Although I have integrated my Zune into my Mustang it’s not a very sophisticated solution – it’s still based around the original factory stereo and the only GPS is when I borrow it from the other car and try and balance it on the dashboard!

I had looked around to try and find a good entertainment, navigation and general auto optimized solution but while there are some solutions based around either entertainment or navigation or PC-centric car PCs with interfaces from companies like Centrafuse that require a fair amount of customization and don’t have good navigation solutions.

What I want though is something that combines the best of those worlds on a flexible enough platform. To do that I imagine it would need to be based on a Windows Embedded platform – companies such as PortalMedia supply fairly nice Windows machines that fit into a cars Dual DIN socket which gives the full flexibility of running XP (or presumably Win7) which would make development easier, but I wonder if a lighter-weight OS such as the specific Embedded version (Standard or Professional) or some other lightweight real-time OS might not be a more appropriate platform. At the end of the day as long as it’s reliable and performs well I should never have to see it.

So what do I think is the minimum that a system like this needs to provide to be worthwhile (and while I’d like to see it available as an affordable aftermarket install option there’s no reason it couldn’t be a standard offering as well)

Entertainment

• At the very least it should have hard drive storage and the ability to play back locally stored music with the ability to load content from a USB device (Flashdrive, iPod, Zune etc) or an inserted CD (though if supporting a CD makes the hardware more complex I can live without that)
• FM/AM radio and ideally HD radio and XM/Sirius support. Unlike some of the existing CarPC solutions this needs to be fully integrated into the front-end and treated no differently that other audio sources
• Over the air streaming of services such as Pandora or Last.FM (perhaps via something like the SqueezeNetwork) though the ability to pre-cache locally would be good (though possibly more difficult). Streaming music from a home server would also be a great feature as well as the ability to sync new music, playlists and listening data via something like Live Mesh would be a great capability
• Support for video playback should be restricted to rear screens only while in motion, if video or digital TV signals are displayed on the front screen it should only be when the vehicle is parked.
• Use of multiple screens, wireless headsets etc would offer the ability to entertain the kids with a movie in the back while the driver listens to music of their choice. Options like this would create scope for premium units or upgrade options.

Automotive Data

• Most modern vehicles support either ODB-II or CAN-Bus for logging anything the engine management controls and can be used to record fuel levels and consumption, braking or acceleration, what gear was selected, temperature of oil and water etc. The system should be able to integrate this data and display additional information and alert the driver to sub-optimal conditions.
• In addition to ODB-II and CAN-Bus many vehicles support Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS). Sometimes the display can be a simple warning light on the dashboard if one of the tires is below pressure but more sophisticated systems can display pressure and temperature of each tire (as well as the spare) and alert the driver to low/high pressure or temperature warnings to help keep them safe.
• The system could be used to monitor service intervals as well as track when the vehicle is re-fueled (prompting the driver to enter cost etc to keep a log book). Similar to the way music is synchronized this data could be shared with your mechanic or a fuel price monitoring site to alert other motorists to good deals (coupled with the navigation system it could even track price trends for specific garages)

Navigation

• Similar to any other GPS device the built in navigation capabilities would be pre-loaded with basic maps and offer route selection at least on par with some of the best systems available (optimize for distance or time, show junctions in plenty of time to make sure you are in the right lane etc) but by being integrated into the vehicle the scope can be expanded.
• Places of Interest (POI) data and map updates, as well as current traffic conditions could be downloaded in real time – so traffic jams, road-works or even speed cops are made available instantly. Similar to how Dash works route and speed information could be shared with a centralized service to help optimize that real-time traffic data.
• Integration with the automotive data and live fuel costs would allow the navigation system to determine the optimum fuel stops for a journey and direct the driver accordingly.
• The integrated nature of the system would allow the navigation system to automatically mute/pause the entertainment when it needed to make an announcement.
• The navigation system can be used to alert the owner if the car is driven outside a pre-determined area (similar to LoJack or for ring-fencing someone who is borrowing the car) or simply to broadcast location for social networking purposes.
• Using wireless connectivity routes can be planned on a PC and sent to the car, or a trip can be recorded and sent back to an online account for later review or sharing.

