Thread: Any last requests?

i have noticed my self doing this quite alot... hitting the home button to go all the way back to the main menu to see the time? perhaps it could be displayed elsewhere all the time? in one of the top or bottom bars and as a pop up bar in a visual? maybe? just a thought...

As much as I like the idea of always having the time visible, I didn't want to clutter the screen with a feature that may not be used or appreciated by some people.
I am a huge fan of dashboard as I can use it for just about anything, including a clock. This is my favourite widget for the car:

First, I want to thank you for your efforts. I truly appreciate what you are making available to us. Unfortunately, I am not a coder (more of a hardware guy) and can not contribute anything intellectual to the project, but when/if you accept financial contribution, would gladly donate to the cause.

I have a very unique feature request, which i would be very greatful if you included. I would like the option for the on-screen volume control to be able stimulate an external output (as an option in the setup menu). My reason for asking, is that i use an outboard processor that i control the volume through. even something "simple" like a teachable ir output that would have memory for three codes volume up, volume down, mute would be wonderful, or just support for any of the various usb digital i/o boards, so the same could be done with relays.

Thanks,
Hans

Congratulations on what looks to be a very promising carpc front end. On only the first release you have managed to achieve a very functional mp3 player with an excellent GUI. Seeing this has certainly made me re-think the hardware to be used in my setup.

My recommendations:

- 4:3 videos are stretched to widescreen AR (aspect ratio), personally I don't like this at all, give the user the option of leaving original AR or stretching to fit.
- .mkv (matroska) and .mpg/mpeg videos do not show up in the videos list.
- Support to play songs off ipod/iphone, not sure if this one is feasible or not.
- Ability to browse all tracks at once, instead of sorting by artist, then album etc.
- When the home button is pressed, it goes directly back to the home screen, at the moment it goes back through all previous windows first.
- Option to play a random song on startup.
- Option to add extra visulizations, include ones from itunes.
- fast forward and rewind music/video, tap the middle of the screen during playback and up comes a seek bar possibly?.
- When saving settings the volume resets back to 10%, if you go into the on-screen volume menu it still shows the last volume you were listening at.
- When a video stops, auto play the next in the list.
- Brands and model of hardware used by the devs, screen, remote etc.
- There seems to be alot of information scattered through the forum, recommended widgets etc, maybe compile a central list of developer recommended widgets/extras

The scrolling menus are great, far better than the next/prev pages most carpc's do. If anymore work is done to this maybe it could be made more like the itouch/iphone, where you can 'flick' through the playlists and it keeps scrolling when your finger is taken off the screen.

- Love the GUI design and layout
- Love the quick mute button on every screen
- Love being able to search music, maybe a video search too?


Great work guys

Thanks nicr4wks for such a comprehensive list. I'll try to comment on as much as I can without releasing too much about version 2,
Firstly, anything to do with how the movie player works currently works, forget. It was a last minute addition that was never really finished. I was hoping to scrap movies completely but since it seems as though people do watch movies in the car, it will stay and be completely rewritten.
- iPod/iPhone support would be nice but not a priority yet.
- The home button will go to the main screen.
- Never thought of playing a random song on startup. Sounds like a good idea.
- At the moment iTunes visualizers will work, but have to be altered slightly. Ask sonneboz all about it
- Movies will have fast forward and rewind, but not music.

- When saving settings the volume resets back to 10%, if you go into the on-screen volume menu it still shows the last volume you were listening at.

I think that was a bug in an earlier release. Do you have the latest?

- In version 2, when the movie finishes the next movie in the list will play.

- Brands and model of hardware used by the devs, screen, remote etc.
- There seems to be alot of information scattered through the forum, recommended widgets etc, maybe compile a central list of developer recommended widgets/extras

I will be starting up a website for ICE³, which will have more info.

The scrolling menus are great, far better than the next/prev pages most carpc's do. If anymore work is done to this maybe it could be made more like the itouch/iphone, where you can 'flick' through the playlists and it keeps scrolling when your finger is taken off the screen.

I agree, the 'flick' is awesome. If I knew how to do it, I would. Maybe look at it later.

Thanks again.
I think you will be very happy with version 2.

Running version from post #4 in this thread Latest Release
Finder shows "Created: 4/11/08 5:25pm"

Shame about no fast forward for audio, a lot of electronica mp3s are 1+hrs long with no track breaks, along with FM/web rips.
I've recently been playing around with http://marcmoini.com/sx_en.html however it only does coasting when using the scroll wheel, if this software was suitable perhaps ice3 could be adapted?

Scoping out the hardware I want to use at the moment, very much looking forward to version 2.

This is fantastic front end, and I truly feel if you continue to polish it, add elegant and easy GPS/OBD integration as aforementioned and continue to support it, you could damned well sell it!

That said, a few things I would like to see:
CAR2PC support built into the app
Some sort of useable web browser
Usage of built in bluetooth chipset for phone syncing (iPhone in particular)
Aforementioned iPod support
iTunes playlist support that draws album art work painlessly (Talk to the neonboombox guys, they did it properly I think)
Some type of screen that would show What's playing, the map, art work, and other essentials all at once for a main screen
Hardware control support (I.E. kbb, griffin powermate, ect)
DVD support
Some quartz based love for people with more than one gig of ram

car2pc support
bluetooth phone support

In addition to everything else mentioned, these additions would make this FE unstoppable

GPS logging and display of location on map using http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page maps (free maps)

Bluetooth phone audio support via bluephone elite 2 - mirarasoftware.com/

support for PowerMate - different control meanings in different contexts, or support for two PowerMates (one that handles volume and track fwd/rew, a second that handles all menu navigation?)