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MeeGo for the car pc was just released a few weeks ago. The platform has an excellent boot time. Nasa is looking forward to the development of this open sources platform.

We are at it again, giving stuff away for free to innovators. This time, we have partnered with the guys at Centrafuse.

The Challenge - Build the coolest "connected car" plug-in you can think of.
We're talking about a location-based or "location-aware" app here -- like when your mobile phone knows of good restaurants nearby... but in the car... and way cooler; like if your car could let you know if you were entering a high-crime area and automatically lock your doors for you. Neat stuff like that. The winner will be the entry demonstrating the most creative and innovative use of GPS location in a plug-in application for Centrafuse Auto as determined by the voting forum members.

First Prize
Lilliput 7-inch Touchscreen LCD - courtesy of Mp3Car.The first prize winner will be chosen using a poll where forum members will cast their vote for their favorite submitted "connected car" app over the span of 10 days, following the contest deadline. On day 11 we will count the votes and the first-prize winner receives a brand new 7" Lilliput touchscreen LCD, compliments of our friends at Mp3Car along with a free t-shirt from the Centrafuse Gear Shop. The first prize winner will also have their app featured in the upcoming Centrafuse "app store" which is now underway. More info on that later.

Second Prize
Free map upgrade and item of choice from Centrafuse Gear ShopSecond place prize will be awarded to the developer with the 2nd most votes, and will receive a free map upgrade (when available) and a free item of their choice from the Centrafuse Gear Shop.

Third Prize
Free item of choice from the Centrafuse Gear Shop. Third place prize will be awarded to the developer with the 3rd most votes, and will be receive a free item of their choice from the Centrafuse Gear Shop.

Challenge Rules

• Use the latest Centrafuse 3.1 SDK
• Create a plug-in app for Centrafuse Auto
• Must use GPS location (from Centrafuse Nav API or other source)
• Must work with the default "Clean" skin - (see helper PSD here)
• Must have at least 1 language file (English)

Register for the challenge here.

Contest begins August 22nd and the contest deadline is September 26th, 2010.Submit your finished compiled working plug-in application by the contest deadline. (see below)

Contest deadline:
All contest submissions must be uploaded by midnight US Eastern Time on September 26th, 2010.

See official contest rules and submission guidelines here.

On Your Mark, Get Set... Go!

Get started now and start planning your plug-in idea. The contest officially starts on August 22nd so start brainstorming now, or if you already have your evil plan, get a head start on the rest of the pack.

Get the SDK here and get started now!

Local Baltimore Tech Guru and CNN commentator, Mario Armstrong, covered the mp3Car community and Justin Riley's iPad vehicle dock on CNN this morning. Video link here.

If you haven't noticed, in the last few days it seems that fear of hacking the car's computer is all the rage. Here are a few of the articles published.

NYTime's Cars’ Computer Systems Called at Risk to Hackers

Popular Science's Proof-of-Concept CarShark Software Hacks Car Computers, Shutting Down Brakes, Engines, and More

And today, Engadget's Hackers can remotely disable your car's brakes, create sensationalist headlines

For some time now, mp3Car moderators have been awarding Innovation Grants to community members that are working on an interesting project or product. The goal of the grant is to support innovation among mp3Car forum members.

We have just created a forum for the mp3Car Innovation Grant where any community member can post about what they are doing, or link to other threads on the forum or elsewhere, and let the moderators know what product or software they could use to further their work.

The grant is awarded monthly, for a maximum of $100 including shipping. You can request any product or software; it does not have to be something sold on the mp3Car store. From time to time, the grant will be slightly larger.

If you are working on something interesting, just post about it in this forum and let us know what we can do to help you advance your work. To get an idea of past grants, you can check out the wiki article.