas

Audi has come up with a really neat concept car that autonomously drives itself on intermediate road courses. The car has 5 antennas, 1 of which is for radio remote control, 2 for ground based GPS and 2 for satellite GPS. The ground GPS helps the car stay within mere centimeters of its path.

Currently the car uses a pre-programmed path, and it needs the ground based GPS system. But they are working on a way so that the path isn't needed and it can make its own intelligent choices.

There are 2 computers driving this thing, both core 2 duo machines. One is handling sensor data and the other is controlling the car.

2011 Ford 'Digital' Fiesta Overview - SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:00:00 GMT

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Stephen Jenesen from mp3Car talks with Theresa from L&G. They have modified a 2011 Ford Fiesta to create what they call the "digial fiesta". It is an incorporation of a glossy red, circuit board-esque paint job along with some special hardware.

This hardware happens to be an iPad, built right into the dash. In order to make room for this they have moved the HVAC up onto the ceiling.

The goal of this car is bring the social media aspect of life into the vehicle.

Ford Fiesta - iPad in dash - SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 14:41:00 GMT

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On-Air Personality: Sean Clark Videographer: Mike Palotas

Sean Clark, from mp3Car, takes a look at the 2011 Ford Fiesta at the Ford booth at SEMA 2010 before the show starts. We find an iPad embedded in the dash, relocated HVAC controls, and relocated USB, AUX, and DC output jacks.

This Fiesta also sports custom paint, tires, and some beautiful fabrication work, housing 12 inch subs and dual amplifiers.

Mp3Car caught up with the car designer later to talk about some of the motivation behind the project and everything that went into the car. Stay tuned for more.

Directus - Convert After Market Radio to CarPC Box - SEMA 2010

optikalefx — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 05:26:00 GMT

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Sean Clark from mp3Car gets a preview of the Directus telematics box. This box will overtake your after-market OR OEM radio's nav port and give it a new UI that will extend your basic Nav's functionality.

By using this box you actually get to read your SD card, browse the file system, play all kinds of files, see your backup camera, use radar, USB and tons of other accessories that your normal radio would not know how to work with.

We will have a series of videos tomorrow about Directus and their the products as we are shooting video at SEMA 2010 today.

AFKFest 2010 BugByte - The past, present and future of car computing

optikalefx — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:03:00 GMT

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Tom Berry, AKA BugByte on the forums, talks to AFKFest about the past, present and future of car computing. As one of the first car pc enthusiasts in the world, Tom explains the early uses for car pcs and how car pcs have evolved over time.

He presents his thoughts on the current mobile data phase and the impact the car pc may have on the world in the future. Lots of good stuff in one brief segment.

The future of UI

optikalefx — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:05:00 GMT

[TEDUNDER][/TEDUNDER]

I can begin to imagine a world where we manipulate computers instead of interact with them. This idea of being able to navigate the computer world, and have the computer understand space is not new, but its not accomplished.

If it really is possible to get this type of system in a laptop say, without gloves, (even with gloves is fine with me) then we could see the next serious change in computer-human interfaces.

Imagine what it would be like to create a 3d model of say a car, and be able to sculpt the model as if it was real. Even have some kind of actual feedback so you still get the feeling. But then you ask, why is going so digital so important. Well, sure a clay model is great, but having the history, having the undo ability, having multiple collaborators around the world, all these are possible in a digital world.

MeeGo Auto App Concept Contest using Qt - Win a Free Beagle Board xM

optikalefx — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:58:00 GMT

Enter Contest Here

Product Info on the BeagleBoard-xM here.

Time frame: 2 weeks (October 20th � November 3rd)  

Present an exciting auto app concept that utilizes the Beagle Board xM, MeeGo, & or Qt framework for bonus points.* The panel of judges from Nokia, Beagle Board creators and mp3Car will select the most innovative auto app concept as the winner.  

Rules: 
- a concept will be complete if it states what the app does, how it will do it, and how it leverages MeeGo and Qt.
- Once the winner is selected, it is expected that the app be developed within 1-2 months.
- please note that this can be an existing app with significant improvements and changes;
 - the app does not need to be touch based, if you can integrate it with other car controls such as steering wheel or control knobs like what BMW uses; 
- bonus points to using QML, Nokia's new declarative UI language which is wrapped up into Qt Quick and is now in the recently released 4.7 release (Information found here on QT Quick, http://qt.nokia.com/qt-in-use/qt-in-automotive and a video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlbh6...layer_embedded

Judges:
 Alistair Adams - Nokia
 Jason Kridner - Beagle Board 
Tom Berry (aka Bugbyte) - mp3Car Forums

  The winner will:
1.Receive a free Beagle Board
2.Be featured on the mp3Car homepage showcasing the concept and Auto App Mart, once the app is developed and uploaded to Auto App Mart.

For more information on the Beagle Board:

Beagle Board Site
BeagleBoard Gives New Power to Open Source Gadgets

Shotgun! Front End demo in an 2005 Acura TL - mp3Car's 2010 AFK Fest

optikalefx — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 21:21:00 GMT

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Colin, co creator of Shotgun! front end gives a demo of the software. Shotgun! was created with the beginner carpc hobbyist in mind. It is designed to be intuitive to use as well as easily to install and configure. Features include navigation, XM radio, internet, etc.

You can download it today on the Auto App Mart.

AFKfest 2010 - Justchat_1 - This year in Car Entertainment Systems

optikalefx — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 16:19:00 GMT

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Justin Domnitz explains what is new this year in car computing. He explains what Ford Sync and My Ford Touch are doing for the car computer market. He doesn't just talk bout ford though, he goes into other companies and how the major OEMs are starting to put car computers in their main stream vehicles.

Justin also explains all the new front ends that are out in development and what they have to offer to the community.

Introducing Auto App Mart

optikalefx — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:23:00 GMT

Auto App Mart is the online marketplace for automotive applications. Created by mp3Car, with the support of the largest automotive application developer community in the world, Auto App Mart helps drivers to be more productive and better entertained while on the road.
Tour the Auto App Mart
Check out our screencast and learn how to browse and download Auto Apps, manage your account and receive updates. Auto Apps available range from Google Traffic to engine maintenance management, and almost all are free to download. Get started adding new Auto Apps to your car computer today.
Learn How to Upload and Manage Auto Apps
We welcome all developers to come upload Auto Apps. This screencast shows how to get started and offers a tour of the developer back end. As a developer you will have complete access to information on customers and downloads. See how easy it is! Head over to Auto App Mart, add an app, and make it go live in minutes.

AFK Fest 2010 - Control Carputer Winamp with iDevice

optikalefx — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:12:00 GMT

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Rob Wray, from mp3Car, looks into a solution for controlling massive amounts of music on your carputer. One great feature of using winamp for your music system is that there is an iPhone app called iAmpRemote which allows you to control winamp via an AdHoc connection. So you just need your windows computer to broadcast a signal, have your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch connected to it, and now you have a wireless remote.

Adriel's carputer screen is installed into a custom bezel over the factory dash, running from an opus computer.

AFK Fest 2010 - Paul's Internet Connected Volvo

optikalefx — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:25:00 GMT

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Rob Wray, from mp3Car, takes a closer look at forum member PaulF's Volvo S60. He vehicle was one of the most 'teched out' at this year's AFKFest 2010.

One of the main features of his car is the SheevaPlug, which runs 24/7 on an optima battery next to his standard carputer. The SheevaPlug acts as a webserver with a custom Centrafuse app that interacts with it. From the internet, he can turn his lights on, roll up or down his windows, start up his standard computer, and even hit play on his favorite song before he reaches the vehicle. He can even text message his vehicle to do many of these same actions.

