[opendtv] Re: Have you heard...
- From: "Kon Wilms" <kon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:59:26 -0700
On 6/15/07, Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
How about a head unit with iPod and WiFi functionality built in?
The memory could be solid state like a Nano, or the manufacturer
could build in a slot for a memory card. With WiFi, the car player
would show up in iTunes when it was in range of the home network,
allowing easy synchronization and up to the minute updates of info
like traffic report podcasts. It could also download stuff when
parked at work or near any WiFi hot spot.
It could also be programmed to work like a radio TiVo, capturing
radio broadcasts from the head unit and the CD player could be used
to transfer audio CD content to the iPod, as i do now via my computer.
Strange that nobody has done any of this yet.
Actually there are some units that do this. I had an OmniFi DMP1 in my
car for a long time. Basically a small embedded linux box with
removable hard drive and USB+Wifi. The original unit lacks much in
terms of features, and the manufacturer disobeyed the GPL by refusing
to release their source, but eventually we the hackers won -
http://openfi.sourceforge.net
I believe OmniFi recently went bang. The community tried to help them
build a better product, but they fought it every step of the way.
You can pick these up cheap, around $100 on eBay. I got one for
install and another for testing+debugging off woot.com.
Anyway it works exactly as you mention - the desktop windows app syncs
content from the web (podcasts, streaming radio stations, music
folders, captured PAR broadcasts from say a griffin radioshark), and
drops them on the car's plugged in hard drive via wifi. With the
openfi app loaded you can straight-out FTP files to your car.
Hot-plug into the USB port for media is also supported.
The community is still quite active.
Unfortunately for Apple, and this goes for all their media devices,
they continue to rely on a custom track database on the device, so
hot-plug into car audio systems via simple generic device attachment
will never be supported - unless the car audio manufacturer's device
supports the iPod database format. Which I find extremely stupid on
Apple's part, since the underlying filesystem is FAT32 for crying out
loud. Car manufacturers deal with this by selling iPod interfaces to
translate the database and add other functionality like a charger. The
same manufacturers throw in DVD-R/CD-R/USB flat file system MP3
support (with ID3 tag parsing) for *free*. If Apple used a standard
USB connector and no database none of this nonsense would be required.
Cheers
Kon
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