I have been thinking about getting a Pioneer AVIC D1 for my XB, but I had a hard time justifying the $1500 price tag. Today it was announced that a new line of PCs was coming out very soon caled UMPC, or Ultra Mobile Personal Computers. Basically, these things are huge PDAs/small Tablet PCs, but what makes them special is the 30+ GB Hard drive, 7" Touch screen and connection options. No pricing has been released yet, but it is speculated to be in the $500 - $1000 range. There are different models from different companies, but they all have the same basic feature-set. The Asus model looks the best out of the bunch, and would look perfect on that big empty dashboard between the steering wheel and windshield of my XB.

links:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/09/h...founder-umpcs/

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/default.mspx

 

it is still a 1GHZ Pentium M
will barely be good for video playback (if at all)
audio will be easy though

why not build a PC (mATX or mini-ITX)
or the new AOpen MiniPC (1.7 Pentium M + DVD burner + video out)

so many other options.....

 

1Ghz is just fine for video playback. The processor in these is more powerful than what you find in any DVD player. Besides, why would I want to build a mini ATX or go with the Aopen mini when this has a screen included and will fit on my dashboard. Every other option available requires the purchase of a touch screen/head unit with video input and installation. Everything I need is already in one package, which is also extremely portable. Of course, I am assuming these are under $1000.

These look about 1" deep so finding room to mount it in the XB will be easy. I was trying to come up with a justification to buy the AVIC D1, but this makes much more sense.

What makes these a great value for me is their portability. It's a single device that can go with me. I have given serious thought to building a PC for my car in the past but the cost + installation hassles put me off. With this I just set it on my dashboard and go. I don't have to tear anything out and can move it from car to car. Assuming the pricing rumors are true, I will be getting one.

 

Check out my computing solution:

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...434&highlight=

Similar to the UMPC idea but a little more expensive. but the cool thing is i can just unplug my tablet and take it to work/school wherever I want. it has a 1.5 ghz cpu, 512 mb ram and 60 gigs of disk space! i use it for navigation, music and movies. when i am compelled to, I'm going to attach a usb camera and run the camera to the back of the car so i have a backup cam also!
- sh00k