Help Bugbyte kill his car PC with an iTouch/iPhone install - Page 5

super-fly · 03-07-2009, 09:41 AM

a beta of spinboard was released to cydia last night.

super-fly · 03-07-2009, 09:43 AM

I spoke too soon...I just looked and it seems to have been removed already

Bugbyte · 03-07-2009, 10:02 AM

Doh!

hutacars · 03-08-2009, 12:19 PM

I feel that the main, crucial element that's lacking here is the ability to control the iPhone through an external touchscreen. I realize there are other issues (switching to landscape without turning the phone, etc) but I feel that those are relatively minor. If worse comes to worst, it would be possible to make an app for iPhone that basically emulates an iPhone with some changes (by making an emulator, this would prevent the need to do any iPhone OS hacking which could potentially ruin your iPhone). Some of the changes could include the ability to rotate any screen (including Home) by using two fingers and rotating them, sort of like the multitouch gesture found on the new MacBooks, or reprogramming the Home button to go to the emulated Home screen. For these reasons, I feel it should be a relatively small matter to write apps to fix these issues.

Now back to the main point of this post, controlling the iPhone through an external touch screen (I get off on tangents too easily

). Unfortunately, I think there may be hardware issues when trying to do this, namely the fact that most carPC touch screens lack multitouch capabilities. This would make it impossible to do pinch-and-zooms, the two-finger-rotate I was talking about earlier, or anything else along those lines. Until we can get touch screen manufacturers to incorporate multitouch, we're pretty much stuck. In addition, we need a way to connect the touch screen on the monitor to the iPhone. I know that the video out cable for the iPhone has a USB cord on it. Unfortunately, I don't know the extent of its capabilities (is it just charging? Can you sync over it? I need to know things like that). If it can function as a regular USB interface, it shouldn't be too big of a deal to get a USB type A-to-USB type A adapter to connect the USB connector on the touch screen to the USB connector on the A/V cable. After that, it's just a matter of writing an app for the iPhone that would allow it to be controlled by an external touch screen (again, this may require either OS modifications or an emulator).

I hope this helps.

hutacars · 03-08-2009, 12:23 PM

You know, I was just thinking, instead of having an emulator running on top of the real iPhone OS, it might be easier to instead mod the OS as needed, then release it for installation on iPhones that would overwrite the OS currently installed. This way, you can put in whatever is necessary for it to function as needed, and there's less of a risk that novice users might mess up their iPhone irreversibly. It's the best of both worlds, in my opinion.

Bugbyte · 03-08-2009, 12:48 PM

Apple makes an iPhone emulator for developers. So it is possible to run the OS of the phone and presumably control it from the touch screen.

But this still requires having a computer in your car. My challenge is to REPLACE the computer in the car with a smart device - in this case an iPod/iPhone.

I agree 100% that the control of the touch screen on the phone is the issue here. I'm less convinced that multi-touch is necessary because I don't think multi-touch is necessarily a useful technology when operating your car at 60 mph.

What is necessary is some way to connect the iPhone to the real world - the world outside of the phone. Connecting it to devices for either input, or output. Both the iPod and the iPhone have the proper radios in them WiFi, and the iPhone has both Bluetooth and 3G.

As my screen splitr video shows, it is already possible to control both i-devices over a WiFi network using a browser. That includes touchscreen - I think. I'll have to test this in my car at some point (right now, the PC has a crashed hard disk and the Mac has a dead power supply!).

hutacars · 03-08-2009, 01:06 PM

I've used the iPhone emulator before, and it's not what you want. The emulator is completely independent of the physical iPhone itself. As you said, it would still require the use of a PC. Perhaps I wasn't clear, but the emulator I was referring to would run on the iPhone itself, and not on a computer.

In addition, you may be correct that multitouch is not a necessity, but it would greatly ease the rotation of the iPhone using that two-finger gesture I mentioned eariler. Or, optimally, you could set up your external touch screen so you rotate it and the screen rotates with it. How cool would that be?

But of course, that isn't feasible for everyone, since many people build their displays into the dash, or have them mounted in such a way that they cannot be rotated (sorry, that was a bit of a tangent).

