[James]

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.

[James]

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.

[Dave Conger]

Originally Posted by James

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.

That is all possible...just takes a little work. I would like to have something that is either an LCD or a small projector that would be between the driver and the passenger. The idea with a small projector would be the image would appear on the windshield, though low, small, and in a place where it wouldn't be distracting.

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front. For me, I would just like to stick the hard drive in the bay below my radio, get an extender for my cup holder that will hold my iPAQ, and then just plug in my iPAQ when I want to play the music.

[spg]

Originally Posted by James

For my car though, I want a little more than a PocketPC can offer - I want real voice control and playback, a larger screen so I can see the traffic cams and speed graphs without having to squint or scroll, and a slew of other things. The guts have to sit in the trunk out of site and preferably not be easily stolen.

Very well said. The Pocket PC is not really designed for that type of use. While it would work, I have a feeling it will have to be a seperate piece of equipment in the car. Then once in there, if you wanted to use your Pocket PC you could hook it up to a cradle, or for your passengers, bluetooth enabled systems 8).

Originally Posted by pdadave

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front.

One word for you - "Voice control". Ok so that was two words, but I think that is what it will take before in-car systems will become a very viable option. And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.

All right with all that said, I've got to get this out of my system- "Beam me up Scotty" :wink:

[Dave Conger]

Originally Posted by spg

And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.

....so hence why I don't really want voice control right now. I don't want to say "Pop Music" and have it stop playing because it thinks I say "Stop the Music". I just want to use my PDA as the MP3 deconder to play a randomized play list...I don't really care if I can talk to it or not.

[James]

Originally Posted by pdadave

I have considered building an MP3 player into my car (hardware in my trunk), but never could figure a great way to control it from the front. For me, I would just like to stick the hard drive in the bay below my radio, get an extender for my cup holder that will hold my iPAQ, and then just plug in my iPAQ when I want to play the music.

Using the Microsoft Agent technologies, me and a couple of the guys I work with built a voice controlled MP3/WMA player that we're slowing expanding. One of 'em is working on putting it all into a form factor to fit on his motorcycle...

[James]

Originally Posted by spg

One word for you - "Voice control". Ok so that was two words, but I think that is what it will take before in-car systems will become a very viable option. And I don't mean voice control that sorta works, like we have now. I mean real innovative voice control, the kind they have on Star Trek. Ok so maybe not that good, but it definitely needs to improve.

All right with all that said, I've got to get this out of my system- "Beam me up Scotty" :wink:

The technology is around to do voice control that really works (a la Star Trek). It's just a matter of getting the costs and size down to a portable form.

[Dave Conger]

Originally Posted by James

The technology is around to do voice control that really works (a la Star Trek). It's just a matter of getting the costs and size down to a portable form.

Well when the technology gets put to use in usable places, then I will adopt it...but right now I would rather have technology that could talk back (read back) to me rather then input through my speech.