Thread: The iPad's role in your car?

Well, good news is last week 240,000 pre-orders with over 100,000 orders per week at this rate. They can't make them fast enough!

Wow, this thread went and got huge. The thing that people are missing on this is that the techie is NOT the target audience of Apple here. They are doing what their market research has told them -- Get the missing market segments. That's those who do very little with computers and the iPad will be powerful enough (think, your average mom), and also be versatile enough for niche markets.

We, my friends, are a niche market.

Let's say you've never had a carputer and are considering getting into it. You do some research and compile a list:
$300 - Computer
$225 - Lilliput
$100 - Power
$150 - Mounting solution
$100 - GPS Antenna
$80 - GPS software
$40 - Wireless internet
$180 - FM Radio
------
$1175

Then you see:

$630 - iPad
$150 - Mounting Solution
$25 - Power
-------
$805

You compare the 7" resistive vs. 9" capacitive screens. The touch designed apps. The ability to undock and take it on the go. Easily stream video from your home computer.

Regardless of your feelings on Apple in general, the iPad WILL have a large impact on our niche market, especially those newcomers to the club.

Ill be trying it out, because it does have appealing features. Do other future tablets contain things that trump the iPad? Sure! Let's try them too. But let's not damn a product before we try it out.

So it looks like everyone is kind of on board. Lets start discussing a front end interface we all would like to see on the iPad (taking into account the limits) and how we can help contribute to creating it, maybe from donations, code, or rounding up talented developers to execute this quickly!

Originally Posted by likeobama

So it looks like everyone is kind of on board. Lets start discussing a front end interface we all would like to see on the iPad (taking into account the limits) and how we can help contribute to creating it, maybe from donations, code, or rounding up talented developers to execute this quickly!

I have a vision for it, but it really depends on multitasking.

Code:

___________________
| R |              |
| E |              |
| V |     GPS      |
|   |              |
| A |--------------|
| P |              |
| P |     iTunes   |
|   |              |
|___|______________|

All I want is a front end that can separate the screen into frames. That way I get digital gauges, nav software (likely Navigon), and iTunes running together. Possible? Who knows, but I do know it requires multitasking.

you can already run itunes in the background, even built an interface for working with itunes within apps. the other 2 parts would need to be the app itself. a rev + gps app.

Originally Posted by optikalefx

you can already run itunes in the background, even built an interface for working with itunes within apps. the other 2 parts would need to be the app itself. a rev + gps app.

Very true. 1 down, 2 to go!!! That way you could make the controls for iTunes really easy too. Just a simple volume control, shuffle on/off, previous, next, play/pause, start visualizer, and go to full iTunes.

This is kind of what I would like to see as a Front End. As some may know Apple has already created an iPad iTunes app. It has a lot more finger friendly control compared to the one we're used to. If the action buttons (pause, play, scroll bar, etc) could be enlarged this could make it even more safe for the car. I've always wanted a scroll bar for music in the car but haven't seen one yet. Imagine seeing album art in a much more cleaner interface compared to what we are used to.

In the right bottom corner I think a small GPS app could be implemented (Tomtom allows some music control from within GPS), which could be enlarged if needed by a simple double tap. Next to that is a Safari app. A lot of apps in the app store have their own web browsers sometimes, so it shouldn't cause problems putting one in I assume. You could possibly watch youtube videos on the go.



Above the GPS is the contacts and answer buttons. When a bluetooth enabled phone rings, it silences the music/nav, and allows you to answer by a slide. The number could pop up within a transparent box. You can also make calls using the contact icon located next to the slider. How a speaker conversation is enabled, you could use whatever is available on your phone, or use some third party device. Once the iPad starts getting ripped apart, maybe a more convenient method could be created where the iPad mic could be used.

Voice control is also a major plus and it can easily be activated by holding the home button. It can help you find songs you were frantically looking for while driving, skip tracks, dial numbers or favorite contacts, etc.