Phil online

I’ve got the new carputer half-installed in my dinky little car. It’s running on a tablet PC I picked up for cheap. I bought a new license for iGuidance and installed it on there. It’s not perfect because it’s running Windows 98 and it crashes a lot. (Windows 2000 is more helpful at cleaning up resources you forget to release.)

But it works. And it has maps. And it knows directions. And it speaks.

It’s basically TomTom GO for only $200. Plus it surfs the internet on wi-fi or my cellphone. And it will play MP3’s. And it crashes occasionally.

Future plans:

1. Mount it on something so it’s not always lying in the seat next to me.
2. Replace the battery (with a battery or a fixed-wire) so I can turn the car off without worries.
3. Wire the carputer direct to the battery instead of the cig lighter.
4. Configure it to auto-power-up (delayed relay on accessory switch?).
5. Get another USB GPS mouse so I don’t have to use my Magellan MAP 330 alla time.

That looks like another $150 in new parts. That’ll bring my new carputer total cost to $350. Not bad at all.

What won’t it do?

1. Movies — Don’t need ‘em in this car
2. NetStumbler — nice to have, but won’t work on Windows 98
3. Run for days on end without crashing — That’s Windows 98 for you

Incidentally, someone wanted me to go into business with them building these things. Problem is, a production version (not made from spare parts) would cost about $800 again. I guess I could compete with TomTom GO for only $500, but even that would be tough.

Anyway, in two years, these things will ubiquitous, and always-online. woo hoo!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2005 at 2:10 pm and is filed under General, Carputer, Progress, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.