Scouse Monkey

Macs are optimized for multimedia. Look at the difference in multimedia handling windows XP has over 95, 98, NT and 2K - they are all ****e but XP is not bad - even comes with an okay for beginners movie editing package.

For years Macs have been designed for people working with multimedia and because they are a single company they are able to easily change their architecture to suit the purpose unlike IBM type PCs which have an absolutely terrible architecture and have upgrades in them made bu every tom-dick and harry. Personally i struggle to use Macs for a good few hours ehrn i have to set one up on a windows network with printers and mapped drives etc but i can see the good points and they do respond quicker.

With PCs we sacrifice that "everything works well 99% of the time" for the ability to build our own PCs for a lot less using parts we want. I like OSX and i think MAc have the design of all their stuff down to a fine art but it depends what you want in life - an easy boring one or a bloody frustrating but interesting one getting to build your own car PC from MAC bits is not really feasable - PC bit are abundant and everyone likes to be individual.

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If you want more answers on anything I have posted you can find me at digital-car.co.uk

or skiing or diving or doing somthing else fun!

rushnrockt

Haha, indeed. And I still think that the first Mac carputer with this thing should be a beetle, just suits it so well.

rushnrockt

The issue is actually that a lot of people consider this as another possibility for a CarPC system, while a few other people that are not interested are trying to convince them it is not a big deal.
Considering how much of a niche market this is, any new development is a big deal, just because you don't think Apple has good products overall, does not change the fact that this is a new and viable option for a carputer.

Red GTi VR6 addressed some of your other whining so I will add just one more thing. If you don't think it's great or interesting, good for you. You don't want this in your car, good for you too. You say you don't care about this new computer... fine, but why spend so much time telling everyone how much you don't care? If you can practically summarize what you see as pros and cons, go for it, it will put some perspective as to how usable this new computer can be. But then I am afraid your bias might prevent you from doing that. So may be you should just leave the topic to people that can have a balanced input, that way you will prove how much you don't care by actually NOT caring. And the rest of us won't have to read another Apple bashing post.

viguera

Red expressed her opinion about my opinion. I don't see anybody whining other than the people that feel that they must prove me wrong. Just like you're entitled to read all my posts and come up with this witty one of your own, I'm entitled to post whatever the hell I feel like about Apple, nano-itx, and the mole on the Pope's forehead. If you don't like it, you don't have to read my posts, nor should you feel compelled to reply.

And maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm not trying to sway anybody in any direction. Again, I think this is good for Apple and Apple fans... they've been neglected on the SFF and low price arena for a while. And again, I don't have to think this deserves the hype to think so. If you never thought that something was good but just not good for you then that's your problem, not mine.


And again, that shows that what you don't know can bite you in the ***. You can go ahead and look through my posts and see where I say that I don't own or have never owned a Mac. I don't have to be biased against something just because I don't like it... it's called "choice" (something Mac people are raving about, I hear), and a free market. You buy what you like, you don't buy what you don't. But if you feel like making some kind of counter-point to the posts that I've made, feel free to go through them... I'm sure you'll find something to argue with. I still don't have to care.


Ah yes... the classic "stop Apple bashing" business. Before the thread turns into one of those "you don't like Apple so you must be bashed" businesses, I'll let you be. Incidentally, I can actually post saying that I don't care that you don't care that I don't care. If I care to do so.

rushnrockt

Incidentally, you will contradict yourself in that statement. Hmmm. May be you should keep posting after all, these kindspearls of wisdom don't come too often.

And yes, you can keep on posting as much as you want about anything and everything, but then may be you need a diary After all, this forum is mostly to help people figure out how to put a carputer together. Anyways, I hope you can keep on coming up with your tortured logic without any more of my input. Adios.

sdashiki

Why is this turning into the size of the machine and not its cost.

This is APPLE the people who HAVE NEVER EVER EVER charged under $1000 for a computer (cept the eMac most recently) and now, anyone who said I dont want to even put a mac in my car cuz they are too expensive, can.

Ive been searching for a G4 mobo on ebay for months and anything decent to start with is way over $400 by itself. So the fact you can now get a BRAND NEW APPLE G4 processor computer with all the workings needed for $500 is awesome.

Ill eventually use one but since i got arrested this weekend (see off topic threads) Im a little outta $. So by the time I do get a cheap G4 mac for my carpc, i could even buy used and daved more $.

And when OSX 10.4 comes out with "Automator" (built in macro type application.script program) it will be incredibly easy to do anything for a GUI frontend. Im gonna make my own and perhaps this new mac for $500 will stimulate others to do the same.