Checkout Parts 2 and 3 below

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AFK Fest 2010 - Steve's Custom Delorean

optikalefx — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:02:00 GMT

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Rob Wray, from mp3Car, talks with Steve about his Delorean. He was a great last minute and unexpected surprise at this year's AFKFest. This car is nicely restored and fully customized from the lights to the wheels and body.

Steve fabricated the headlights and front facade of the car himself as the original parts had either been damaged or weren't to his liking. The gull-wing doors aren't the only cool feature though. The car has a built in touch screen and a 3 port USB hub built into the console. The computer is a laptop installed in the back of the vehicle.

Steve's Delorean won 4th prize for best install this year.

AFK Fest 2010 - Marie-Jessique Ford F150

optikalefx — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:34:00 GMT

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Rob Wray from mp3Car takes a look inside Marie-Jessique Gonzalez's Ford F150, the winner of AFK Fest 2010 best in show award.

This truck is decked out with redundant power systems. In the event one battery fails, one of two other batteries will support the on board electronics.
Marie also has a remote video system with her web cam enabling her to pull up her dash camera display from home.

The next stage in the build for Marie is to install a servo motor on the dash cam to enable her to pan 360 degrees for remote video access.

MeeGo IVI 1.0 Released & Demoed on a boat PC

optikalefx — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:43:00 GMT

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The MeeGo IVI software platform is designed to enable rich internet and multimedia consumer experiences for vehicles. MeeGo IVI builds on the foundation laid by Moblin IVI for rich multimedia, CE device management, internet, and automotive connectivity.

MeeGo v1.0 for IVI currently requires:

* CPU: 32 bit Intel Atom or Intel Core 2 CPU (support for SSSE3)
Note: MeeGo will not work on non-SSSE3 CPUs
* A compatible Intel graphics chipset.
Note: GMA-500, Nvidia, and ATI chipsets are not supported.

The targeted reference platform for MeeGo for IVI is based on an Atom Z530 processor and a US15W chipset. One of the officially supported boards is the �Russellville� platform from the Congatec IVI Development Kit.

iPad Suction Mount

optikalefx — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:04:00 GMT

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This 2 sided suction cup to suction mount is ideal for sticking your iPad in all those places you wanted it to go, but never had a means to get it there.
Get Your iPad Suction Mount Today!

*all cars were harmed in the filming of this video

QNX Audio and Voice Recognition Technology in the Car (part 2)

optikalefx — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 14:34:00 GMT

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At the 2010 Detroit Telematics Show, Scott from QNX explains why its not so simple to have audio and voice recognition in the car. There are a plethora of problems on both the receiving and sending end of a phone call that need to be dealt with their own algorithms.

Here we focus on what QNX does to help receive the call.

QNX Audio and Voice Recognition Technology in the Car

optikalefx — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:11:00 GMT

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Warning: This gets quite complex.
At the 2010 Detroit Telematics Show, Scott from QNX explains why its not so simple to have audio and voice recognition in the car. There are a plethora of problems on both the receiving and sending end of a phone call that need to be dealt with their own algorithms.

iPhone 4 Madness

optikalefx — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:19:00 GMT

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While people may not be knocking over old women as they do on black friday, hours before the "official" iPhone 4 launch, the line in one local apple store grows every minute. Hundreds more are expected and people seem thrilled about this this new iPhone.

The new iPhone 4 features a new design, front facing camera with video chat, faster hardware and slew of new features.

Check out what the iPhone can already do in cars And you can bet we will be able to do much more with this new phone.

New Parrot Bluetooth 3.0 & WiFi Technology

optikalefx — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:16:00 GMT

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Parrot is introducing a new chip that combines the newly ratified bluetooth 3.0 with wifi to bring hybrid wireless technology to devices.

Ultra Cheap Optical Input Amp

optikalefx — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:41:00 GMT

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Intersil has these digital audio chips that have many uses, but this specific reference platform is made into an ultra cheap 4 channel amp. It takes digital input, optical input, and SPDIF input, and even has a USB port on the board that will let you control the entire amp from software.

iPad - System Wide Voice Control

optikalefx — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 04:58:00 GMT

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Ok so it's not true system wide access, but pretty darn close. Using a few apps, and a little jailbreak action, Justin Riley shows us how to control some basic functionality with just voice. Here we demonstrate adjusting the iPod, finding a place to eat, and even posting a tweet.

Open your mind and imagine when iOS 4 comes out and vlingo can be backgrounded. The goal of vlingo is to allow any developer and their application to use the vlingo voice recognition engine to do whatever the developer wants with voice. So eventually everything you ever wanted to do will be able to do with voice.

(p.s) still don't text and drive, even if you can do it with your voice!

iPad - Keeping Your Eyes on the Road with Gestures.

optikalefx — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:11:00 GMT

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Justin Riley shows off us, on his custom iPad mount, how you can easily control some basic iPad functions with lots of gestures. After you do the quick 2 minute jailbreak (you wanted to do it anyway) you can enable a plethora of gesture controls. Slide from bottom up, top down, from status bar, tap and hold, pinch and even shake. And you can actually assign these gestures to anything you want.

So you basically end up with a 9.7 inch touch pad, which IMO is easy to use w/o looking at the screen at all. Drive Responsibly�.

Custom iPad Mounts

optikalefx — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:13:00 GMT

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Justin Riley has fabricated a really well finished bolt-in kit for the iPad. (wifi or 3g). This particular kit fits into the 2005-2007 Subaru Impreza/WRX and STi. (They all have the same dash).

This bolt-in kit is a 1:1 replacement for the stock dash. Basically just pop out the old one, and put this in there. It has protection for the iPad, and when used with the Apple iPad Dock will charge and deliver audio. (via the 3.5mm cable)

This kit for the Subaru series will be available on the mp3Car Store soon.

AT&T Speech To Text For Developers

optikalefx — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:52:00 GMT

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AT&T Has proven speech to text. Their goal is to allow developers to integrate this technology into their apps. This demo is done on a Blackberry but at the show she had an iPhone and an Android device running these same features. Once iPhone has multi tasking it will be able to run in the background.

Now that a lot of states are instituting strict cell phone laws, this type of technology will really find a home with all kinds of developers.

Check out Vlingo's blog If you want some serious detail on the matter.

SQL with SUM, group, order, left join, exclude and limit

optikalefx — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:00:00 GMT

So I came across a scenario where I need to know the top developers of applications based on how many times their software has been downloaded.

There are 3 tables involved here.
The developers table
the orders_software table
the orders_software_downloads table

The whole goal is get this information with 1 Sql query.The basic relationships are as follows:
there are many developers in the developer table
there are many softwares to 1 order in the orders_software table
there are many downloads to 1 software to 1 order in the orders_software_downloads table.

So we select the developer name from the developer table, and the download count from the orders_software_downloads table. Left join to get all the tables together. Exclude counts that are null. Then group the results by the owner of each software. Which is a row of the software table.

This will be a great case to use SUM

we can modify the download count to sum(download_count) and as long as we have that group by, it will sum up the group.

So sql will look like this:

SELECT developer.name, SUM(orders_software_download.download_count) as sum
FROM software
LEFT JOIN orders_software on software.id = orders_software.software_id
LEFT JOIN orders_products_download on orders_products.orders_software_id = orders_products_download.id
WHERE orders_software_download.download_count IS NOT NULLGROUP BY software.software_owner
ORDER BY sum DESC
LIMIT 11

And then from this the result will give you an array of the top developers where you can know who the developer is an how many times in total their software was downloaded

iPad First Impressions

optikalefx — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:15:00 GMT

Overall the iPad is a great device and will have some really good mobile applications. The best way to describe it is to say that it just feels right.

