OT: Technology and Geek Stuff Thread

[unknown lions fan]

BTW, anyone noticed how slow the car stereo aftermarket is to put a real multimedia head unit out there? I'm talking Android interface with a 256GB SSD or something like that.

There's a plethora of units with touch screen, a relic CD player, and input jacks on the front to hook up your iPod or whatever, but very, very few of them actually have a large amount of onboard storage, and there are only a few that are using Android as the interface.

You hardly even see any with SD slots on the front.

I put an el-cheapo $50 unit in my boat that only has a tuner, an SD card slot, aux jack, and USB on the front. I have two 8GB SD cards in the boat, so when we're out on the lake we have somewhere around 5,000 songs at my fingertips - no messing with CDs..

It's awesome, but when I look for a better unit with those features, they're strangely hard to find...

I wonder if it's the whole RIAA / MPAA / DMCA complex threatening manufacturers?

[Coop]

ULF - my opinion is that mobile technology is one of the fastest changing industries and external device compatibility seems to be the safest bet. If you have an external MP3 player or are willing to purchase proprietary add-ons (such as a sirius or xm tuner) there's usually some way of connecting it....

[unknown lions fan]

I don't like having to plug in an external mp3 every time I get in and out of the vehicle, dealing with it hanging around with its cords, having to turn it on every time you get in, etc.

I used to have Sirius, but it's much more desirable to have MY whole library with me at all times.

I'm going to put one of these 7" tablets in my truck one day soon, integrate it into the dash and all. One of those projects in my queue.

This is my list of requirements off the top of my head:
- goes into sleep mode when the key is removed
- wakes up when the key is in, or in the accessory position
- at least 100GB of storage
- ability to move music to and from the unit while the vehicle sits in the garage, from my PC in the house.
- and then all the standard stuff like full GPS functionality, run pandora and such, etc.

So the only real tricks are integration into the dash and the power control stuff. I've been reading about components and apps that look like they can accomplish what I want to do.

[unknown lions fan]

...then I want to set it up so that my android phone can interface with it via bluetooth and work like a remote for the head unit.

That way, when we're sitting around the campfire up North listening to music from my truck in the summer, I can control the music from my seat by the fire. Even cooler would be if I can set it up so anyone with an android can connect with a simple app and login, and they can queue up music they want to hear, kind of like a jukebox.

[froot loops]

Thats way too much organization for me to imagine.

[SeattleLionsFan]

I personally prefer it Dave. My wife has an iPod for the car and one for running and an IPhone. She has different music on all three.

My GTI has Bluetooth which will play from my iPhone automatically. It's the way to go for me.

[Coop]

My aftermarket Alpine HU supports a bluetooth option, but bluetooth happens to kill the idevice battery, so I go wired for that purpose.

[nhwbrooklyn]

I don't even buy MP3's anymore.. the maintenence and organization of thousands of songs is just too much. Spotify saves me hours and gets me to my favorite music without any trouble or effort. Easily worth it IMO.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Cloud based is the best... lets you DL your favorite playlists for when you are not in your networks data range too. (it's internal and encrypted so it's not like DLing an mp3 or something).

[Topweasel]

...then I want to set it up so that my android phone can interface with it via bluetooth and work like a remote for the head unit.

That way, when we're sitting around the campfire up North listening to music from my truck in the summer, I can control the music from my seat by the fire. Even cooler would be if I can set it up so anyone with an android can connect with a simple app and login, and they can queue up music they want to hear, kind of like a jukebox.

Android 4.2 will include Profile for the multiple playlists and stuff like that. But you will want to wait till Samsung or Someone releases a tablet with that as the Nexus 7 (witch I love) and the N10 which was just announced have little support for external media. And you can use Tasker or something like it to handle the options for power (like go to sleep when not charging and then most devices will power up from sleep if placed on a charger).

[nhwbrooklyn]

BTW The spotify app works for basically every single OS available and it's all synced. I make a playlist on my pc, I can listen to it immediately on my ipad, android, or another computer anywhere.

I obviously can't recommend it enough. Apple tried to thwart it from coming to the U.S. for good reason.

[Coop]

are you paying for that monthly nhw?

[Tony G]

I wonder if it's the whole RIAA / MPAA / DMCA complex threatening manufacturers?

A bud at work may be testing this out. His son has been downloading music. (w/o paying for it) All of a sudden he got 31 e-mails saying he had downloaded a song w/o artists permission. He could avoid court by paying $20/song and then gave a site to go to and give a credit card too. Otherwise he would be sued to the fullest extent of the law and have to pay all lawyers fees etc.

[nhwbrooklyn]

are you paying for that monthly nhw?

I am.. I can't stand the advertisements. But, my wife and I share one account and one of us will just go in offline mode when the other jumps on and kicks the first person off (so we save a bit that way).

IMO it's been worth it but it's a pretty low investment and month to month so not much commitment if you are worried about not liking it.

[-Deborah-]

My new phone as of yesterday!!



It's the Nokia Lumia 920. It has Windows Phone 8 and comes in a few really sharp colors (I seriously debated on red, but wound up choosing white instead). The HTC 8X also is a very sharp phone, but the Nokia has vastly superior specs.

I spent the last day learning the thing...moving from Android to WP was a big shift! But, wow, it's really nice.

To get this phone, I dumped T-Mobile and went to AT&T. I went from having NO SIGNAL at my house to full strength 4G LTE! Whoo hoo!!!

Edit: Link to a full review of this phone: http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-920-review