Holy, frickin' yes!

The Mac Mini is virtually the same size as a standard single DIN, leading to the logical question: Who wants to try installing it.

Then, today, someone in NY answered. I may have to drive to NY to have this done, though I imagine some in Chicago will get around to it. I'm thinking underseat install, for venting, in dash touch screen...oh the possibities make me want to cry with joy.

Auto Enthusiasts Reved-up for New Mac Mini - Classic Restorations First to Offer Custom Mac Mini Auto Installations
The new Mac Mini can bring "brain power" to any car, from the carefully restored classics and performance vehicles to the daily driver. Classic Restorations in Sloatsburg NY is first to offer customized design and installation of the Mac Mini in the car stereo or other single-DIN slot.

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 13, 2005 -- Melvin Benzaquen, president of Classic Restorations in Sloatsburg, NY (http://www.classicresto.com) realized that at 2 X 6.5 inches, the newly introduced Mac Mini could easily fit into a car stereo compartment, creating a powerful “brain” for any car. He’s convinced the new Mac Mini could be one of the hottest innovations the car enthusiast market has seen in years.

“We had been completing the design and prototypes of our modified iBook and PowerBook car installs when rumors of the Mac Mini began to circulate earlier this month,” said Benzaquen. “We immediately began working on a new design and plan for car conversions on the new Mac Mini platform. We are pleased to be the first to offer the exciting Mac Mini conversion at a price far more accessible than any mobile PC alternative.”

Classic Restorations’ exclusive Mac Mini Auto designs provide for touch screen or conventional LCD display options. Although the the Mac Mini mounts in a single-DIN slot in dash, Classic Restorations can customize installation to fit under the seat, in the glove box or any other location in the car.

For car enthusiasts, the Mac Mini conjures the potential of having a car like KITT from “Knight Rider,” the popular t.v. program featuring a talking and thinking sleek black TransAm. The Mac Mini supports voice recognition and voice response, allowing for handsfree operation while driving. It also supports Bluetooth, allowing for the use of a wide array of wireless peripherals such as keyboards and cell phones.

Drivers can use the customized Mac Mini Auto to log into home networks to transfer flies, such as your favorite music, video and photos, wirelessly from computers and home media devices directly to the car. The Mac Mini platform supports virtually all home media formats (MP3, DVD, CD, WMA, etc.) and the 40 GB storage allows for onboard selection of thousands of songs. Of course, Mac games can be played on the Mac Mini to provide hours of entertainment for passengers.

Road trips will never be the same for Mac Mini-equipped cars. Users can drive up and log into to any hotspot, as offered at many Starbucks, McDonald’s, hotels and other public locations to surf the Web, view e-mail, view webcams, and other useful options.

Mr. Benzaquen explains, “For around the price of mounting an iPod in your car, you get a whole Macintosh computer.”

Classic Restorations is now taking reservations for installations starting on Jan. 22, the day Apple announced as the release date for the hardware. Customers can provide their own Mac Mini or Classic Restorations will arrange to purchase the computer (based on hardware availability). Classic Restoration is offering a special introductory offer.

To learn more about Classic Restorations exclusive Mac Mini Auto Installation or to schedule an appointment at our shop conveniently located 45 minutes from New York City, call 845-753-5091 or visit http://www.classicresto.com.

# # #

 

buy me one and ill try it out for you

 

I want one right now. The only thing that scares me is the HD size. 80 gigs is nothing these days. i could fill that up in about 2 seconds with my music library. and still need twice that much space for my movies.

 

Scared that there is only 80 gigs?...dude, isn't that like 16 THOUSAND songs? How many could you possibly need in YOUR CAR?

As for movies...there is no shame in DVDs., You only have to change them once every two hours or so...

Matt

 

OK, so here is my question, which will seem retarded to some, will you still be able to have a head unit with this installed, so as to allow for radio reception? I know it would fit, it is just the power supply, etc etc that I was wondering about.

 

i saw the specs online 1.42ghz 32mb video?? im not impressed!! cram a real machine into a single/dub din space
then you will get my attention

 

The storage capacity on the Mac mini can easily be expanded with a firewire HD. a 250 firewire external can be had for around 250-300 bucks if memory serves. It's plug and play and virtually seemless. and if you wanted you could mount it so you could remove the firewire drive, take it in the house and upload whatever you needed on it, much faster then any wireless transfer.

 

the hard drive size is fine its the other stuff yea give it time
someone will introduce a 3.5ghz 128mb video into an even
smaller case this is the first step into smaller smarter cpu's
good job apple just not fast enuff yet for real application useage

 

damn i found out about the mac mini about 2 days ago and the idea to put it in the car came to me like 5 seconds later (naturally). and everyone already talkin about it. i just wanna know if i can use the touch screen on my kenwood flip out with the mac

 

As someone who has several macs be very careful. Apple had a G4 cube a couple of years ago and it went the way of the dinosaurs. The problem is cooling, jam a CPU, hard drive, cd drive, video card, and ram into that small of a space you will get lots of heat and bad airflow. Combine that with mounting it under the seat or in the dash and I say 6 months or less before you have problems or it dies. Don't get me wrong I think that the mini mac is great as a entry level mac to compete with the dell's and gateway's, but in this application I think you are asking for trouble.

 

The mini does look promising for it's size but the key to a successful carputer install is how it gets power. On the PC side people use DC-DC power supplies with startup/shutdown controllers and circuitry to help the PC survive the voltage drop during crank. I would hope this is not a inverter based solution potentially draining the car's battery.

If it had a good solution for startup/shutdown and feeding power I would probably get one.

 

The Cube is actually in high demand on the used market - its main problem was the price. The fanless cooling works as designed (Apple's "G" series processors run much cooler than similar Pentiums), and the only noise is from the HD and CD drives.

The Mac mini has a fan, but yeah, put it in an area of bad/hot airflow and it could be asking for trouble.

 

only weighs 3 pounds it would be possible to put that thing almost anywhere. Suspended maybe for good air flow? Would taking off the case and having its insides showing be better for the unit?

 

why not take the case off like erni suggested, put it under a seat and add a cooling fan

 

Kakosta: OSX is better written than xp, it doesn't need as much system resources. I'd also like to see you cram a 3.5ghz computer into a case that size and make it super quiet and beautiful.

This idea came up on slashdot a few minutes after the Mini Mac was introduced. I would most definitely hit this idea if I had $1k laying around.

 

i used to work on macs .. they are incredible. the i-cube was kinda of a bad design IMO. since i dont work on mac anymore i have no coment on this one. but the flathead imac was cool-good design and all. but overal apple has my vote xcept my money cuz i cant afford them. but i would be nice to have one in my car.

 

Yeah. Actually, since I already have an LCD where the stock head unit is, I'm thinking about installing it in the compartment right below the A/C controls.

I don't really have a reason to do this because I already have mp3s, dvds, and GPS... I guess the only reason I'd do this is because I'm a geek and it would be cool to be able to surf for pr0n in my car.

 

500 bucks is less than some people spend on one rim and tire. This mod is totally worth it.

 

Are you stupid?! 1.42 ghz = overkill for most application usage. I don't really know what you need a super fast chip for other than hardcore gaming or video editing, both of which would be retarded in your car.... you're ignorant, and this is why I hate most scion owners. Ugh. OOO ME PUT BIG SPEAKER IN LITTLE CAR THAT LOOKS LIKE A LOWRIDER!

Ugh. Please don't reproduce.

 

ScionLife is probably not a great place to hang out if you "hate most Scion owners..."

Duh.

--Matt