Lilliput 809GL-80NP/C/T VGA Touch Screen

optikalefx — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:12:00 GMT

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Sean, from mp3Car, outlines the important components of the Lilliput 809GL-80NP/C/T and illustrates the display quality running Microsoft Windows 7. The monitor has composite, s-video, and VGA inputs and uses USB for touch control. This monitor has a 4:3 aspect ratio and 640 x 480 native resolution.

Purchase the Lilliput 809GL-80NP/C/T at the mp3Car Store.

Lilliput 889GL-80NP/C/T

optikalefx — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 21:08:00 GMT

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Sean, from mp3Car, outlines the important components of the Lilliput 889GL-80NP/C/T and illustrates the display quality running Microsoft Windows 7. The monitor has composite and VGA inputs and uses USB for touch control. This monitor has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 800 x 480 native resolution.

Purchase the Lilliput 889GL-80NP/C/T at the mp3Car Store

Lilliput UM-80/C/T USB powered touch screen

optikalefx — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:03:00 GMT

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Sean from mp3Car outlines the features of the new Lilliput UM-80/C/T USB powered touch screen. One cable does it all: power, video signal, and touch interface control. The monitor can be used with both Mac and PC platforms. HD movies appear smoother on a Mac platform. However, PC drivers for this monitor include more functionality including more calibration features, and a touch without moving curser feature.

Buy the Lilliput 8 Inch USB Touch Screen UM-80/C/T.

mp3Car now Smart Phone Friendly

optikalefx — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:42:00 GMT

At long last mp3Car.com is now iPhone and smart phone ready.

What does this mean?
Our homepage will flow to fit smaller screens for better viewing. Also, all of our videos* are viewable on the iPhone. Your mobile device may also support the videos as well, they are mp4 640x360 at about 1mbps bit rate. with 44khz AAC.

The forum itself has not changed, but we have future plans in place to make an optimized mobile interface for your mobile posting pleasures.

*Older vimeo videos are not viewable without flash...Yet.

USB Powered Touch Monitor by MIMO, 720-S

optikalefx — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:45:00 GMT

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MIMO uses DisplayLink technology to make the 720-S, a 7 inch monitor that has 3 uses for the single USB cable. It gets power over USB, video over USB, and touch input over USB. There are many possible uses for this kind of monitor where any program that has multiple windows, could be spread out to this extra monitor.

Forum Member Chunkyks - Sheeva Plug OBD GPS Logger

optikalefx — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:07:00 GMT

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Gary, aka chunkyks from the mp3car forums talks about his experience with the sheeva plug and his OBD 2 GPS logging software. He received the plug from mp3Car and submitting his application which ended up winning an award and thus a trip to CES.

Check out the sub forum
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/obdii-gps-logger/

uBird Hand Gesture Recognition Device � CES 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:36:00 GMT

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This small and cheap device allows you to control your computer via hand gesture. It looks like a miniature remote control with a few buttons, but also has an accelerometer built in. This product is targeted towards anyone who gives frequent presentations and wants to control their desktop at a distance. We tested it out and found it to be fairly easy to use. This product will be available for purchase within the next few months.

Mileage tracker CES 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:34:00 GMT

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The mileage tracker is targeted towards larger companies with mobile staff that submit mileage reports for reimbursement. The claim is that the Mileage Tracker cannot be manipulated and it is the easiest way to keep you employees honest. The product is roughly $200 for software and hardware and the software is not sold separately. If you are looking for an easy way to track your employees' mileage, take a look.

Flo TV by Audiovox

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:34:00 GMT

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FLOTV is a terrestrial television service developed by Qualcom and AUDIOVOX. AUDIOVOX created the hardware and Qualcom provides the service itself. FLOTV costs $499 for the hardware and $119 per year for the service. FLO TV offers 13 channels, however there are plans to add more. The display is 10.5" and FLOTV does not advise going any larger to avoid possible pixelation of shows like Sponge Bob Square Pants.

How FLOTV Works: The service uses terrestrial repeaters rather than direct satellite tv. As a result, the problems that arise from satellite tv are not an issue such as weather or trees. The service is currently running on the analog channel 55, however analog channel 56 is also available. There are 13 stations on channel 55 and there is room for up to 20. There are 250 kb per channel.

VOD10PS2 In-Vehicle PS2 and Video Player from Sony and AUDIOVOX

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:31:00 GMT

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The VOD10PS2 is the first integrated PS2 and Video System for vehicles. The dual use system cuts down on installation costs and complicated wiring. The price is $849.00 and includes a 10.2" overhead screen, 2 wireless controllers, 2 games and one universal remote and the VOD10PS2 is available in stores now. You can connect other forms of content easily to this device.

Custom Earbuds from Yurtopia � CES 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:30:00 GMT

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Yurtopia creates custom earbuds which come in 8 types of sizes. What is unique about the Yurtopia approach is that they use an iphone app to take an image of your ear, so that you can submit your ear size from anywhere.

MIMO USB Touchscreen � CES 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:29:00 GMT

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7" display with a processor in the mointor that converts any 2D image to a 3D image at a retail price around $300. MIMO also offers a usb monitor with touchscreen that is $180 retail with a single cable.

Mobile Computer Stand for Car � CES 2010

optikalefx — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:28:00 GMT

[FLOWTEST]panavise.mp4[/FLOWTEST]

PanaVise designs platforms for laptops, netbooks, UMPCs and mobile data terminals. The platforms allow easy movement of the computer and have a built-in fan system that is USB powered. The platforms are marketed for use by police, sales reps, and other professionals that require an in-vehicle work station.

iPhone Car Navigation Kit, PDA Net App

optikalefx — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:26:00 GMT

Sean Clark of mp3Car shows us how to tether one's iPhone together with an additional computer to browse the Internet. PDA Net allows you to connect to the Internet via the iPhone 3G connection.

iPhone Car Navigation Kit, How to Jailbreak Your iPhone

optikalefx — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:16:00 GMT

Sean Clark of mp3Car shows us how to jailbreak your iPhone using blackra1n, by geohot RC3. This step is necessary in order to duplicate your screen using the mp3Car kit.

Flexis JM Badge sensor board by freescale

optikalefx — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:26:02 GMT

This fusion brain-like board has 5 sensors built into the board. It was originally made to be a dynamic name badge but Microsoft gave it a place in it's windows 7 mutlitouch sensory kit demo.Rob Wray from mp3Car talks with Michael Normal from freescale about what this board can do.As far as we can tell, this board cannot control relays.

Laser Touch Screen Computer from Ampire At ESC Boston 2009

optikalefx — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:15:54 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car takes a look at a custom laser touch screen notebook computer by Ampire.

This touch screen panel is capacitive and multi-touch. The niche is that the LCD is is made to detect light from the laser. Therefore you can get very accurate touches on a screen built with this technology, as well as touch the screen from as far as the laser can go.

Garmin Mobile PC 2010 Quietly hits "The Shelves"

optikalefx — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:46:27 GMT

Forum users over at Laptop GPS world report that Garmin has quietly released their 2010 map data set on all currently shipping product. Can anyone confirm this? Talk about this more in our dedicated Garmin Mobile PC Forum

AFKfest 2009 - MaxBob Car Computer Install

optikalefx — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:12:45 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car talks with MaxBob about his car installation. He has fabricated his own semi-circular dash extension to re-locate the face plate of his radio. He has actually left the radio installed, and just moved the face plate that way he can put the 7 inch touch screen in place while not losing his FM radio.

