I was thinking about the new technologies that you can get in smartphones nowadays and I think that it paves the way for a much more convenient and useful car headunit. A headunit which is a thin client for your phone. The technology is there for this to work now with Android 4.2, and with no cables.

Imagine a 2-Din unit with a built-in amplifier, and capacitive touchscreen. The device would connect to a phone via Miracast to mirror the display over a Wi-Fi Direct connection, and this can handle the audio as well. The touchscreen component and some hardware buttons can be connected over Bluetooth HID.

The interesting stuff happens when you also introduce a charging NFC mat into the package. It would be possible to have an app on the phone which will invoke actions when the phone is placed on the mat. Imagine getting in the car and placing your phone on the mat, it is then charging and also connecting to the headunit's Miracast and Bluetooth without any intervention.

Here is an example of a Tegra 3 Nexus 7 and Miracast: NVIDIA Tegra 3 Enhances Miracast Wireless Display, and a Nexus 4 phone with the Netgear Miracast box: Nexus 4 Miracast Demo with a Netgear PTV3000.

There is also a demo of a TV connected to a Moto Xoom Tablet which has a working touchscreen (over USB) here: PQLabs G4 47" Multi-Touch Screen supports Android and HD UI. I have just noticed though that apparently they messed about with the ROM on the tablet to include the drivers for the screen. This is a bit of a letdown if something like this can't just work out of the box, or at least with an app installed.

There is an example of the end result I am looking for, and its called the 'Mimics X2' - this is a little board which interfaces a touchscreen with MHL for video and Bluetooth for the touchscreen to create a wired Android thin client. But this is really a component device which requires a bit of hacking to get working. Not really an all-in-one device that you can just install and go, and not wireless.

Miracast, NFC and Wireless Charging are all on the Nexus 4, and there are a bunch of Sony phones with it too.

I wonder how hard it would be to get some people together and make something like this?

I've just realised its entirely possible to DIY this. Rather than have the MHL HDMI cable from the phone connected to the Mimics X2 device, you could just connect the Netgear PTV3000 to it.

I think I'm going to attempt to get all these bits together and make them work. The VW RNS510 unit I have in my car at the moment could go on eBay and fund most of it!

If you're OK with connecting a cable every time you get in the car, you should have a look at the Pioneer AppRadio 2 and ARLiberator. Be sure to check out some of the youtube videos as well.

I almost put this together for myself. I even went as far as buying an AppRadio 2. Ultimately, I decided that I don't want to plug my phone in every time I get in the car (4 times on most days).

Currently, I'm waiting to see if someone can hack the Play Store into the Parrot Asteroid Smart (2-din). Parrot just has to release it first. Hopefully something is announced at CES this week.

The hardware aspect isn't all that difficult, the challenge remains the software and interface. Is there any work on the Android side to make a more car friendly interface? I remember some would go into a car mode when docked.

Another hardware idea was funded on Kickstarter. This one goes the route of docking the phone right in the Dash, and has a faceplate that can be swapped to accommodate different phones. They are also working on the software side to provide a better car UI.

http://www.devium.com

I made a dock, and I dock my phone every time. :-)

My problem with making my phone be my music player is that, still, nothing beats the Empeg's features for music playback and organization. :-)

I do *see* how a headunit dedicated as a phone extension could be very useful to the majority of the civilized world, though. :-)

That's fine for normal people. But, I change my phone very often. Maybe 2-3 times per year.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm not getting any new iPhone products because they changed the dock on the 5. I'm stuck on the 4s forever now. When this one dies, I'll find used ones on ebay for the rest of my life. :-)

The AppRadio 2 with the liberator app looks really nice! So, the Appradio itself has a HDMI input on the back, and to make it work on Android, Pioneer want to sell you the CD-AH200C which as far as I can tell is a MHL to HDMI adapter with charging through one cable. It seems that all of the non-video talk to the phone is done through Bluetooth. Some guys have reported that using a HDMI to Micro HDMI cable works just fine if your device supports it.

So... Why not connect up the Netgear PTV3000 to the Appradio by HDMI? In theory, no cables required. Sounds like it would be very battery hungry, and I wonder whether a NFC mat would supply enough juice for it. I also wonder whether the wireless display connection could be automated with NFC, Tasker style.

EDIT: and here is someone who had the same idea

I don't really know of anything other than the Car Mode that Google used to provide, and now a bunch of other apps that give you a launcher with big buttons. What I do like however is the excellent voice recognition and voice actions that you get in modern Android. I actually find that my Nexus 10 is unwieldy to type anything on, so pretty much all the time I just hit the voice button and tell it what I want. It really is reliable and fast. With the noise of a vehicle I wonder how good it would be, but I have a feeling that with a good microphone it wouldn't be too bad.

