This is a long post, but we're setting objectives here! First place let
me say we've sold 0 (zero) applications so far (23/03/05). That means
we started working for free and we are still very actively developing
this for free. This was a great surprise for us because we would have
payed for something like this. It would probably have saved us a lot of
nights! Money is NOT the objective of i3, but is of course an
incentive. I'd be a hypocrite to say otherwise. We would, however, like
money to be a byproduct of a good application. We plan to keep this
positive attitude and continue developing this. If you-re not ready to
buy the application, you can help incentivate us by clicking on the ads
on our site. (
http://www.i3team.com). That out of the way, let me
start...
We've been told that i3 has no goals or no final "destination"... to an
extent it's true because we've been trying to set the goals as we go
along according to feedback. Feedback has been scarce and feedback like
"It's crap" isn't very helpful in telling us where to go. Maybe we need
to get some ideas down and open them up for discussion. Let me tell you
where I'd like to go with i3 if I was building a car mac from scratch,
which I am.
Our first goal is to make i3 99% customizable. can't say 100% cause
there's always something that can't be changed. Version 1.0 was very
basic and about 20% customizable... version 1.1 I think is a very big
improvement and is about 90% customizable. We're missing Font and Text
customization on buttons or others and button size. We're also going to
try to make the quantity of buttons user definable... although 8
buttons seems a good starting point! Different screen resolutions are
also in the works since not everyone wants to use the same resolution
or even as the same screen size. These features are eluding us, but
we'll get there. Once this is down we are now free to make it up to be
more than a simple application launcher. But first we'd like it to be a
GOOD application launcher.
To me, the worst area in my MacJeep is the GPS software. It's also the
most difficult area to develop for! Route 66 sucks, period. It sucks
even more inside a car environment. It's normal it wasn't made for
this. This is the first application Fabio and I will look at
integrating with i3, but will probably be the last to be integrated.
Fabio already has something working so it's a question of developing it
a bit further and making it user friendly... right now it's coder
friendly. ;-) One big problem with GPS applications are their map
databases. Besides the GB they occupy it's close to impossible to
please everyone. I want a Portuguese map... I doubt there are many of
you reading this who want a Portuguese map. Besides this "small"
problem there is a much larger one: all these database maps cost money.
Tons of it. Much more than we're able or willing to pay. Even if I sold
my car I wouldn't be able to pay for some of the databases. One option
might be to make it possible to add scanned or downloaded maps. That
might give us a few problems with scales and accuracy... besides not
having the ability do be text searchable, but if we could get a GPS app
up and running in i3 it would be a very good first step. This is
something that developing in 4D is good for... databases and stuff like
this can be integrated into the application. Most other environments
would need separate components all over the place. We might even offer
a GPS application ALSO as a separate component if people are happy with
it.
Phone application. This is important. We want to fully integrate the
phone. Panther doesn't allow audio to stream from the phone to the
system through Bluetooth... I've read Tiger does. We want a BIG phone
pad on the screen which we can use for dialling a number or for SMS
messaging. I'm using BluePhoneElite which by itself is amazing... but
obviously it's developed for desktop use so a lot of features need a
mouse or keyboard. If you have a Bluetooth Phone and haven't tried
BluePhoneElite you-re really missing something good.
Other areas which are easier to work for and we might go in that
direction is to make a custom front end for iTunes. To an extent I
don't really understand the need for this cause iTunes isn't too bad to
use in the car... especially for me who uses it 99% of the time in
Shuffle mode, but if thats what people want we can go there. I also use
a Powermate to control iTunes since the powermate can be configured to
replicate any key. I can control system volume, track up or down, pause
and play and scratch up or down. This gives me the basic control I need
over iTunes. I probably won't be selecting any playlists (let alone
making them!) on the go... shuffle satisfies my eclectic tastes. But
hey, we're all different and I can understand someone wanting to scroll
through their playlists in a readable interface. :-)
Next: Video application. VLC works very well for me, but if people want
us to develop something from scratch we can try. VLC reads most
formats, goes to full screen automatically and all other needed
features can be programmed with the Powermate again. If someone can
explain why another video app is needed we'll look into it, otherwise
we might drop this or leave it for last. It can also be programmed to
open up a default folder at launch so all you'd have to do is store
your movies in there. You can also configure it as the default app when
you insert a DVD o VCD or whatever.
TV / Radio application. I have no opinion on this yet. I'm waiting to
have things running in the car first. A difficulty with this is getting
this to run with different hardware... I have a mixed TV / Radio tuner
which needs specific drivers. This isn't a system feature or anything
nor are there generic drivers for it. This is something that IF
developed would have to be designed for a specific hardware. Not
easy... I haven't tested this at all, though, so first let me get the
car moving again and start to catch all the "baddies" on the interface.
At first sight it doesn't look to bad once all the stations are
memorized and TV channels set.
Photos. I'm sorry... nothing beats iPhoto. Nothing. I doubt you'll be
doing a lot of picture uploading while driving (please don't, I'm on
the road too... and sometimes on the sidewalk!). iPhoto might be the
sole reason I'll have a mouse and keyboard stowed away in the car
somewhere. Slideshows and stuff like that will be dependent on iPhoto
or the system screensaver.
Summing it up, I'd like to have stuff developed in the following order:
1) GPS
2) Phone
3) iTunes front
4) Video
BUT.. and this is a big BUT (no pun intended) i3 will always launch
whatever application you want. We will not force you to use our
applications. You might have done better somewhere we failed to do so.
We want to keep i3 flexible.
Some questions you could answer to help us:
What applications are you configuring i3 buttons for?
What applications would you like to see integrated into i3?
What are we missing in the interface?
Tell us a special feature/ option you need.
Anything else you might care to spend your time to tell us will be
read and appreciated. I guarantee it. Any questions you pose I will
answer (might take some time).
Thanks for spending the time to read this.
not really..... i use a pc, mac and linux...
Linear Mode