Live Twitter from ESC Boston

optikalefx — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:50:59 GMT

Mp3car is at ESC Boston checking out what's new in the world of windows embedded. We will tweeting our findings all day today and tomorrow. Check it out @mp3car

http://Twitter.com/mp3car

Crowd Sourcing in Action

optikalefx — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:17:12 GMT

If you have never heard of crowd sourced maps, checkout our previous blog post here or an example of a growing Philippine map in timelapse.
At Nokia world 2009, Navteq announced they will be crowdosourcing map, routing, and traffic data. Twice has a good overview. Also see a recent Google's blog entry about google's crowd sourcing strategy.
jKontherun reports that iphone users can utilize but aren't contributing to Google's arterial data. Google was quoted as saying �The Google Maps application that comes pre-installed on the iPhone can display live traffic, but Apple devices do not participate in the traffic crowdsourcing.�
Talk about this on our forums

AFKfest 2009 - Mike Car Computer Install

optikalefx — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:21:24 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car Talks with Mike L. about his car computer install. What is unique about this install is the use of Garmin Mobile. Although it may look like it Garmin is not running in Centrafuse, it's the stand alone program.

Mike also has a VNC client for his windows mobile device that allows him to interact with his phone from using the touch screen instead of having to use the small 2 inch screen on the phone.

AFKfest 2009 - Greg Planthaber Car Computer Installation

optikalefx — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:13:13 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car takes a look at Greg's car PC. Greg's Lexus has been tricked out with some very clean looking computer components.

Under the stock flip down panel reveals the normal Lexus screen. Greg has re-wired the open button to allow it switch the video input over to Centrafuse.

AFKfest 2009 - Centrafuse 3 preview

optikalefx — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:06:47 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car takes a look at Centrafuse 3.0 with Eric Brier. Eric shows how Centrafuse 3 is now much more modular than previous versions. The goal is to make Centrafuse more available to developers to expand the application that only a community can provide.

AFKfest 2009 - Cabe Sipes Speaker and Car Computer Install

optikalefx — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:03:08 GMT

Check out Cabe's mp3car forum section Ask Cabe Sipes

Rob Wray from mp3Car interviews Cabe Sipes from Pimp My Ride and Rock the Boat about what modding cars is like on a TV set.

Cabe talks about his experience on the set of Pimp My Ride and how a fabrication team deals with car computer installs.

Cabe Sipes shows off his truck with a ton of computer and audio related modifications. Cabe has a 10 inch touch screen along with 2 7 inch head rest screens.

Being a huge fan of how this car sounds, he has multiple amplifiers running to 2 15 inch subs.

AFKfest 2009 - Shaun Newman - Car computer install

optikalefx — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:10:19 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car goes through Shaun's car computer install. Shaun has a fusion brain to control temperature, a 4-way line-in splitter, a CarNetix USB hub, a mic for voice commands, a camera for skype, audio amplifiers, this car is loaded!

AFKfest 2009 - Will Meyer Car Computer Installation

optikalefx — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:43:54 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car talks with Will Meyer, member of the mp3Car Forum about his car computer installation.

Will runs Centrafuse along with this space navigator for control, integrated webcam, dashcommand gauges, game emulators and OBD 2 data.

Will has written some custom code to have an display panel on his console update with OBD 2 data and GPS data. He has also written some code that allows him to sms his car to retrieve information such as speed, gps location and OBD 2 data.

Hardware Review - SheevaPlug Development Kit

optikalefx — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:00:28 GMT

Review by Gary, aka chunkyks

Thanks to some work I'd been doing, I found myself targeting the
SheevaPlug http://www.plugcomputer.org/ for a project, despite
not actually having one of these plugs myself. mp3car.com very
generously offered to send me one, as part of a process to
provide innovation grants to forum users. I cannot thank them
enough for the opportunity.

See this product on the mp3Car Store here.

I'm a long-term unix and Linux software developer, so anticipate
this review leaning in that direction.

features

Low Energy ARM chip [entire device is rated at 5W]
Small Form-factor [entire computer inside a regular sized power brick]

Comes with Ubuntu 9.04, but trivially reflashable

Communications with the outside world: Gigabit Ethernet,
USB2.0, SDIO. Also has a USB slave port as a serial console

512M DDR2, 512M Flash

pros

Excellent documentation
Does exactly what you'd expect. No less, and probably a little more
Extremely affordable
Stock Ubuntu install.

Zero configuration. Out of the box it boots and can be logged into

cons
There's an expectation that you are familiar with Linux.
Slow boot times and disk access
Lack of useful kernel modules in the box
Occasionally the plug feels warm to the touch

The Short Review:

I love this device, and everyone should get one. It's a fully
functional Linux box, and magically Just Works for all my needs.

See our forums for the Full review, details, and thoughts for the future and follow up with conversation

Full Review:
Right out of the box, it does exactly what I expect a modern
computer to do. You can log into it, install software from the
Ubuntu repositories, and run stuff on it. The software corpus
available for easy download is massive, and includes all the
usual development tools and user programs you'd expect or need.

The plug is running an ARM chip - as is common for low-power
embedded devices. The ARM architecture is a little bit different
from your typical desktop computer. To me, this is a Good Thing,
as I subscribe to the belief that portable code running on more
architectures is better than code that doesn't. [Notably, while
porting to other architectures, bugs often surface that otherwise
wouldn't have]. On the downside it means that occasionally, you
may find software that doesn't work for you on the plug. During
testing I found nothing I needed that didn't work immediately,
but the potential is there.

It's absolutely worth starting with the new plugger howto [http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki...Plugger_How_To
] and making a couple system changes to ensure you won't run into
problems. There are apparently some situations where an
inopportune update immediately after getting the plug can render
it un-bootable. It's easily re-flashable, but it's a lot easier to
just edit a couple files first.

The plug wiki and documentation tends to assume that the user has
a certain level of familiarity with Linux or unix. Most notably,
the wiki in a few places [not the least of which is the new
plugger howto] just said �Edit this file, without further
elucidating. Anyone familiar with unix will recognize this;
editing text on unix is historically a matter of both holy wars
and extreme difficulty to the novice user. This reviewer has
edited the wiki to provide a little more help, but as a whole a
small amount of Linux knowledge is certainly helpful.

Something I haven't commented on up until now is that there's no
easy way to plug a screen into the Sheeva. This is self-evident
from looking at the device, but bears mentioning. I successfully
used remote X over ssh with the plug, but primarily the Sheeva is
a command-line device that you ssh into - again, a level of unix
familiarity cannot hurt.

Up to now, everything I've commented was things that are �good�
in my view, but some of them may be perceived as problems. There
are a couple of real downsides to the plug:

Boot times are noticeable [on the other of 20-30 seconds, which
feels high for a small embedded device] and large un-cached disk
accesses tend to be pretty slow. This is because the plug uses a
file system called jffs2, which is very good for wear-leveling
and error handling in flash, but can be slow. There are good
alternatives [eg, ubifs], but switching to them again requires
re flashing the plug, something I will almost certainly be doing
in the near future. If you plan on doing a lot of disk writes, or
large disk writes [as I do], then it's definitely better to pick
up an SDIO card or a USB flash drive, and write to that. Those
are supported out of the box.

The plug feels warm to the touch. I believe it's still not using
much power, but there's obviously some inefficiency somewhere.
Some mp3car forum users have converted their plugs to run off 12V
as provided by their car, and apparently the new 12V PSU
dissipates less energy in the form of heat.

3.3 Running my own software

The specific goal for me on the plug is to run my pet project,
OBD GPS Logger. Due to past experience with portable code, I was
happy to see obdgpslogger build first time on the plug, after
installing the requisite tools [six packages plus their
dependencies, starting with what was in the box]. I didn't build
the GUI tools [no need for them here] but obdsim, obdgpslogger,
and the conversion tools worked immediately. On the CD in the
box, or for free download, are cross-compiling tools;
obdgpslogger also builds just fine using that environment.