Stop it then

Why on earth do you change phone 2-3 times a year ?

That behavior is actually somewhat new since getting into Android. Unlike iPhone, there's a new killer Android phone every few months. Since selling my iPhone 4 in early 2011, I've used 11 different Android and WP7 phones as my daily driver.

In the past 12 months alone, I've had (as my primary phone) a Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S III, Sony Xperia S, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, and now the Nexus 4.

I plan to stick with the Nexus 4 for a while since it's really a great phone. I have been eyeing the Note II and Oppo Find 5, however.

I usually buy the phones 2nd-hand, unlock them, try them out for a while, then flip them on ebay. Amazingly, I usually don't lose money on the transaction because the phone is now unlocked and I'm willing to ship anywhere.

Rob is what we call a phone addict now. See kids, this is the real danger behind Android

I do agree with not wanting to plug in the phone all the time in the car. My dream interface would use Bluetooth as much as possible. My Belkin solution works kinda, but I'd prefer a much better microphone for Siri control. My next car should have this covered with a decent OEM interface. The dock route is useful more for when I need GPS.

Then I guess here's the obvious question (since I've never known anyone with that much 'hands-on' experience): does that mean you like Android the best as a portable OS now? If so, why? What did you like/hate about the iPhone and Windows Phones and what do you believe Android could still improve on?

I think Rob likes new toys. The latest, the greatest, the shiniest, the coolest, or simply the most different and bleeding edge. Good hobby!

And as he said, there are many more new and compelling Android devices being released much more often than the old, staid iDevices.

ISTR that Apple have recently said they want to speed up their own release cycles to compete better in that environment.

I don't hate the iPhone at all. Everyone in my office has one that I have to support, so I still get a lot of hands-on experience with them. I think it's a really compelling package for people that want their device to just work without farting around with settings and 3rd-party apps. I have only Apple PCs at home, so I'm not anti-Apple by any stretch.

What I don't like about the iPhone is the UI simplicity, small screens, and not being able to assign 3rd-party apps as defaults. As for the UI (static grid of icons), Android blows Apple out of the water there. I even prefer WP7's live tiles to what Apple delivers. Having info available at a glance on the home screen is great. Jelly Bean 4.2 makes it even better with lock screen widgets.

There is another big plus to Android that really only affects US customers. Google Voice is great and it only works 100% seamlessly on Android. To get Google Voice to integrate with the iPhone dialer, you need to jailbreak. When I owned iPhones, I was often behind an iOS version or two because I had to wait for a jailbreak. That's not how I want to live.


That's pretty accurate, but it's also a bit of curiosity. When I forced myself to use WP7 for a couple months, it wasn't because I think it's the next big thing. I just want to check it out and have a good understanding of it in case someone asks me a question.

Thanks for your explanation, very enlighting!
Oh, just to make one thing clear: I never meant to imply you were an iPhone hater, I meant to say there might be features on the iPhone you hated or that are better worked out on Android devices. Using the word "hate" was probably too harsh though, "disliked" would've probably been better. Sorry about that.

Am I right in assuming you like the iPhone, but like Android better because it's more customisable? I just got an iPhone 5 because I got one for Christmas as a gift, but probably would've bought a Samsung S3 if I had chosen myself. That's why I'm still wondering these things: there may be a chance I'll give my iPhone to my wife and still get an Android phone for myself.

What did you think of WP7? Is it as good as the other two options, or does it still have a lot of work cut out for it? (or maybe even doesn't stand a chance against the other two competitors?)



Hey, nothing wrong with that! I'd probably do exactly the same if I had the means to do so!

Yes. I like the customization of Android. Even if your phone comes skinned by the manufacturer (like Galaxy S III), you can replace the home screen easily without rooting/jailbreaking.


WP7 has a good foundation, but the third-party app selection is just terrible.

Pretty much as I suspected. Thanks for the info Rob!

Hopefully this improves with WP8. I had a WP7 for about a month and really liked it. I'd say MS started out better then Apple did with the iPhone in 2007. Not a big fan of how the've spread the interface to everything, but it does work well on a tablet or phone.

Was talking at a conference yesterday, and one of the other speakers did a talk on Windows 8 RT tablets and what you need to do to enable 3rd party apps etc (her motivation is to use them as security testing tools, so she wants to use nmap, winpcap etc)

As soon as the video is online I'll link here - personally I don't like live tiles, but she shows how to make W8 much more usable/customisable.