The Mp3Car Blog

This question has been asked over and over again so we decided to film the answer in HD as a way to test out our new camera. We have filmed the assembly of our telematics bundle.

Talk about this video on our Forums

Xohm's Baltimore Wimax hardware is working in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore.

Solrackm’s previous comments and reports of Xohm working in DC inspired me to go down and hear it from the horse’s mouth. I walked down to Xohm’s booth at the Baltimore Fells Point Festival which happens to be steps from Michael Phelp’s new house.

Here is the technical dirt from Mike who works at Xohm (not Mike Phelps). Xohm networks are active in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Northern Virginia and of course Baltimore. Mike and his coworkers warned me that the networks will work but are “not supported” and are still being tested. They did say my Samsung expresscard wimax hardware which I bought last week will work even in Chicago which is using Motorola tower equipment. To my knowledge, no coverage area has even been posted for these regions.

For those of you broadband geeks our there, it might be time to UPS air your Baltimore wimax hardware in for your fix of wimax geekery. I am flying to Boston on Wednesday with my Baltimore hardware. When we get there I will let you know how it works at the airport and surrounding suburbs.

Talk about this in our Wimax Forums where this was first reported by one of our users. 

My friend Mary checking out Michael Phelps’ new ~1.4 million dollar house around the corner from Xohm's Booth.

Introducing a new all-in-one Car PC solution!

For the last 6 months MP3car has been testing the Guru PC. The Guru is a new double din sized car computer that packs a serious punch. My review of the Garmin Mobile PC software was actually implemented using this hardware. This product is a significant step forward from previous “all-in-one” car computer offerings. We have decided to sell this in the store within the next 2 weeks. As with any new product, there are a lot of exciting things about this unit plus a few drawbacks.

The Good:

• Easy to install
• Fast. Really Fast. Garmin, StreetDeck, and Centrafuse fly. We might test Road Runner this weekend.
• Stable; It has only crashed twice in 6 months of testing
• Very nice sunlight readable screen. This isn’t quite transflective grade but it is better than most
• Tons of features packed in one box - Dual core CPU, Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth, PCMCIA, Amp, array mic, 120gb HD, 2gb Ram, shallow profile, low power, AM/FM hardware integrated, volume knob, programmable buttons, ambient light sensor, optical drive and more.
• The PCMCIA slot is a nice expansion option for high speed internet, more sound cards, CAN bus, MOST bus, or ther add on hardware. 

The Bad:

• There is currently no software support for any front ends; however, several front-end developers are aware of the hardware.
• No software support means clunky control of the AM/FM Radio, some of the preset buttons have no function.
• There has been no firm commitment from any front-end developers to support this hardware. We are told software support is just a matter of writing radio and button control plug-ins.
• Power management for the device is also software controlled. We hope to have an application done to handle all this by the time it gets released in a few weeks.
• The Price – The price hasn’t been set yet, but it will be less than $3,500

The Install:

• Here is a quick work log of my install.
• Hover your mouse over for an image description
• A full version will be posted shortly in the Blog Talk Forum(Link).
• If you can’t wait until this goes on sale, get a sneak peak this Saturday. 2pm. Lat/Lon: 38.963228,-77.154204

MP3Car and StreetDeck Developer Part Ways after Two Year Partnership to develop Mobile Platform

After over two years of partnership to develop the StreetDeck software mobile platform, MP3Car, Inc. and the creator of the software, DigitalWheelz, LLC, have decided to part ways. This strategic decision was reached after years of investment and support of the StreetDeck software by MP3Car.

Over the last year, MP3Car and DigitalWheelz have diverged in terms of vision and goals. It is expected that this decision will benefit each company’s respective customers by allowing MP3Car and DigitalWheelz to focus on providing better products and services going forward.

“While the decision to separate has been a difficult one to make,” said Robert Wray, owner of MP3Car, “we are confident at MP3Car that this is the best decision for StreetDeck customers and the future of MP3Car. It is time for MP3Car to focus on the needs of the forum users and provide better support to the forums.”

MP3Car has decided to shift away from product development and toward supporting innovators via the MP3Car Forums and the MP3Car online store. DigitalWheelz will continue to pursue StreetDeck software development initiatives.