One problem was that as it comes in the box, the Sheeva doesn't
have the necessary kernel modules [aka ��drivers��] that an mp3car
reader might need; specifically, ftdi for an OBDPro scantool [http://www.obdpros.com/
] or similar, or any bluetooth modules. Since the OBD devices I
have are all either ftdi or bluetooth, this was an issue. This
has been discussed on the Sheeva forums [http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=84.0
], where the best [only] proposed answer was to reflash the
kernel on the device.

While that's not difficult in practice, that's kinda fearsome to
someone unfamiliar with Linux or serial consoles. I came up with
a somewhat different solution to the ftdi problem: I wrote a
small userland tool using libftdi [which is available in the
Ubuntu repositories] to proxy my ftdi device to a unix
pseudoterminal. At time of writing, it's not fully working with
obdgpslogger yet, but it works enough to access my OBDPro
scantool.

Overall, I found the Sheeva a fantastic tool; it really is a
complete Linux system that does everything I need.

4 Future Uses

In writing this review, I found myself coming up with various
ideas for using the plug, beyond a simple host for obdgpslogger.
Of particular interest is that it's simply a low-cost device that
you can run always-on and always-connected-to-the-internet for
cheap. For want of a number, a quick back-of-the-envelope
calculation says that it costs me about 1.7 cents per day to run,
or about six dollars a year... and I live in a part of the US
where electricity is relatively expensive.

Some food for thought for others picking up one of these plugs:

Webcam. The plug can run a webcam and either host a live
stream, or regularly upload photos to another site. Great for
those of us with jobs and dogs. This way my power-hungry
desktop can remain asleep during the day and I can still watch
my dogs.

Storage server. Plug a huge external hard drive into it and use
it for network attached storage. Typical uses might include a
streaming server for a PS3 [using the fantastic mediatomb http://mediatomb.cc/
a backup server, or a bittorrent tracker or downloader.
Combine a few of these things and you get:

Leave an RSS reader running on the plug all day, reading
streams from torrent sites and automatically downloading
things you like. When you get home in the evening, turn on
your TV and PS3 and start watching. Imagine if your cable
company's on-demand didn't suck - that's what this is.

In the past, I've used squid to block ads and as a network
cache; the Sheeva is perfectly placed to handle that. Nowadays,
fast internet and intelligent browsers make a lot of that moot,
but squid can still pull off some pretty neat tricks.

Home automation. It's nice to have something you can ssh into
before leaving work, perhaps to start a coffee machine or
something. The Sheeva could perhaps control some X10 devices.

For people interested in a whole new worldview of instant
messaging, the Sheeva makes a great Bitlbee server.

Similar to DD-WRT, it's not hard to imagine complete images to
flash to the device. The RSS-bittorrent-PS3 configuration above
could easily be prepared to an image, and have end-users simply
download and flash the whole bundle.

On the topic of DD-WRT, some people don't like to reflash their
wireless routers or similar devices; the Sheeva could run all
the services you otherwise would have liked your wireless
router to do [such as DHCP with static allocation - the main
reason I upgraded to DD-WRT in the first place]

See this product on the mp3Car Store here.

OLED - The past present and future

optikalefx — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:40:40 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car interviews Mark Shanks from Toupled about OLED and respond to question from m3pCar forum members.
They discuss the history of OLED, the challenges they face, how they work, and why they are superior to LCD.
There are a lot of possibilities with OLED including flexible surfaces and transparent applications.

New Intel Motherboard with SSD

optikalefx — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:05:13 GMT

Rob Wray from mp3Car takes a closer look at Intel's D945gsejt motherboard and their SSD z-u130 2 GB module .

The unique fact here is that they made room on motherboard to fit this 2gb module into the USB header, so you can essentially have a very fast boot up time if your OS is installed on that chip without taking up barely 2 inches of the board.

Hardware Review - Wireless USB TPMS Review

optikalefx — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:49:42 GMT

Review by forum member: fixerofallthin

1. What is the typical setup time for a 4 sensor kit and costs? (This includes having sensors mounted at a tire dealership)
The typical time to mount sensors is about the same as mounting 4 new tires. When a reputable tire shop replaces tires on a vehicle equipped with factory TPMS they are supposed to dismount the sensors as well to replace the sealing gaskets. So when you contact your tire shop to make an appointment be prepared to allow about 1-2 hours work time plus whatever wait time involved.

See this product on the mp3Car Store here.

Our shop charges $25.00 per wheel to mount and balance tires so if you are doing the spare as well then $125.00 is an average price. If you are replacing your tires then we would not charge to install the sensors since the tires would need to be off anyway. Be sure to have the tires rebalanced if you did not replace them as the stems and sensors will alter the balance.
If you are wanting to monitor your spare tire as well be sure the spare wheel will accept a sensor. Most temporary spare tires (donuts) are not meant to be dismounted and might not have room for the sensor.

Be sure the shop uses a torque wrench to mount the sensors correctly.

2. What is an ideal mounting location for the USB TPMS receiver, for both aesthetics and reception?
The instructions tell you to install the receiver in a central location such as the base of the windshield. I found a central location in my truck to be the center console, which just happens to have a USB hub installed in it. In testing the sensors I spread them around my house and even put one in the freezer and refrigerator to monitor temps and to test reception distance and I was very pleased with how far away I could still communicate with all the sensors. 2 of the sensors were 25 feet away from the receiver and I still saw no issues, so I think just about anywhere you do not have excessive RF interference should work. When you first set up the system you are instructed to unplug the receiver several times so be sure to set it up completely before you tuck it away permanently.

3. How do you install and use the software? (Both plug-in and standalone)

I followed the directions that came with the kit to check the system before I mounted the sensors.
RRTMS (from MP3Car.com forums) comes with the plug-in for RideRunner and a tool to configure the sensors and messages that are displayed and spoken (there is a typo in the dialog that speaks when the tire pressure is too high, it says "hight" instead of "high", so check that while you are installing the software). Download the file and extract it to your RideRunner plug-in folder. Be sure to register the .dll file after you copy it to its final location. You will need to add or modify a button in your skin to launch the TPMS screen. The button command is "TMS" and it launches TMS.skin. You can build your own screen to match the skin you are using or there is a test skin included in the RRTMS folder.

CFTPMS (from the Centrafuse downloads section on http://forums.fluxmedia.net/) installs the plug-in for Centrafuse 2.0. It is a simple install. It is an exe file that puts everything where it needs to be. When prompted be sure to install the tools also. The tools folder in your Fluxmedia>centrafuse>plugins>tpms will have a program called TPMS doctor that is used to test communication. Once you install the CFTPMS.exe be sure to go download the update 2.1.9.0. Now that CFTPMS is updated you can set one of your buttons to launch tpms by clicking and holding the button you want it assigned to and selecting it from the list; Then go to settings and select advanced settings and you can enter the tpms section and set your preferences (PSI vs. Bar and such).

4. How do I re-learn the sensors?
I was able to set up my software before I even mounted the sensors in the wheels because the kit is prelearned by the manufacturer. I installed the software as listed above and was able to monitor the temperatures and battery levels to check communication. The manufacturer includes a sheet with the locations the sensors should be mounted.

The instructions say not to use Centrafuse to set up the sensors because it is buggy, but I used both Riderunner and Centrafuse with no issues.

When you rotate your tires you simply change the location of the sensor.

5. How do I add a spare sensor?
Using RRTMS I erased all sensors from the receiver and relearned them following the instructions that came with the kit. Once you select the sensor, you change the tire pressure until the receiver "sees" the change and it registers the sensor.

See this product on the mp3Car Store here.

New Product: p5USB Hub

optikalefx — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:31:11 GMT

Goce from mp3Car shows the advantages to the p5USB hub
http://store.mp3car.com/DC_Powered_4..._p/adt-015.htm

Features include:
Take voltage from 7-32 volts
guaranteed 500 mA to each port.
Each port has it's own self resetting fuse
Reverse polarity protection
startup and shutdow controller
Delayed startup and shutdown (5 min and 25 min)

http://store.mp3car.com/DC_Powered_4..._p/adt-015.htm

DashCommand for iPhone

optikalefx — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:24:51 GMT

Sean from mp3Car reviews DashCommand for iPhone from Palmer Performance.