But anyhow, if a programmer could modify the iPhone OS in a way like this, it just might be possible....

Believe me, I would love to have something like this in my car. But controlling everything from a 3.5" iPhone touch screen just isn't feasible.

EDIT: Perhaps all multitouch could be handled on the iPhone itself. There's no need to look at the iPhone for any of the multitouch gestures, so theoretically, you could just feel for it, then pinch-to-zoom, two-finger-rotate, or whatever needs to be done. At least, this would eliminate the need to have a multitouch external touch screen. Also, all other touch functions could be handled on the external touch screen.

rdholtz · 03-08-2009, 03:05 PM

Does the iPhone emulator run on a Mac, or a PC, or either? Would it be possible to use the emulator to run iPhone apps on a carPC?

hutacars · 03-08-2009, 03:22 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by rdholtz

Does the iPhone emulator run on a Mac, or a PC, or either? Would it be possible to use the emulator to run iPhone apps on a carPC?

It's part of the iPhone SDK, which only runs on a Mac. And yes, it's certainly possible to run the emulator on a carPC (or rather, a carMac) but that's obviously not the goal here. Besides, if you have a carPC in the first place, why would you want to run the iPhone OS on it? That seems like a step back, IMHO.

rdholtz · 03-08-2009, 04:02 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by hutacars

. . . if you have a carPC in the first place, why would you want to run the iPhone OS on it? That seems like a step back, IMHO.

There are some pretty neat, surprisingly inexpensive apps coming out for the iPhone, and some might be pretty useful in a carMac. They're tight little packages that run on relatively low power units. While running them on a carMac might seem backwards, it also is a recognition of their efficiency.

Actually, I'm just musing here; my fascination is convergence. We're doing things on phones now that would have been thought impossible even on PCs only a few years ago. I keep trying to peer down the road as far as possible and see what improbable things may be coming.

For instance, I wonder if it's possible to port Centrafuse to Windows Mobile 6.x or 7.x., or even to the iPhone. Could it be possible with the next generation of these devices? As I say, I'm just musing, trying to piece together a glimpse of the future.

hutacars · 03-08-2009, 04:11 PM

Well, see, here's the thing. I haven't done a ton of playing around with the Emulator, but from what I can tell, it's only for use in running applications you've developed. You can't just download an app from the App Store and run it using the Emulator. It runs your compiled source code, and that's about it.

meagain · 03-08-2009, 05:36 PM

I didn't realize xGPS came out with their Turn by Turn voice version while I was away on vaca. Loaded it and went to the grocery store. Works great though the voice is in meters (not a biggie).

I've not bought my new car yet. Leaning towards a Hyundai Santa Fe. They use an LG Nav but it's apparently limited. I can't just plug in a backup camera for instance though the 2009 has iPod integration.

My problem is the mfrs like Dice, USA spec, etc. don't make anything for Hyundai. I was told by iSimple (who just came out with harnesses for Hyundai) that their harness won't work with the Nav, only the Non-nav car. Something about how it handles the xm or aux? I guess IDK IF I can somehow integrate video on this Nav. If the Apple cable can be plugged into it or not.

What I'd like is this - the Mimo 7" USB monitor http://www.mimomonitors.com/
And some way to use it with the iPhone. I wonder if there's a way to hook up the monitor with a wireless USB. Course I wouldn't have a clue how to deal with audio.

rdholtz · 03-08-2009, 05:41 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by hutacars

Well, see, here's the thing. I haven't done a ton of playing around with the Emulator, but from what I can tell, it's only for use in running applications you've developed. You can't just download an app from the App Store and run it using the Emulator. It runs your compiled source code, and that's about it.

To quote an old favorite cartoon character: "Curses, foiled again."

super-fly · 03-09-2009, 10:19 PM

bugbyte...have you tried a program called appflow yet...it might be useful for quickly navigating between apps

pepsibobby · 03-10-2009, 09:12 AM

Not sure if this will help or not, but this program is through the App store. It is a turn by turn that made it through Apple's screening process. not amazing from the reviews but thought you might want to see it

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/x...tted-on-the-b/

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