Thread: Mp3Car's Sean Clark on 'Why Tablets?'

The tablet IS what the silly Nokia Taco-Phone wanted to be. I'm looking for another Android, the 4.3" Sly has become the wife's gaming device (Either I get another tab, OR I find a Playstation game a LOT like Quadris).

My '06 Chevy has the factory CD/MP3, and the CD hack/Aux input mod didn't work
A second best would be a set of relays to swap my system over to the MP3 jack, but the input levels are so far off, the A/B comparison makes the Aux sound pretty flat and anemic.

With a solid dash mount, I may be able to live with touch-screens...

The full-fledged PC thing never appealed to me because of the screen sizes available, and the mouse. And pointer nubs and track pads? Crash.

I think I have read every post here, and I have not seen this mentioned...

It sounds like the pros of the tablet, are inherently better screens, portability, instant-on, etc..

Pros of the CarPC are all the other awesome things we enjoy...



So, why not just have both? Use the tablet as the screen for your CarPC... done. This is my plan exactly. I am going to mount a tablet with at least 1024x768 resolution, and use VNC to control my CarPC. This gives you the freedom to take the tablet out of the car, and control your entire audio system, and anything else you would have done with your CarPC. VNC and similar solutions are fast enough to do HD video these days, especially over Wireless N, and the low resolutions that we are pushing here. You can also use bluetooth if you'd rather not buy a router. On top of all this, you can use your smartphone to control it as well, if you were just wanting to change the song, or volume, etc, and were within 100ft or so.

So, best of both worlds. Get your $400 miniITX machine, stuff it behind your dash or in the trunk, get a Wirless N router, and a bad *** tablet (any variety will do,) and you're set... Just gotta configure your CarPC front-end.

If you decide you'd rather use the tablet instead of the CarPC interface, that's fine too. You can easily use the Android SDK to write software to talk to the CarPC to control your extra stuff. The idea of this "black box," is good and all, but you're looking at a device so custom that it will easily cost 10 times more than a CarPC. My solution would cost less than a grand for everything, aside from audio equipment. It also gives you the freedom to have GOOD audio passed to your amplifiers... I plan to go active in the future.

$0.02

I actually have not been on this site for over a year since I sold my Audi which had a Mac Mini in the glovebox running Windows software..

I installed a 7" tablet in my Sequoia right in front of the factory radio. I teether my phone to the tablet so it has internet and I get everything I could want from the tablet, other than a cool interface that puts it together, though I use the Samsung "Car Mode" from the galaxy S2 that has room for custom shortcuts..

Here is my thoughts on this..
I have 2 wires to the tablet, power plug and headphone to headphone adapter. That and a mount are it for the entire install. I can actually move my CarPC from car to car if I wanted..
I do use the stock radio for volume control and amp because it sounds fine and I use the steering wheel controls for volume control..

But here is what I have through the Tab.

The best GPS you can get (IMO). Real time traffic, voice commands, POI seach, web reviews, program called Places which will search for businesses near your location..

Radio, but better than antenna, web based so it never fades, program called Tune In.. I can listen to a rock station 400 miles from me..

Sirius Radio-- Android app is missing some channels like Nascar channel but still web based and awesome.

Movies, stored on SD, have Netfix, Hulu and the tablet has HDMI out that you could use on headrest monitors if you wanted..

Of course MP3 player, which is what I normally listen too. 32GB SD Card holds plenty..

I also have email, remote desktop to my home computer, a bit torrent program to download movies and mp3's.

AND the best of all, a program called Torque, which uses a bluetooth OBD2 connector and gives me everything about my truck, 1/4 mile time, pitch and roll, GPS speed, MPG, Air intake temp, engine load, vacuum, boost if you have it and gobs of other info. Best program ever and only $5..

So I could not agree more with this article, I think tablets are the future of CarPC's. You can get a used Galaxy Tab 7" for $100 on Craigslist.. My only advice is to make sure the tablet has built in GPS..

