MP3 Car install (Continued)
(continued from above)
Step Three: Hook up the Screen
The Mini's video output is DVI, designed for a high quality digital output to LCD panels. This doesn't mean that the Mini cannot connect to VGA monitors. In fact, it comes with a DVI-VGA adaptor that allows the user to plug a standard VGA cable into the Mini. This works quite well although it does tend to stick out the back a good 6 inches or more, so you should allow for that when you pick an installation location. With the requirement that the fan exhaust exits the back of the Mini, this is probably not a factor for most people. However, if space it tight behind the unit, aftermarket DVI-VGA cables that turn a right angle can be found.
Powering the screen from the P1900 is recommended as it will provide clean, regulated 12 volt output for your screen, protecting it from nasty voltage spikes and dirty power that can potentially damage the second most expensive component of your system.
As stated, the Mini works fine with the most popular brands of screens from Xenarc and Lilliput, both 7" and 8" sizes. In addition, the touchscreen works identical to the PC. Simply load the drivers for OS X [insert link here], reboot, and plug the touch-screen into the Mini. You can touch an icon to open/launch it and click and drag an item around the screen.
You cannot, however, control-click an item (equivalent to clicking the right button of a two button mouse) without having a keyboard handy. In that case, you probably ought to have a mouse out and simply do it with the mouse anyhow. Also, the OS X interface is made for a computer and clicking exactly on the close, expand, shrink buttons on a window can be pretty challenging on a 7" screen.
The dock is the logical solution to this problem, although my favorite feature, auto-hide, can't be accessed with the touch-screen. Auto-hide requires you to drag your mouse down to the bottom to trigger the showing of the dock. This is all but impossible using your finger. Leaving the dock visible is, of course, an option but it takes up precious vertical screen real estate.
Okay, It Works. Now What?
The Mini already comes with all of the software you need to have an impressive in car computing experience. iTunes works well at managing your music and providing you with controls that keep your eyes on the road. With keyboard equivalents and Applescriptability, iTunes can be controlled in a number of ways that keeps you from having to use its interface.
One of the best is the Griffin Powermate. Using the Powermate, you get 6 different inputs to control your Mac (the Powermate also works on PC's). Click, long click, left/right and click rotate left/right can be mapped to different keyboard equivalents through the Griffin preferences software. Best of all, the Powermate can be set to change it's behavior depending on which application is at the forefront.
For iTunes, I set mine up as follows:
Click - change song
Long click - Pause/Unpause
Left/right - Increase/decrease volume of iTunes
Click rotate left/right - (i.e. hold down and turn left or right) Increase/decrease Mac Mini global volume
You can also map your own pushbuttons to keyboard shortcuts using products like the
iPac-ve
The iPac is a keyboard emulator that plugs into your Mini and appears to the machine as a keyboard. It has connections on it's PC board to allow you to interface your own custom switches to the iPac, allowing you to control your apps via those switches.
If you have bluetooth, try Salling Clicker software to allow you to control your Mac using your cellphone as a remote control. Also check into the Bluephone elite software to see about allowing your Mac to use your phone as a data modem on the go.
Software
I'll start by saying that you can get more software on the PC than the Mac. More variety, more functionality, more options, and more support from mp3car.com members. The Mac as an automotive platform is so new that nobody has written any software for it. The size of the Apple market for car PC applications is probably so small that even if every Mini user bought a copy of a GPS program written for the Mac, the numbers would be only triple digits.
That means that the Mini is an experimental platform. If you want a turnkey solution, you'll have much more success putting a PC in your car. If you want to be on the leading edge of a new and promising platform for the car, then the Mac is for you.
First, there are a nice set of links to software and resources stickied in the
Mac Car forum.
GPS - Route 66 is the only viable option for the Mac and it is dreadful in comparison with the many PC solutions. On the other hand, it does work and provides the only native Mac solution. Other options are to use Virtual PC to emulate the PC on your Mac, and run a PC GPS program on your Mini until a decent solution comes along. You'll need a gigabyte or so of RAM to do this effectively.
MP3 - iTunes seems to be the choice of most folks. Of course, iTunes cannot be skinned for a customized look and feel. It does work pretty reasonably as a player and song organizer and includes a visualizer and album artwork, tagging, etc. In addition, iTunes is highly Applescriptable, allowing you to use Automator or to write your own scripts to interact with the program.
A bonus is that iTunes will also catalog your video files and play them back in the GUI.
DVD - The Apple DVD player does a great job of
Front Row the new media center application for the Mac has been hacked to run on the Mini and provides a serviceable front end, especially when combined with the Airclick remote.
Price
"Aren't Apples expensive?" your PC friends will usually ask? For in car computing, the Mini is very competitive with similar form factor options. My former car PC was an Epia M10000, one of the most popular motherboards for car PC'ers. By the time I outfitted it with 512mb of memory, a 2.5" laptop hard drive, a CD-ROM/DVD drive, and a wireless card, the price was identical. If I had purchased a case for the Epia, it would have been more than the Mini and the Mini has bluetooth as well.
Let's face it, though. Most folks loyal to the PC market won't be swayed by the Mini for a variety of reasons including lack of software, limited expandability and a non-existent aftermarket segment for hardware. Mac users just don't have the ability to pick a motherboard and build a Mac from scratch. So the PC route is more flexible and can be done more cheaply than the Apple solution.
Performance
The M10000 plays mp3's and DVD's reasonably well but can stutter under some circumstances and the onboard sound isn't known to be very good. While I'm not audiophile, I could tell that the sound from the Mini was fuller and clearer, while the whole system lacks that sluggish feel I would sometimes get with the Epia.
Which is not a knock on the M10000. It's probably unfair to compare a board that has been out for a few years with a contemporary and probably an even grosser distortion to compare one operating system against another.
Let's suffice it to say that the Mini has plenty of horsepower to easily handle multimedia from video to mp3 whether straight from the hard disk or on a CD/DVD disc.
Summary
The Mini is as easy to install as they come. It's an all in one package with everything you need in the box. Just add a screen and a power supply and you can be crunchin' bytes while on the move. But it's not for those who want a status quo machine. It definitely falls in the experimental category and is for those who don't mind the fact that the software on the PC platform is more full featured with greater variety.