Common Framework

• All user interface should have optional speech control for hands and eyes-free use.
• Bluetooth connection to users phone for data and hands-free operation.
• Ambient sound level detection allows system volume to be automatically adjusted.
• WiFi support for when in the range of a hotspot. Use something like DeviceScape to automate connection and log-in.
• Simple integration of back-up cameras, parking proximity sensors or blind-spot warning devices help make the driver and those around them safer.
• In-build amplifier and “plug and play” installation into existing car wiring loom

Enthusiast Platform

• Some owners demand more from their car and take them to race days or join road rallies. By extending the navigation and engine management logging and supporting synchronized recording of other data a complete experience using additional inputs (accelerometers, cameras, microphones, compass, high sensitivity GPS array etc) could be recorded and played back or shared.
• As the system is connected to the engine management it could be used (under carefully controlled situations) to re-flash the engine management system to cater for specific conditions (eg during the week I want a regular octane, economy tune but for a track day I want a high octane, high performance tune) or hardware changes (for instance if I change the gear ratios or add a different air induction system then the tune will probably need to be adjusted accordingly)

I guess it’s quite a lot to expect in a single unit, especially with a really simple user interface that it no more distracting than a more traditional GPS or car audio system when you’re travelling at highway speeds, but there’s no technical reason that a platform like this can’t exist today … if there’s anyone out there building one I have an 07 Mustang that I’m more than happy to try integrating it into :)

Not a notebook or a netbook or a UMPC (or any of the other variants). I’ve come to realize over the years that the current classifications and niche computing devices are missing out on one form factor and the current attempts to fill it are pretty horrible.

Current devices like the iPhone or the Touch Pro are limited – they are too small to be “computer” replacements yet they don’t work really well as phones either. They are a compromise and perhaps the solution is to pair a more basic featurephone with a very portable device that’s actually useful.

What I want is something the size of an A5 notepad with a touch screen covering the whole of the front of the device – no need for a keyboard or extraneous buttons (they would be flush in the bevel or on the edges along with any ports) that I can interface with using a pen (similar to my UMPC) but with enough battery power to easily last a full day and enough processing power to deal with handwriting recognition and speech recognition.

This device would need WiFi and Bluetooth to enable it to pair seamlessly with my Cellphone and a headset. The headset would ideally be able to connect to both the notepad and the phone – so I can dictate to the device, break off and answer a call and the continue to control the notepad while listening to music from it, all seamlessly.

The connection to the phone would be ideally be more synergistic than just being available as a modem. Ideally transition from WiFi to the phones 3G data would be seamless (let me set preferences but it should be smart enough to take the optimal data path) so I can always stay connected. Beyond that the phone and the notepad should be aware of each others status so when the phone rings my music pauses, caller ID information is displayed on the device and I can hit and answer button on the screen or the phone and route the call to my headset, the phone or speakerphone on the notepad, and text/MMS messages could be composed and read on either. The notepad should be able to access the phones camera to record images or video (as well as having a built in one) and via a standard USB connection they should be able to share power as needed.

There’s no reason the phone shouldn’t have limited internet capabilities (web browsing, email, a social networking client, GPS mapping) and, of course, some games so it’s a useful device in it’s own right but it’s primarily a phone. At the weekend for instance people might not want to take both devices but a smart-enough phone to keep them in contact would be the right balance.

Using software that has learnt lessons from the iPhone UI and Microsoft’s Origami Project and InkSeine the device would need to work with pen (both for tapping as well as handwriting recognition), finger (gesture control) and spoken input. Applications like Outlook and OneNote would need optimizing for maximum usability on a screen this size and layout with these input methods but simpler cut down versions would help performance and battery life.

Accelerometer, light sensor and on-board GPS would open up other possibilities for control, and of course being able to use a dedicated Bluetooth keyboard (or the phone keypad or an on-screen keypad) to extend the ways you can interact with the device.

