Let's talk about a Car Dock

[peestandingup]

Yeah, you heard me. Car dock.

It's actually very doable with how thin & light it is. Plus its minimalistic design. And with all the good stuff like GPS for driving, Bluetooth for car audio integration (and even VoIP calls via a headset), video, music & cheap unlimited data, with a nice sized screen, well that's just begging for it isn't it.

BTW, I got the exact measurements & made up a mock iPad using cardboard & tried placing it around my dash. It would actually do very well & not look ridiculous. Big & full, yes. But not to an insane degree.

I thought about trying to integrate their own iPad dock accessory in there & I think it would work pretty well if you mounted it right, but it would only be good for portrait mode. Plus, Im not sure how "touchy" you could get with the iPad while its in that dock. We wont know for a while I guess. Hopefully ProClip or someone like that makes something for it.

I could almost see how it would nearly replace my phone for almost everything, besides being pocketable obviously. Which is a biggie.

 

[al256]

I'm with you. This reminds me of when the Mac Mini came out. I along with other zealots worked to put those computers in our cars. I wonder how people will integrate this device in the auto world.

 

[vincebio]

great....a huge bright distraction when your driving...

i cant think of anything more hideous than a screen that big on your dash...

ill need convinced that it can look good in any way....

 

[al256]

great....a huge bright distraction when your driving...

i cant think of anything more hideous than a screen that big on your dash...

ill need convinced that it can look good in any way....

Can you at least see the advantage of using a 3G iPad while parked?

 

[peestandingup]

great....a huge bright distraction when your driving...

i cant think of anything more hideous than a screen that big on your dash...

ill need convinced that it can look good in any way....

Your dash already has all kinds of glowing lights. Besides, the screen will sleep and/or dim just like any other iPod/iPhone out there just the same. I dont see that as a problem.

 

[testcard]

Is Assisted GPS sufficiently accurate for turn-by-turn navigation?

 

[meagain]

great....a huge bright distraction when your driving...

i cant think of anything more hideous than a screen that big on your dash...

ill need convinced that it can look good in any way....

So all the millions of cars with built-in navi's are bad too?
At least this one will work great and have a stunning screen.

Mine is going to go right where my iPhone does. Resting on the pullout ashtray in the dash center. Perfect angle, etc. Because I lucked out with the ashtray dealie, I'm not going to buy a gadget to hold it. I have iPod integration in the car via USB, etc. (I also made a mockup!)

It's perfect and what I've been dreaming of and why I purposefully didn't buy a car with built-in navi.

 

[al256]

Is Assisted GPS sufficiently accurate for turn-by-turn navigation?

That's good question. TomTom says no, I say I need both. My Garmin has let me down finding locations by address so I have to rely on my iPhone to get me there at the end of the trip. I'm crazy, I know but I would use my dedicated GPS plus having the backup from the iPad while using it play music through my stereo that controls iPhones (read likely-iPad compatibility).

 

[Sdashiki]

I have a mac mini in my car coupled to a 7" touchscreen.

And this is not a replacement for it.

Maybe if someone cracks the iPad OS to run on a mini so that the SDK can be used to write a decent touchscreen media app...or hell just being able to use some of those touchscreen apps out there now on my mini would help tremendously.

Though this still does not change the fact that there is NO desktop GPS solution at all for OSX. none that does decent turn by turn.

 

[al256]

I have a mac mini in my car coupled to a 7" touchscreen.

And this is not a replacement for it.

Maybe if someone cracks the iPad OS to run on a mini so that the SDK can be used to write a decent touchscreen media app...or hell just being able to use some of those touchscreen apps out there now on my mini would help tremendously.

Though this still does not change the fact that there is NO desktop GPS solution at all for OSX. none that does decent turn by turn.

When I left the carputing world there was still no usable frontend software for OS X. Did that ever change? I'm willing to guess that a good programmer could create an iPod, navigation and Safari front end for this iPad. You could double the iPad back to a stereo with iPhone support.

 

[G4R2]

I would love to see either Rev or Dashcommand in full screen on an iPad. Being able to monitor every system in whatever car I drive through my Kiwi Wi-Fi OBD-II adapter and presented on screen adjacent to GPS with real time traffic data would be ideal.

My only concern is that the iPad may prove to be just a tad to large for this task.

Here's a few screenshots from the upcoming version of Dashcommand 2.0- I'd love to see these kind of screens on a larger display in my car:

 

[master-ceo]

A flip down style Dock in the Back roof of a SUV would be nice for the kids.

Flip down, place the ipad in the holder/frame and walla!!!

Send my check.

 

[al256]

Send my check.

I'll give you two cents, for your two cents. I only give exact change.

 

[spyker3292]

When it's late, the iPhone's screen can get a little distracting (while in my car dock). Just saying.... a 10" tablet would be terrible.

 

[meagain]

It'll be able to be dimmed. My husbands car nav has an 8 inch screen so 9.7 isn't too far off from that.

Sdashiki - May I ask why this wouldn't be useful in-lieu of your Mac Mini? Assuming iPad fully integrates with audio system for great sound?
Because there's so many downsides to a full computer as a carputer.