DashCommand stems from its window's counterpart that has been long since in car computers. It offers a wireless connection to your OBD2 port to bring you a ton of engine diagnostic tools.

With DashCommand for iPhone you can see all your available PID's in multiple skins, follow your acceleration and braking, see your g-forces going around turns, read your car's angle while driving, and keep all of this data for a log.

The only downside to DashCommand is that you can't swipe between screens, and that you need to tell it to switch to landscape or portrait mode before the sensor graphics look correct. That is because you will be able to customize the dash boards in later version.

Information Overload: CNX P2140 ACPI over USB to control your laptop Hibernate part 2

optikalefx — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:07:22 GMT

Goce from mp3Car takes us through the steps to use your p2140 to hibernate and wake up from hibernation of your laptop.

Materials needed:
-Laptop
-CNX P2140
store.mp3car.com/Carnetix_CNX_P2140_185W_DC_DC_Regulator_p/pwr-026.htm
-PSUmoni
carnetix.com/support.html
-Vehicle installation

Make sure you watch our last video to learn how to wire the p2140 to power your laptop!

Open Source Turn by Turn iPhone App using Open Street Maps - Navit

optikalefx — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:34:37 GMT

Navit is an open source turn by turn directions app using the free Open Street Maps.

It is important to note that both the app and the routing engine, along with the map data are all Open Source!

The app is in beta still and can be downloaded using Cydia.
Add this source http://szndvc.dyndns.org/cydia/
and then search for "navit"

You need a planet.bin file of the Open street maps data. You can use this http://maps.navit-project.org/planet.bin but they have a tool that lets you select a portion of the map to download.
http://maps.navit-project.org/download/
That file will go on your iPhone at var/mobile/Media/Maps/planet.bin

CNX P2140 ACPI over USB to control

optikalefx — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:26:25 GMT

Goce from mp3Car takes us through the steps to use your p2140 to hibernate and wake up from hibernation of your laptop.

Materials needed:
-Laptop
-CNX P2140
store.mp3car.com/Carnetix_CNX_P2140_185W_DC_DC_Regulator_p/pwr-026.htm
-PSUmoni
carnetix.com/support.html
-Vehicle installation

Make sure you watch our last video to learn how to wire the p2140 to power your laptop!

Part 2 coming soon.

Ford Sync version 3 at Detroit Telematics 2009

optikalefx — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:43:49 GMT

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mp3Car's Rob Wray interviews Mark Schunder about Ford Sync Version 3

In this video we take a ride with one of Ford's engineers to give you the technical side, and much less the marketing pitch for Ford Sync.

Ford sync version 3 will give you the ability to speak to your vehicle and get services such as turn by turn directions, sports and weather.

Green Eco Routing, Navigation and your car computer

optikalefx — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:50:10 GMT

Some intelligent forward thinking researchers over at Hitachi, Xanavi, and Nissan have collected some data on ecological green routing that claims a 9% fuel cost savings on a test route. This technology is still in its infancy, but this is a perfect example of where a car computer can be used to accelerate development and deployment of technology. Implementing ecorouting will require Intense processing on the client or cloud for the complicated routing algorithms that factor in all the newly available data points:

� Traffic & Flow speeds

� Elevation changes and altitude

� Road quality (smooth vs. rough)

� Wind (eventually)

The cloud or development computer can also be used to coach the driver into more efficient acceleration and braking techniques which a lot of hyper milers are already using.

Eventually I imagine this type of data would help local governments prioritize road resurfacings and traffic control timings to help their citizenry become greener.

It seems like one of the key pieces to making this work would be accurate elevation Data. The paper I mentioned above used 50m resolution data from the government. One of the key data providers for elevation data seems to be intermap with 5m horizontal resolution and +/1 1m vertical. Check out their comparison chart to NASA data.

CarNetix P2140 (part 2) - Power your laptop with Goce from mp3Car

optikalefx — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:57:20 GMT

Goce from mp3Car will walk you through the steps necessary to power your laptop using unregulated ~6~24 volts with only the p2140 and the wire your laptop power adapter came with.

-For this project you need the following materials:
-p2140 and 8pin molex output harness
-Wire strippers 14-22 gauge
-Bench battery
-Multimeter
-Shrink tubing and heat shrink tubing gun OR electrical tape
-Solder gun and non leaded solder
-laptop and its power brick
-knife or scissors

To finalize this project you should do a continuity test on the stripped wire to find out which is positive and which is negative. Then you can twist and solder the p2140 output wires to the cut laptop brick wires. Turn it on to test it one more time, and then plug it into your laptop to test.

Elektrobit - Linux navigation at Detroit Telematics 2009

optikalefx — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:58:49 GMT

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Rob Wray from mp3Car interviews Artur Seidel from Elektrobit.

The following questions are addressed:

What is Elektrobit?
How do different navigation components work?

If your a developer, what volumes will you need to buy into to develop with Elektrobit?

Do you take any traffic feeds right out of the box?

How is Elektrobit distinguish itself from the competition?

CarNetix P2140 - Power your laptop with Goce from mp3Car

optikalefx — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:32:29 GMT

Goce from mp3Car will walk you through the steps necessary to power your laptop using only the p2140 and the wire your laptop power adapter came with.

-For this project you need the following materials:
-p2140 and 8pin molex output harness
-Wire strippers 14-22 gauge
-Bench battery
-Multimeter
-Shrink tubing and heat shrink tubing gun OR electrical tape
-Solder gun and non leaded solder
-laptop and its power brick
-knife or scissors

The basic procedure here is to cut and strip the laptop power brick, while NOT cutting the multi-strand wires right beneath the black plastic. Then soldering the positive wire of the primary output from the p2140 to positive end of the now cut power brick cord. And then the same for the negative.

In the next video we will show you how to test the polarity using continuity and then actually test turing on the laptop using only the power from the p2140 (through the bench battery of course)

mp3car�s Robert Wray interviews GENIVI�s board member Joel Hoffman

optikalefx — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:05:31 GMT

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mp3car's Robert Wray interviews GENIVI's board member Joel Hoffman in a 2 part interview.
Part 1 of 2 covers:
What is GENIVI, How did it start?
What are the first topics GENIVI will address?
What is the Link between GENIVI, Linux and Moblin?
What are the costs?

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Part 2 of 2 covers:
What actually is the GENIVI scope?
What areas do you expect to cause conflict and how will association conflict be handled?
Why are parts of development closed?

Sun and Cloud Computing: audio interview

optikalefx — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:18:58 GMT

An interview with Rob Wray and Angelo Rajadurai from Sun.
[media]http://www.mp3car.com/audio/sunClouds.mp3[/media]
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Transcript:
Robert Wray: Hi, my name�s Rob with MP3Car, and we�re here with Angelo from Sun. Angelo, maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you do at Sun before we start talking.

Angelo Rajadurai: Hi Rob thanks for the opportunity to talk, and I�m pretty excited to spend a few minutes with you guys. I work in the Sun Startup Essentials program. I�m responsible for the East Coast implementation of this program. I also work in the Sun cloud team, and it�s very important for Sun that startups actually adopt the cloud. And we�re seeing a lot of startups actually working on the cloud, and we want to make sure that startups can use and benefit from Sun�s cloud effort as well. That�s in a nutshell what I do at Sun.

Robert Wray: Well thanks a lot for taking the time to tell us what you�re doing and talk about Sun�s efforts. So in previous blog posts we�ve talked about some of the things that we think are going to happen in mobile computing over the next five years, so what role could cloud computing play in solving these demands over the next five years?