MP3Car and DigitalWheelz recognize that this announcement follows six months of silence regarding the future of StreetDeck. However, with this decision, StreetDeck users can expect support and communication to improve immediately. “DigitalWheelz is very excited about achieving StreetDeck’s full potential and we will begin the process immediately.” says Chuck Holbrook, creator of StreetDeck and managing member of DigitalWheelz, LLC. All inquiries regarding StreetDeck software products and services should be directed to admin@digitalwheelz.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . It is expected that StreetDeck will continue to be sold at MP3Car.com as well as through other venues.

Here is a video that was shot at the 2007 SEMA Show, the world's 'Premier Automotive Specialty product Event' - or for us laymen - the biggest car gadget love-in anywhere in the world. The video is all about Mp3car and VIA's involvement in the Car PC industry and in particular the new G4 from Mp3car, a powerful VIA C7-based multimedia Car PC that fits into the dashboard of your car.

This car PC uses a 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor, 512MB – 1GB of system memory, 6.5" LCD touch screen, high-def audio, a 40GB – 250GB hard drive, a DVD ROM, internal GPS module and Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) receiver and the first ever HD radio receiver. It takes up the space of 2 DINs, in other words double the space of your regular car CD player or radio. So what kind of man (or woman) needs a PC in his car?

While the car PC is still very much an enthusiast level purchase we have to bear in mind that cars have been using computers for more than a decade now, and that many high-end sports cars and SUVs today require a PC to simply keep the engine running smoothly. This is where having the PC on the dashboard can have its advantages. In many custom sports cars the PC can handle the running of engine and various other components of the car as well as in-drive entertainment and GPS etc.

And people want to be entertained. Just because you're on the road doesn't mean that we can't watch a DVD or surf the net, especially where we are talking about road trips with the family. Driving to music is not a new idea, but how’s about having high-def sound pump out your entire music collection, stored on the hard drive of your car PC? Hmmm...

While car PCs are a popular past time for hobbyists around the globe, the Infill PC is a complete solution that promises easy installation and ease of use. The touch screen lets you navigate around Windows XP and do everything you'd usually do, but there's also a custom application called StreetDeck which is optimized to suit people with their hands on the wheel. With gesture recognition and simple, larger menus, StreetDeck would appear to make driving while using the PC reasonably safe.

The Infill G4 is an excellent example of what we at VIA are striving to achieve. Smaller devices and machines that use electricity sparingly and fit snuggly into our daily lives without using any cooling fans - making it more rugged and useful in situations like a moving vehicle. By developing systems that use less power and therefore create less heat, VIA is able to offer systems that run much cooler and can exist in some quite surprising places.

The car PC is only the beginning.

Intel notes that the versatility of the SwitchBack-PC is nearly “boundless,” and the modularity of the Black Diamond solution creates a lot of optionsvfor the design of the chopper. “Instead of a computerized dashboard affixed permanently to the bike we can use the BackPack technology to make it portable,” explains Intel’s Reed. “So theSwitchBack-PC not only controls and monitors the chopper, and integrates with its electronic subsystems, but it also functions as an Ultra Mobile PC, allowing the user to surf the Internet, do email, write reports, and so forth. You can snap it off and take it with you, preventing any unauthorized person from operating the vehicle.”

But it’s not just a snap-on PC either. “Everything on the bike is integrated with the computing system, and vice versa,” explains Justin Dyster, president of Black Diamond. What that means is that the ignition system is controlled by fingerprint recognition software. The sunlight viewable digital dashboard displays all of the traditional vehicle indicators like speedometer, tachometer, fuel and oil gauges, battery life, and turn signals. Black Diamond used StreetDeck* infotainment software to integrate audio and video applications like GPS navigation, Wi-Fi connectivity for quick updates on traffic and web-surfing, and touch-screen access to the radio and MP3 files, all of which are also integrated with the handlebars and headset in the helmet. Rear-mounted USB cameras replace standard rear-view mirrors to display rear-view images on the digital dashboard. This “dashboard” is also a fully functional PC, complete with QWERTY keyboard that can be disconnected from the vehicle and taken with you, to create, edit and view presentations, spreadsheets, do email, and so forth.