Iphone in car navigation - The Death of your PND

**Bugbyte** · 02-09-2009, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by prodigalsun

Yes I see your point but that just seems like a work around. Yet another thing to factor into the equation ie. mobile internet reliability, speed and cost. Here in Canada mobile internet costs are pretty much out the roof IMO and as always the Canadian market always lags behind when it comes to bringing cell phone technological innovations to the consumer.

For now I'm quite happy with my Car PC

Definitely one of those 'milestone' issues that would have to be cleared up before something like this could become a reality.

In the meantime, the cost of RAM keeps dropping and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a 60 gb mobile phone device -or larger in the next couple of years.

Also, relying on continuous net connectivity everywhere wouldn't be very smart. You'll have to solve the problem of what happens if the data or app isn't available when you need it. If it's flash based or java based or something like that, you may still be able to build an app that runs on the device and updates itself when it is in range of a network.

Lots and lots of technical challenges to be solved. Just the kind of stuff this community excels at.

**bambam** · 02-10-2009, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by Fiberoptic

The PND (Personal Navigation Device) and Car computer are Dead (pretty soon they will be)....

I use a cell phone only for emergencies (which costs me $15/month) so I have no interest in an iPhone or the $60-$70/monthly charge.

My carpc holds a TB of movies/music/maps, etc. and is fast. If the iPhone can store all that and run as fast, maybe I'll look at it in the future but for now, I am totally happy with my setup and it certainly looks alot cleaner than what I see in these pictures...

**-zip-** · 02-10-2009, 02:19 PM

Faster boot up times
no more cold/hot weather issues
more portable
cheaper
less battery draw
etc. etc.

Now, the average phone user will be more qualified to run this than our CarPCs and therefore more acceptance. I can see car audio shops installing this (errr with the movement detector so the driver cant see vids).

This looks like a very promising path. Thank you for sharing the video, the future it is very exciting.

**pcpete** · 02-10-2009, 03:02 PM

Oh, and a couple of other things cool about a pc setup:

- Most of my fun was planning, installing, configuring, fabricating....
I love using it and it works awesome, I believe I have the best of all worlds, audio,gps,etc ...but doing it was more rewarding than actually using it...

- My friends think I'm crazy, but they also think it is the coolest thing they've ever seen..

- Cheap simple upgrades and flexible... I can upgrade things separetaly, new cpu $100, new MB$100, new SSD $200 etc...

- I like to be different...having a mass consumer phone/headunit/oem system just isn't fun or different enough for me...

**stealinfool** · 02-10-2009, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by pcpete

Oh, and a couple of other things cool about a pc setup:

- Most of my fun was planning, installing, configuring, fabricating....
I love using it and it works awesome, I believe I have the best of all worlds, audio,gps,etc ...but doing it was more rewarding than actually using it...

- My friends think I'm crazy, but they also think it is the coolest thing they've ever seen..

- Cheap simple upgrades and flexible... I can upgrade things separetaly, new cpu $100, new MB$100, new SSD $200 etc...

- I like to be different...having a mass consumer phone/headunit/oem system just isn't fun or different enough for me...

I couldn't agree more.

The simple (easy to use), mass produced, flashy products that we are seeing today tend to be just fine for the average person. One can watch hulu, youtube... download a couple <insert pop artist here> songs, and they're satisfied. Us supernerds, on the other hand, will always be several steps ahead. So, I say, bring it on, because it'll only get better for the DIY guys.

**dMand** · 02-10-2009, 05:45 PM

The next generation multimedia telephone has arrived with a sonic boom, sporting a 412Mhz processor. Wow! LOL!!

All pun aside- We, the old timers, do fondly remember the megahertz madness days of the Intel-AMD competition. We know that processor speed may not be the only measure of performance, however, it's an important one.

With that said, while the GPS functions on the iphone may work fine, the iphone will peg out at 100% processor usage when playing video. That can cause playback problems, and much more.

**pcpete** · 02-10-2009, 08:21 PM

yeah baby, supernerdy brethren unite!!!! we must fight the evil empire !!! it used to be microsoft , now it's apple!!! or both!!!

**Bugbyte** · 02-10-2009, 08:34 PM

Again, good points by all. It will be quite awhile before a mobile device can beat a PC for customizability. But, given the rapid improvement in CPU power and performance, I don't see that day as being terribly far away. Gotta be ready for it when it comes.

**lamawithonel** · 02-14-2009, 04:08 PM

The future is Bluetooth 3.0 or Wireless USB. At the base level, a standard car radio could interface with a mobile device to add features, like the screen, mp3s and gps. At the high end, carputers like we're seeing now, with large screens and full compliments of tuners, gps, etc. could exchange data with a mobile device. The apps on your carputer could either interface to sync with you mobile device so you could do things like browse your contacts list and make a hands free call, or upload your gps path so you can go for a walk, find that resturant you passed a few blocks back, and find your car when you're finished. Or maybe just use it to give a presentation to your boss while you drive him out to lunch. And like you said in the video, using the apps on the mobile device isn't out of the question, either.

Add a G3/G4 phone module into the car and you'll have a hand-held LoJack tracker. Let's not forget all the little stuff, too, like remote entry and remote start-- although that might be better suited to bluetooth/wgps or a 900Mhz/2.5Ghz band technology.

Of course all this would depend on open devices and open standards, but with Apple's latest legal action, I don't see it happening any time soon.

**PaulF** · 02-17-2009, 03:58 PM

You guys are all saying death of the car PC, but in reality I don't think the car PC was ever really alive. By alive I mean it was never meant to become mainstream. It is a "geek"'s hobby and nothing more. The reason we want a Car PC is for the coolness factor and for going beyond what a 400mhz processor can do.