Angelo Rajadurai: So interestingly enough what we�re seeing is, you know the cloud is maturing really, really quickly and especially in the space of startups where you see all these great innovations happening. Cloud is making life much easier for new companies to come in and provide services, so especially in the mobile space where it�s again a budding technology where there�s a lot of these services that are possible.

And in the fast days it was very hot to actually provide these services because it took you, you know you had to buy a whole bunch of hardware, you had to setup data centers to be able to provide the service, but with a cloud now what we can do is you can provide these services in a much cheaper cost and have multiple of these services kind of come up really quick. So it�s actually quickening the pace of innovation in the space as well, so there�s lots of these services that are coming up, and I think cloud can really help especially in the mobile space where your device on your car is just an access point to big servers that can be hosted on a cloud. And a cloud provides you all this great compute power that you can use to deliver such a service to a device like a device on a car.

Robert Wray: Well what are the biggest challenges you see with developers using cloud computing to support some of these advanced features that people are going to demand on the go?

Angelo Rajadurai: So right now what I am seeing is there is no set standard for actually exposing these services to the access points. So that problem is kind of getting solved on the compute side a little bit because there are all these standards that have emerged and people can plug-n-play and mash these contents together if you may. So for example you could add today on your desktop a Google map, which is a service, with maybe a real estate listing service or something like that, and you could create these mashables really quick because the standards are already well established, and the whole concept of plug-n-play works very well.

I don�t see that happening yet in the mobile space, so I think you need to custom put these services together. Typically you�re gonna see a lot of these services that show up, but I think the value is in adding and aggregating these services and kind of providing a super service if you may. And for you to do that I think you need to establish standards, and I think that�s one of the areas where things are lagging a little bit.

Robert Wray: So what�s Sun doing to drive standards and help developers utilize the cloud as it relates to mobile computing or consumer services specifically?

Angelo Rajadurai: So if you look back at Sun�s history one of the things that we�ve been very good about doing is to kind of define and drive standards, and Sun from its inception kind of believed that the computing is more than what you can actually accommodate on your desktop or on your servers. So we, by default, put in these network access points into every machine we sold. So for the cloud computing as well, what Sun is doing is Sun is actually defining the standards for the cloud so that it will allow you to kind of seamlessly move between what you�re calling a private cloud into the public cloud.

So you could average in a service that runs locally on your own cloud or your own hardware that you have on your car if you may, and then when you are connected to the cloud, you can seamlessly migrate it to the cloud and accommodate services from there. We�re not doing this specifically for the mobile world, but this problem exists not just in the mobile space, but also in the traditional computing space where people are kind of finding that the cloud is great for certain purposes, but for certain purposes it makes more sense for us to create our own private clouds. And we need to be able to seamlessly move between these two clouds, and Sun is now defining the standards. What we�ve done so far, we�ve published a standard for this and it�s in the publish phase, and we�re gonna have our implementation of the standard come out in a few days, which will make it a little bit more interesting in the space where standards are concerned.

Robert Wray: So how do you think clouds are going to contribute to a customizable mobile experience? So what I mean by customizable mobile experience is based on what you�re doing, if you are walking or if you�re taking the car, or you�re sitting down you�re gonna wanna different type of user experience. Also different users are gonna want different types of brandings, different colors, other things like that. What role do you think clouds will play with these customizable user experiences?

Angelo Rajadurai: So from a point of view of the cloud � so you can define the � and at least in my mind and am no expert in the big mobile space, but in my mind I see that the customization happens at the access point. So let�s say you have a device that you put in your car, that access point actually defines your point of customization. What the cloud can do is because of the vast compute resources that you have at your disposal you can actually provide information from your access point.

Let�s say � tell the cloud service that you are now moving at 80 miles an hour or something like that, and the cloud service can at that point decide what kind of content it wants to provide you. Obviously you don�t want it to be streaming video to you at that point because it makes no sense to do it, but if the cloud service knows that you�re sitting with the same device sitting on your - you know in a rest area and not moving, you could potentially send a service for video maybe to your device. So I�m just coming up with this example here, but the idea here is that because the cloud can vastly configure itself and change on the fly you�re not limited to one or two different services that you can fit into your access point.

So even though the cloud - I don�t see cloud kind of doing the customization because of the vastness of the resource. You can customize based on what your access point is telling the cloud. I hope I�m making sense here, but the thing is now you can think beyond your little device, and the cloud is a vast place where you can particularly have a lot of these services available for you. And you can decide which one you want to plug in to based on some configuration that either the user has set or that automatically goes to the cloud for it.

Robert Wray: Right, okay. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. So a lot of people, just to get back to what Sun�s role is in cloud computing and consumer stuff, a lot of people think of Sun and cloud computing architecture as something that�s just available in the enterprise; what open consumer oriented cloud models could developers look towards for inspiration?

Angelo Rajadurai: So Sun has traditionally been viewed as an enterprise, but if you go back even a few years Sun started off actually working with startups and smaller companies and consumers, and only in the last ten years or so where our focus has completely turned into enterprise. And we are trying really hard to get back into the startup space with the acquisitions like MySQL, which is very predominant in the small and medium sized businesses as well as in the personal space if you may. And with different things Sun has done in the last few months or maybe last couple years, we�ve really kind of focusing back into the end-user space if you may. And as far as the cloud is concerned the income in today�s - basically Amazon, right, it�s a great service, they kind of defined the space where it�s really open to the end-user as well.

Sun�s cloud when we announce it would be open to both end-users and enterprises as well, but that line is kind of merging really quickly. In maybe five or six years ago, you needed to be an enterprise to work with Sun because the cost of hardware was so high, and you had only one option that you could buy it. There was nothing else that you could do, but right now with the cloud that line is merging. It�s very cheap for an individual to kind of get together a 100 machines in the cloud and provide a service at $.10 an hour or so, right? So that line between enterprise and individual is quickly kind of going away and the cloud is equalizing that space as well. So what Sun can do is it can bring the expertise that it has developed for enterprises and building these large server-farms and make it accessible to end-users. So I think Sun�s exposure into the enterprise space is actually going to be a beneficial one while we bring the service to mobile users.

Robert Wray: Are there any specific examples where - we talked before about standards being one of the really hard problems - where there�s been lots of developers that have worked to set standards and have made consumer products or is that still yet to happen?

Angelo Rajadurai: So there are many places in the compute space where there was all these standards were set by end-users. In many cases these standards get set because one company is driving it, one large enterprise drives it and then everybody comes in. For example, if you look at the Wal-Mart case when our FID was being pushed. Wal-Mart kind of came and said, �This is the standard that you will follow for our FID,� and that became the standard. Or if you look at the ebXML space where it�s XML for businesses, the standards were set because some large company kind of blow it. But you also see a lot more examples of these, like for example in the SQL space there�s more startups like MySQL, which was a very small startup a few years ago kind of set the standard for this open source database space. So the standards are being set either by a large company driving it or by a grass root effort, which see a need and kind of set these standards.

And without setting the standards it�s really hard to build up on a really expandable space. So if you look at any of the open source projects that are successful, the first thing that they need to do is setup some kind of a standard that people can contribute into, and this has been happening for a while now. So you can see that model; in one case it happens because of some company driving it and being the income, and they get to say exactly what the want to sell, but it also happens in the open source space where it�s being set by communities, and being followed so that the contribution can be made simpler.

Robert Wray: Well other than a lack of standards, what mistakes can be learned from other failed or partially successful cloud efforts?

Angelo Rajadurai: So if you look at the cloud effort, one of the things that you really need is an ecosystem around the cloud. So none of these servers in the cloud can live on its own. So for example you can have a very successful cloud with really expandable things, but if you don�t have the services that are around it then these cloud efforts kind of fail. One of the things that you can see with Amazon cloud, which is again the standard today, is that there�s hundreds of partners and maybe even thousands of people that are providing services in the cloud.