Not only would this device offer a more practical replacement to the iPhone and N80x type devices it would also be a platform for Amazon to extend the eBook capabilities to – much like they have extended the Kindle Reader to the iPhone.

Coupling a device like this with a service like Mesh and Exchange Active Sync to ensure your data is always available (and offload processing of things like search indexing to the cloud) and live updates (weather, stocks, traffic for mapping etc) and you have an ideal personal companion device.

In fact, with a standardized mount / connector architecture you could check your schedule on it over breakfast, slot it into you car and use the GPS to route you to your appointment (with live traffic updates) and via the connector have it monitor ODB-II information to remind you you’re running low on fuel and suggest the cheapest gas station or remind you that you’re due a service soon (maybe add a task to your to-do- list!)

In William Gibson’s Virtual Light Yamazaki takes his notebook for granted. I just want one now ;) Maybe it’ll need a kinetic charger to keep going as long as I want, but the rest shouldn’t be too hard…

A while ago a built my own code to display my latest location on Navizon (a GPS, WiFi and Celltower location service that runs on Windows Mobile, Nokia and iPhones)

While rolling my own gave me a fair amount of flexibility it struck me as fairly inefficient - all it's doing is grabbing an XML feed with location and displaying it on a map.

Since my first quick play with Popfly I've not really played around with the mashup service, but I had some idle time this morning and wondered what I could do to solve the same problem that way...

Well, 20 minutes later the Navizon + Virtual Earth mashup powered by Popfly was built (you just need to change the Navizon ID to show you instead of defaulting to me - if you sign up to Navizon to try this don't forget my referral code: 5E585D5B5A!)

This mashup refreshes every 30 seconds, pulling the location data from the Navizon XML feed and updates the pushpin with the username and the last seen data.

I'd like to find a way to tweak it so that it remembers the map zoom level for a particular user and makes it easier to change the userid for other folks when they're embedding the mashup (my previous attempt allows you to send userid, width and height of the map as parameters) ... maybe if I have some free time I'll play some more ;)

One area that my Mustang is rather lacking is in-car audio. It comes with a pretty basic radio and a single slot(mp3 capable) CD player. That causes some issues when we use the car for the family as we have fairly varied music tastes.

In the Jeep the answer is fairly simple – we have a 6 CD in-dash changer so swapping CDs and having some variety is easy. Back in Australia we had an old iPod and an FM transmitter, but here there is so much contention on the FM waveband that it wasn’t really a usable solution.

The Mustang does have a 3.5mm audio input jack (mini-jack) but to use that from either an iPod or the Zune requires you to push the volume up to maximum to get a decent signal and by that point the quality is pretty compromised.

Luckily it turns out that there is a solution. SoundGate have a product called ZuneCore which provides a simple solution for my Mustang but also pretty much any other vehicle on the market. They provide solutions which allow full integration with your existing head unit and steering wheel mounted audio controls through to a generic solution (which can even integrate with a fairly common Sony wired remote control).

As my solution is one step in a longer plan (and I don’t have steering wheel mounted controls!) I went for the Universal Zune solution which comprises of a Zune Sync cable which connects to their breakout box. That then has connectors for audio out (3.5mm and RCA audio and video), power in (either from a cigarette lighter/auxiliary socket via the supplied adapter or a supplied fused direct splice) and remote control input (for a Sony wired remote).

The ZuneCore breakout box is so small that mounting it in the floor console under the cup holders was all of about 10 minutes work. The Zune Sync cable then comes out in the passenger footwell while the power and audio cables go under the console to emerge in the storage compartment where there is a handy Line In and auxiliary power jack (given time I’d have spliced power and connected to the back of the radio directly but this was quick and easy!)

That just left the mounting solution itself. Luckily that turned out to be just as easy. ProClip USA supply a series of universal mounts (3 different choices of location for the Mustang, only one location for the Jeep Liberty but it’s perfect to mount the GPS). Once you’ve selected the mount position you then pair it with the accessory mount (which means it’s easy to change the device in the future without having to replace the bracket).

