Motorola Droid as a CarPC ?

gsnathan · 10-29-2009, 12:54 PM

Is the a way to hack android phones such as the motorola droid, to display out the screen to a VGA 7" or 8" screen with touchscreen capability. This way, you can control and launch apps using the VGA screen. And since they come with a 3.5mm audio out port, that could be connected to the headunit and then you have a media player as well.

Ideally, it would be awesome if somehow the usb connection could do that and also keep the phone battery charged up.

That would be a perfect carpc replacement with phone capability. And think about all the Android apps that are on the market now.

Just a wild dreammm, maybe.....

(Currently have a netbook as a carpc in my boot, but no phone feature.)

soundman98 · 10-29-2009, 01:10 PM

i think this is along the same lines as trying to use a iphone for a car computer--while the droid may have a higher resolution, the interface is just not 'car friendly'.

jcam · 10-29-2009, 05:58 PM

As far as car friendly goes, the droid has a "car mode." When it detects in in a car dock (via magnets on the back) it starts up the car mode app. Check out Engadget for more details.

It looks like that when it's in car mode though you only have access to navigation and contacts. It would be nice if they expanded that so you could access your media too.

While I'm dreaming here, why doesn't motorola just make a headunit that you could dock into?

DaveDog · 10-29-2009, 06:48 PM

from all the specs I've seen from the droid, it does not have video out capability like the iphone, still waiting for the right handset, I'm hoping for the Omnia 2

gsnathan · 10-29-2009, 07:26 PM

Does the Omnia 2 have video out?

justchat_1 · 10-30-2009, 01:06 AM

I'm sure it won't be long before a device with video out is released if its not available in any of the 50 phones their releasing in the next few months. Thats the beauty of an open platform....

sxott · 10-30-2009, 11:07 AM

Yeah I imagine you will get a phone that will do it eventually. The Zune wold allow you to do video out even.

DaveDog · 10-30-2009, 02:42 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by gsnathan

Does the Omnia 2 have video out?

Yes, and also rumored video in (rearview cam?)

Blues · 10-30-2009, 04:25 PM

There's already a dedicated forum for Motorola Droid: www.droidforums.net

The mobile operator Verizon who is going to sell Droid in America also has an 'Android Devices' subforum where Droid is discussed: http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Android...ndroid_Devices

Only and micro-USB connector for charger/PC and a 3.5 mm earphone jack according to the Droi user manual. So no video out unless it's transmitted over USB or Wi-Fi.

Quote: Originally Posted by Droidforums.net

Now is your chance to get the FULL details of the upcoming Motorola Droid phone for Verizon. The official Droid User Guide has been released, and yup we GOT IT available for download here!

Magnezium · 10-30-2009, 05:14 PM

Check out the N95,96 and maybe 97. My N95 hooks up to a TV and displays exactly what's on the phone. Very cool stuff.

Blues · 11-05-2009, 07:12 PM

Droid™ will be renamed Milestone™ for the GSM market. Milestone has been officially announced for Germany, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. In Germany it's said to arrive already monday November 9th, and the carrier will be O2: http://o2online.de

Google Maps™, Google Maps™ Navigation (BETA), Google Latitude™, Google Maps Street View and eCompass are all listed under the specifications for Droid, but unfortunately not listed for Milestone.

The reason is Google Maps™ Navigation is only supported in America so far. So Milestone will use Motorola's own navigation system MOTONAV instead. (At least until Google Maps™ Navigation will be avaiable in more countries anyway).

However Milestone supports multi-touch pinch zoom, and I have read that Droid doesn't support this feature althought the hardware is still multi-touch.

Droid is delivered with a 16MB microSD card while Milestone is only delivered with a 8MB microSD card.

Milestone has up to 350 hrs. standby time while Droid only has up to 270 hrs. standby time (due to the different networks they operate on "GSM vs. CDMA").

Supported networks by Motorola Milestone:
3G
WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS Class 12, WiFi.

http://motorola.com/milestone

http://motorola.com/droid