So if you take that same example into the mobile space, any service that you�re providing needs to have an ecosystem around it. It needs to have the support structure around it and without the support structure things don�t succeed. You can have a great service, but if you don�t have like the database support around it or if you don�t have, in your case, like the location services around it or even like the developer help that is around it then those things don�t work too well. Again if you look at open source one of the things that you get by open sourcing your software is that you build ecosystem around your software, which includes people that know the software, which includes people that can help you fix and install, scale your software and so on. So that�s another important piece of any effort that goes in. For cloud and for everything else as well I think it�s pretty important that you have an ecosystem around it for services and support for you.

Robert Wray: Well looks like there�s a lot of exciting opportunities for developers that are looking to do bleeding edge stuff in the mobile computing space. So if you want to check out our blog for links, where to get started, we�re gonna have a bunch of stuff there and also transcripts of the interview. So Angelo thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Angelo Rajadurai: You�re welcome Rob.
[End of Audio]

The future of car computing

optikalefx — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:23:02 GMT

[media]http://www.mp3car.com/audio/future.mp3[/media]

Hi my name is Robert Wray from Mp3car. Throughout the summer we are going to dive deeper into the future of mobile computing, car computing and telematics with a series of video blogs exploring new technology and interviews with leaders in the space.

Based on our activity in the community, our work with automakers, aftermarket, communications and telematics companies, we believe consumers will demand a bunch of new features all seamlessly integrated into a replicable, flexible UI and accessible from many devices of varying power, age, screen size, and interfaces.

The feature list will include.
� Connected navigation (Internet POI, Real time traffic, regular map updates)
� Media & entertainment from the internet or internet connected devices
� Interfacing with other technology (engines or batteries, GPS and other location indicators, other sensor hardware)
� Extensible developer interfaces to allow rapid add ons and integrations with existing features
� Demand for skinable and user customizable interfaces
� Occasionally connected devices (wireless, USB, WIFI, sneaker net)
� Demand for flexible audio and visual prioritization
� Flexible Security & Personal privacy awareness & settings
� Task aware user interface, for example - user taking a bus, driving, walking, sitting down
� All of the above components, including the UI should be modular and replaceable at any time to make way for new innovations.

Through our video blogging and interviews we plan to find out what it is going to take to make these features a reality and follow the activity of our community members as these bleeding edge features get implemented.

Best of mp3Car May edition

optikalefx — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:11:06 GMT

Best of Mp3car.com community innovation and development

Ride Runner

New Skin

The community is helping DocBreezy bring a sleek new skin, named '506' to Ride Runner. by DocBreezy.

In addition to suggestions and beta testing, Treetop, Thunderstick, blk02si, Sonicxtacy02, GizmoQ, carputer1are lending a hand with advice and code support to bring it along.

506 also builds on the flexible plug-in architecture of Ride Runner by using:
- RRGas -Enforcer's gas price finder for US and UK
- Movietimes - a plug-in that retrieves movie times for your zip code (US only)
- Coverjuke - an implementation of Coverflow for Ride Runner.

Control your phone in Ride Runner. MyMobiler is a Windows mobile phone control program that can be controlled from the skin.

Skype for RR

Member lambosprit is at it again. As if solving the bluetooth problem wasn't enough, lambosprit has a basic plug-in for Ride Runner that brings Skype functionality to the car PC. It makes and receives calls between both Skype users and external phone numbers. Check it out.

Covermess

Member pcpete has developed a plug-in for Ride Runner called Covermess. It's a Flash app that displays your albums in a pile, as if they were real CD's. You can select and play music from them, similar to the Coverflow display on an iPod. Check out the video in the first post for what it looks like. A really nice bit of programming!

Community Development

Linux ICE and nGhost

Just in case you don't hang out on mp3car.com forums 24X7, you may not be aware that there is a flourishing open source car PC environment for Linux called nGhost.

Version 2.0.0 is details are available here and kev000 is one of the lead developers for a team of like minded community members including:

tripzero
kshots
kantlivelong
psy_cho
billygalbreath
eubey
gladier

among others. You can find the nGhost download here

Shift by wire

Automated P-R-N-D-L - Member turbocad6 is at it again with a plan to replace his automatic shifter. The community has been tossing around ideas about how to do this and ways to implement it. Right now, it looks like an Arduino board and a linear actuator will do the job for push button shifting. Got something to contribute? turbocad6 will need help programming and engineering. Check it out.

Towards a more flexible front-end.

The front end is the software that ties together all of the functions that the computer offers into an easy to navigate and control 'face' for using the computer while driving. There are numerous front ends (Ride Runner, Centrafuse, nGhost, Streetdeck as examples). This thread is a brainstorming discussion about how to create a more flexible front end that requires less configuration and tinkering yet runs across platforms. If you've got ideas or want to see the community at work on an idea, stop by and check it out!

Lovely when a plan comes together. Check out member malcom2073's new front end, CarPal. The community is helping him to lay out a plug-in scheme for the front end, and Sonicxtacy02 is working on a skin for the new front end. A great example of the community helping to develop a software product.

The Unexpected

From spud cannons to automated pyrotechnics controllers the community continues to innovate and develop new and very unexpected uses for hardware. Find out how a plastic toolbox and a Fusion Brain = pyrotechnics controller.

The Fusion Brain is one of the most popular hardware add-ons for community members. Developed by two of the community members, 2k1Toaster and greenman, the FB allows your computer to interface with the outside world in both analog and digital fashion. Using standalone software, the FB can be programmed to read temperatures, control relays, stepper motors, infrared sensors and so forth. Car PC'ers use them to operate windows, switch relays on and off, read temperatures and even control Christmas lights on their car

New 7 inch DVI touchscreen by lilliput

optikalefx — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:41:36 GMT

Lilliput is getting ready to release their new 7" touchscreen that has native DVI and component digital out. Previous models such as the 629 had only VGA, Composite and S-Video.

What is great about this monitor is that it's now extra versatile. They left the pigtail plug on the monitor and just added the extra DVI and component cables. That means you have the option to output to 5 different video sources, DVI, VGA, composite, component and s-video.

The connectors for DVI came out of the bottom of the unit, whereas the pigtail connector came out of the side. So this may affect some installations but just be aware that it *may* be changed.

The digital output was, in our opinion, more defined in terms of the colors. More specifically the blacks were blacker and the whites were whiter.

The only down side we noticed is that the DVI output seemed to have off colors. The ocean in the video seemed very green, even though on VGA it was blue.

All the settings for the test were brightness 50% Green 50% blue 50% and red 50% with a resolution of 800x600. They ran from the same ATI graphics card playing BBC's blue ocean on VLC player.

This product should be coming soon to the mp3Car store, so look out for it.

Hypermiling for cheap using iPhone

optikalefx — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:33:11 GMT

You don't need an expensive hybrid vehicle or car computer to get the most miles per gallon out of your car. Hypermiling is a set of techniques that maximize your MPG.

Some common techniques are:
Don't drive aggressively
Don't go over the speed limit
Avoid traffic
Avoid coming to a complete stop
Try to accelerate as slowly as possible
Using neutral when going down hills

Some uncommon techniques are"
Drafting behind trucks
Using centripetal force to go around turns fast
Over-inflating your tires to reduce friction

We took a look at how what kind of MPG we got out of our Toyota Matrix when doing basic hypermiling around town. We averaged 61 MPG when hypermiling and 27 MPG when driving normal. At some points on the trip going down hill in neutral we got up to 247 MPG.

If you have any of your own techniques or stories of your own hypermiling let's hear it.