You know ScrapMaker, that is an awesome idea. Is that even possible though? I would love to use my Car PC for all the heavy stuff, then when each user wants to do their own thing, they can use the tablet. Oh man, I wish you would have chimmed in when I was starting my build. Your route would have saved me so many headaches. Now my system is nearly done so I cant turn back.

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

You know ScrapMaker, that is an awesome idea. Is that even possible though? I would love to use my Car PC for all the heavy stuff, then when each user wants to do their own thing, they can use the tablet. Oh man, I wish you would have chimmed in when I was starting my build. Your route would have saved me so many headaches. Now my system is nearly done so I cant turn back.

Very possible... I already have my pre-order set for the Transformer Prime... super hi-res IPS screen, quad-core, 32GB storage, 1GB of RAM... gonna be killer.

The reason for the tablet is mostly because of the lack of good screens for us... this way, I can use the tablet for basic stuff, and let my CarPC do the heavy lifting on the back-end.. like storing my music and movie database, recording security cameras, and interfacing with all my car's OBD stuff, and control my HVAC system. Those things are a bit too custom for the tablet, but with my solution, I get the best of both worlds.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Turbo has my vote for post of the year! Thumbs up.

Agreed. I'm really glad he chimed in about the Tablet being a form-factor since that was the biggest flaw with the original premise. He also makes a very good point about ease of install, use and limitation.

Way to go TC!

You know Turbo makes some excellent points, and hes absolutely right the tablet will be for most people, but still will never be for the super hobbyists. I do think however, that there needs to be a "new" term for tablet. Because while your right that MS had tabletPCs 10 years ago, they were not the same devices as the ones we have today. Today's "tablets" run mobile Oses, are thin, faster, have multitouch, and glass screens. Those things combined can make a case for a new type of device, albeit in the tablet form factor.

However, that is pretty much a moot argument and not worth spending anymore time on that issue. So we can disregard it completely.

The fun stuff now lies on the future. As a community obviously driven by innovation and geekery, what can we now do with tablets to bring some of the hobby / DIY features of a carPC to the new wave of "tablets" that people now want. 1 / 3 new members want a tablet install. And that stat was from 2 months ago. I need to run the numbers again and I'm willing to say, it might have shifted to more tablet-centric users here now, than hardcore car PC guys.

So we should embrace this, we should respect this, and we should innovate around this. The future of this forum lives within us to stay on top of what kind of tech people want in their cars.

ha, brother you're really hung up on trying to differentiate between a windows tablet that you seem to equate with the past and these "new" devices, but there really is no fine line between them. it's more of an evolution type thing. these came from that & eventually they will merge & the line will blur even more. there are right now some very fine windows 7 tablets out that are current, not old. they're every bit a tablet, same as these. they too have great screens & dual touch & everything else that an android tablet has and then some. how are you going to differentiate between them when more & more start to come in dual boot configuration? some already are, you can choose windows or android on boot, the only difference is the operating system. you can not draw a line between a tablet and a tablet other than saying one is an android tablet and one is a windows tablet. I believe that as hardware becomes more powerful & windows adapts more to the mobile environment that you will see more and more of these android tablets also being able to boot into windows, so eventually even that won't hold true, they will be one and the same.

even so, I do still think android would be the right choice over windows for many for all the reasons already discussed. I really do kinda see your point in wanting to differentiate, but you're going to have to come up with something better than saying only some tablets are tablets and other tablets are not tablets

haha, well i would love for a new name for these devices to be given. Tablet is the form factor, but I don't know what to call these new guys, what "kind" of tablet is it. Because 7 years ago, if you said tablet, everyone had an image of one of those flip over laptops, or hefty laptop with no hinge. But now, if you say tablet, they think ipad, android. the samsung galaxy s2 is still a phone, but we differentiate from a flip phone by means of the prefix. Flip phone, vs, smart phone, vs touch phone. They all are phones, but a touch phone is a sub category of smart phone.

But yea, naming really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. I dont have the answer so i should probably keep my mouth shut