To mount the Zune in the Mustang was pretty simple… the mount sticks to the sidewall in the passenger footwell (one friction clip and two sticky pads) and the Zune swivel mount connects to the front with a single screw. The Jeep mount was a little harder as there were two parts to align and clip into creases in the dash but not much harder.

Now for about 20 minutes work all told I have my Zune mounted securely in the car. It charges, I control the volume through the built in head unit and quality is as good as a CD with no FM transmitter or line level audio interference. The best thing about the solution is when I park in my drive I can even sync my recent plays back to my PC and grab new music via WiFi and never remove it from the car.

As a geek I’m guilty of perhaps not getting as much exercise as I need. Part of the problem is finding the time but that comes down to motivation. With the wonders of this socially networked age it’s easier to use technology to help with that motivation.

The geek in me likes stats. If I know I’m doing good, and overall improving against myself or friends then I have the incentive to keep going and doing better. You can do something simple like maintaining an excel spreadsheet or twittering your workout but as someone who’s recently rediscovered cycling after 20 years in cars I’m really blown away by SportsDo. All you need is a Windows Mobile device with GPS capabilities, a data connection and … to get off the computer and get some exercise!

Your first step is to register on the SportsDo.Net website and create a profile. From there you can download and install the Windows Mobile client (other devices are supported) or you can visit their over-the-air provisioning site directly from your phone (you can try out the application before buying – you’re just limited to the distance you can cover).

You’re not limited by specific sports (and you don’t have to pre-select or choose anything up front) – when you start a new activity on your device you can choose from a predefined list (cycling, walking, canoeing, running, snowboarding, skiing, rowing, adventuring, motor-sports, horse riding and many others) or create your own profile.

Once you hit “new” on your device it starts recording GPS data so it knows where you are and how fast you are going (and from that it can calculate calories etc).

When you are exercising – be is a brisk walk or a full out cycle race – you can stop and take photos to record the even. They are, of course, geo-tagged and will be uploaded along with the rest of the data to your online diary.

Even if you don’t stop you can check the display at any time to see how far you’ve gone or how long you’ve been out. You can also choose to have any of the statistics (location, speed, distance traveled, gradient and calories burned and others) announced via your phones speakers or headphones.

You can choose to share your stats live (if you have a phone with a data plan and coverage) and there is also an option to automatically text buddies with updates.

Once you complete an activity you can edit the description and upload it (with any photos) to the web where you can then share with friends – including a Virtual Earth animation of the trail you took (shows relative speeds), synchronized to graphs showing gradients and speed. An example of the sort details and an animation of one of my recent cycle rides.

If you are going on an activity in an area you might not know that well SportsDo also have Location Packs available. These contain details of trails, restaurants and other amenities, ski lifts etc. The packs are continually updated as information about an area improves, and the packs cover many popular resorts.

As well as documenting your sporting prowess you can use SportsDo to tell friends and family where you are (similar to the option for Navizon users). You can even embed the information in your blog if you want to share that much ;)

Lifecasting is a big thing at the moment. One step beyond blogging and tweeting is the ability to record and broadcast live video from a cellphone to share what you’re doing – and engage with your audience.

Qik is probably the best known of these, and is slowly rolling out an early beta service for Windows Mobile users. But Qik are not the only game in town – there are a couple of existing solutions that have great support for Windows Mobile users.

LiveCast provide a live video streaming platform for Windows Mobile and laptop or UMPC users. The video is synchronized with GPS position data so your viewers can see where you are when you’re broadcasting (or when they review archived footage where you were).

While the video quality on LiveCast is pretty good for high end phones the client is not the most intuitive (so expect to spend some time figuring it it), and the web site is a bit clunky.

LiveMedia from IncaX provides very similar capabilities – private or public broadcasting from either PC or Mobile device, though as well as streaming video it allows you to insert other media from your device to enhance the presentation.