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Trying to fit my 20" iMac into the dash... RF 600.5 amp, two 10" JLW0, 8 Infinity Components

kandyman676

that is EXACTLY the spirit this thread should have: the Mac Mini is another alternative to the Car Computer scene just like there is with Windows and Linux installs. I can really care less about most of this thread about Apple vs PC and i can build it cheaper blah blah blah. Its all about if it is FEASIBLE to get this Mac Mini to work in a car, that's it. as Car Computer enthusists, we (of MP3Car.com) should be SUPPORTING the effort of trying to get this piece of hardware to work in ways it was not intended, just like our PCs.

to get back ON topic:

after a bit of googling, there are a few people that have Mac products running in their cards. however, there is a complete LACK of a Mac install scene. here is what i have found

Mac install:
- GPS: the only piece of GPS software that seems to be out there for Macs is Route 66 that does NMEA. if anybody can find anything better, do tell.
- Wardriving - http://www.macstumbler.com/
- MP3s - most seem to use iTunes for their musick management
- XM radio - http://macxm.sourceforge.net/
- Central interface - seems they are non-existant or custom built

I am becoming more and more convinced to try to install this Mac Mini into my car. at the worst, I just KVM the thing to my network or Ebay it. I was about to go install a Tablet PC with hacked dock into my car (another scene that is way more $$), but just like the Mac Car Computer scene, hardly exists.

__________________
"If it works this good why F with it?" -KMFDM "Intro"

Strive for ethical wardriving: http://faq.wardrive.net/

My CarCPUs: v1 - 2000 | v2 - 2004
Mp3Car Meets: http://detrimental.org/eyecandy/MP3CarMeets

_dopehead_

I have absolutely no knowledge of the gui workings of osx, the last time i used a mac was in 93 i think it was an LCII with an old ethernet card in it, trying to configure some routers to run appletalk (crap). So just some questions though :

- hibernate/shutdown startup times for this box would be in the region of how many secs ?
- Dos a G4 mobo use a regular ATX power plug or something Macxotic ?
- Would you be able to get a touchscreen driver for mac for the lilliput/xenarc screens

Jan

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kandyman676

these would really depend on actually getting the hardware in hand, and timing it, and checking if it does use an ATX power plug. if it does, then do the same things as PCs.

of course, from the little pics i have seen, its a power brick like a laptop that powers it. (and I may be wrong @ this).

the mini macs power requirements are:
# Line voltage: 100-240V AC
# Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase
# Maximum continuous power: 85W
# Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
# Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)
# Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
# Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet


Xenarc - YES! -> http://www.xenarc.com/download.html
Lilliput - YES! -> http://www.egalax.com.tw/Download.htm

__________________
"If it works this good why F with it?" -KMFDM "Intro"

Strive for ethical wardriving: http://faq.wardrive.net/

My CarCPUs: v1 - 2000 | v2 - 2004
Mp3Car Meets: http://detrimental.org/eyecandy/MP3CarMeets

Alric

Wake from sleep in a mac is instantaneous. Start-up times are comparable to PCs.

As I mentioned before, there are already mac drivers for touchscreens.

Bugbyte

Okay, we're all excited (okay, most of us) about this possibility. Is there a way we can get a Mac forum? A place to discuss the development, solve the problems, whatever?

Otherwise, we can flame each other a whole bunch.

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Alric

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Attached Images

 

kandyman676

I 2nd that. I actually run a Ipod directly into my head unit, and have been going back and forth about getting this mac mini.

__________________
"If it works this good why F with it?" -KMFDM "Intro"

Strive for ethical wardriving: http://faq.wardrive.net/

My CarCPUs: v1 - 2000 | v2 - 2004
Mp3Car Meets: http://detrimental.org/eyecandy/MP3CarMeets

meatwad

... its back at work on my POWERBOOK.

Hello all. This I will be my first post after a month or so of lurking and dreaming about a carputer. I also noticed a lack of Mac-centric ideas for car-computering on this site and abroad so a forum, to quote Cartman, would be "totally t1ts"

NiN^_^NiN

I personally don't care for mac and it is semi useless in the car cause of no frontend whihc makes it dangerous to play with.

BUT (yes mac fan let me speak :P) as with linux you just have to wait for a frontend (im sure winamp for mac might be possible for now).

Right now the mac is useless but that was the same as the PC before we had the DOS mp3 player

There is a forum about CarMacs (hey i made a new title hehe) im not sure what the site is but on this forum a guy said he was using a mac and gave a link to it.

I went there and it looks like a OSX frontend is being developed and for GPS they were using a native mac app (think it was just moving map) but they also use a win emu to run GPS aswell

So the Verdict? it's not as functional as alot of people would like it to be but it will very soon

Also don't you guys remember there was a guy on this forum who was making a mediaCar clone on OSX

Maybe you should go see how he is doing

I dont really reccomend using the Mac in the car right now cause I think its more dangerous to do the stuff you want but i do say if you want to have a CarMac in the future i say buy it now while the hardware is cheap and still available

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CarPC Status:
GPS: 99%
Hardware: 99%
Software: 92%
Case Install: 99.9%
Dash Install: 100%
Car Install: 72%