The LiveMedia GPS mobile client (currently in beta) adds GPS location data to the broadcast from your phone, and also allows you to record a broadcast to local storage for later upload. This feature is particularly useful as it allows you to keep a record of a trip without having to worry about connectivity.

Although feature-for-feature these two solutions are fairly similar my preference is for LiveMedia. The video quality is slightly less fluid and there is no audio in the current beta version but the interface is significantly easier to work with and there are more options to share your broadcasts.

The great thing is that both of these products are at fairly early stages and are evolving quite quickly, as are the capabilities of the phones they run on. Missing features and complicated user interfaces will quickly give way to slick controls and, especially as bandwith increases, high quality video and audio.

One thing that makes a smartphone really smart is knowing where it is and being able to tell you about it. Most people are comfortable with using the mapping capabilities of the satellite navigation systems in their car, but there’s no reason not to take that functionality everywhere with you.

Most of the high-end Windows Mobile smartphone (non touch) and Professional (touch-screen) devices come with GPS capabilities (and some with Assisted GPS which allows cell tower triangulation to get an initial lock while the phone locks on to enough satellites to get an accurate location).

Useful as it is, some older devices (like my trusty old Wizard, or the T-Mobile Dash) and even newer handsets like the Shadow don’t include GPS – often it’s driven by battery capacity (as running GPS all day can take its toll).

That doesn’t mean you have to go without though. If your phone has bluetooth support then there are a number of options available. I’d tried a couple of reasonable solutions but not found one that was convenient enough for everyday use. When my last device died I almost didn’t bother replacing it as most of the phones I was using had GPS. But my trusty Shadow was feeling left out and I was still using it as my day-top-day phone.

So I had a look around and found what has turned out to be a great little GPS unit. The Freedom Keychain GPS 2000.

This receiver is tiny. It hangs on my keychain and it’s hardly noticeable. It charges via a standard miniUSB connector so it’s easy to keep powered and gives about 8 hours use before needing juice. Pairing with the Shadow was incredibly easy and I’ve not had a connection problem (first for a Bluetooth device!). It takes about 15-30 seconds to get a lock from turning on when outside (longer indoors) and it’s accurate – most mini GPS units are 20 channel, this is a 51 channel device. One final thing I love about this is the fact the status lights are very discrete.

So, what can you use GPS with on your smartphone?

If you’ve got a built-in or bluetooth device then the most obvious application is Windows Live Search for Mobile (see review of latest version) but I also use Navizon to keep an eye on where my buddies are. For turn-by-turn navigation similar to your in-car navigation solution there are application from CoPilot, Garmin and Mobium. There is a list being maintained at Mapping4Mobiles that details a number of other options for various devices.

At the moment there are a huge number of opportunities that are missing out of the box for location aware services – geotagging photos probably being the most obvious, but one-touch sharing of location via BrightKite or FireEagle (though Navizon works just fine for that). In an ideal world services like Yelp or similar would be able to adjust their offering if they know where I am…

One added bonus of using a bluetooth device is you can pair it with more than one device. My Keychain works fine with my Shadow, but also pairs perfectly with my Samsung UMPC which opens up a whole new set of options for navigation – including Microsoft Streets and Trips or IntelliNav (and because the Keychain uses a standard USB charger cable I can power it from the UMPC even when it’s paired via Bluetooth to drive the software!)

One of the coolest things about my new job seems to be the number of toys that have gone rushing over my desk in the last few weeks.

Most folks assume that they just get “given” to us, and for some devices (such as the TyTN II and the Mirage) they are – but only for a very short time then they have to go back to the Mobile Demo team or their real owners because my excuse to play with them is over.

Most however have been paid for out of my very own pocket. Not expensed and not donated. I really must do something about that.

So… what is in the picture this month?

At the top is my UMPC. It’s a Samsung Q1U and I like it very much. It’s recently had some surgery to give it more RAM and it’s now very much more usable. I’m not a fan of the split keyboard though and to be a really useful machine it needs a better battery and a faster CPU (and a faster hard drive!)

Below that is the telephony suspects. My Shadow, then a BlackJack II, the TyTN II we used for the Silverlight demo at Advance08 and finally the Samsung Mirage (SGH-i780).

Because all of these phones apart from the Shadow have GPS I bought myself a tiny (keyring sized) Freedom GPS 200 bluetooth device (it’s going to have to share with the Q1U though!).

Last but not least is the answer to the keyboard woes of the Q1U. A Freedom Universal folding bluetooth keyboard. This device claims compatibility with both Windows/Vista devices and smartphones. Well, I had no problem what-so-ever pairing it with the Q1U and so I’m really happy with that.

The bad news is that at this point in time I am totally unable to get it working with any of the phones in the list above. First of all the driver install from the PC doesn’t work in Vista (you have to manually copy the files across and install it), the over-the-air installer doesn’t recognize any of the devices and for good measure even when I get the driver installed it wants to generate a unique unlock code for each device before it’ll let me pair… the website fell over when I tried to go it for the first device, and as you can see… I get through devices at a fair rate so locking me to one isn’t going to make me a fan.

I’ve logged a couple of support requests… when they get back to me I’ll have another look at the keyboard and report back.

Oh, and the neat little bag with “Windows Mobile” written on it… invaluable for lugging around chargers, USB cables, spare batteries, microSD cards and USB adapters and whatever else!

Microsoft’s SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology) has had quite a long life in it’s original form, with up to date information being delivered to various devices – as diverse as watches and coffee makers – but as times have changed demand has waned.

Partners are no longer selling SPOT enabled watches – although the good news for us who use them is that the service will continue to deliver news, weather and other updates as expected for time to come.

That doesn’t mean it’s the end for the brand though. The MSN Direct service is changing along with the needs of it’s audience and delivering content in more appropriate and targeted ways… the SPOT devices are becoming less visible and more just a part of every day life.

What use is traffic data and gas prices delivered to your phone? If you’re in the car then wouldn’t it make sense it your GPS device knew that information and could make use of it? Well, with the partnership with Garmin (“MSN Direct services for GPS Navigation Devices” according to the marketing folks) the technology is embedded into your Satellite Navigation to help make smarter decisions.

One criticism of the SPOT enabled watches was the screen size. Well, a lot of people already carry a device with a much larger screen every day – their phone. Using over the air data delivery or WiFi (for phones that support that) the MSN Direct service is available both as a native Windows Mobile client or via any mobile browser by visiting the mobile enabled http://phone.msndirect.com.

It’s great to see how this really simple technology has evolved from it’s useful but admittedly clunky origins. Of course, if you’re determined to have a really high tech watch you should check out the Epoq EGP-WP98B – a smart watch that runs Windows Mobile 5 (yes, it’s a phone!)

It's quite often a question I ask myself when lost and confused in a city far from home (and actually I ask myself the question when I'm just popping down the shops sometimes!)

Luckily I recently discovered Navizon which lets me pair a GPS device with my phone and show me where I am on a map (yes, I know I can do the same with Windows Live Search for Mobile but ... there's more to the story). Navizon give users who report GPS data back to them points (and points mean cold hard cash via PayPal). The reason Navizon give the rewards is that their positioning service doesn't just work with a GPS equipped device. If you only have phone (and ideally WiFi) capabilities it can use information about the local cells and visible WiFi networks coupled with the afore-mentioned GPS data to make a pretty good guess as to where you are.

One of the cool things is that the Navizon API is available for other companies to make their software location aware so hopefully we'll see some good things coming soon. In the meantime users can also access data (including the optional "tracker" functionality) to keep an eye out for buddies or alert friends and family when they enter a certain place or use the XML feed to locate yourself on a map.

I decided to have a play with the XML feed and Live Maps to see what I could do...

BTW if you sign up to Navizon don't forget my referal code - 5E585D5B5A :)