Who's interested in a full Android head unit?

[2forme]

I highly doubt it will be 200. LOL. I've contacted the people listed in the CMOS' link. Haven't heard anything yet.

[themadpants]

Now that we have established that CAR-PCs are on the way out and were last decades thing, lets praise the direction they are going in please?

Yes, some people may be offended at the price of some of these units, but to be honest, they are in their infancy in terms of development and potential. They are far more reasonable then a grand for a name brand head unit (which you then have to add all the accessories to, even the Ipod cable for crying out loud)

As more come out to market, the prices will get more competitive, and when more people buy them, the same thing will happen.

Remember what a 1GB compact flash cost when they first came out? The camera shop I was working in had the high speed ones for $1000 and they were flying off the shelves because every pro worth their salt wanted them for the new to market digital SLR's. 6 months later they were $300.

I like to be a "pioneer" in not buying a pioneer

I believe that this is the future of aftermarket head units, and once the big players jump on board, and we have XM and HD Radio options etc etc, we will all win.

So encourage the market. Hell, buy the "unbranded" CA-FI or Adayo units off ebay or Alibaba if you want, just remember that with the price reduction comes the risk of no support/warranty.

I am personally tempted to go this route in all my cars. :happy0180:

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by 2forme

I highly doubt it will be 200. LOL. I've contacted the people listed in the CMOS' link. Haven't heard anything yet.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/578539505/Universal_Android_V2_2_Car_Stereo.html

$350 including reseller markup

...and before you go screaming for the woods over the $150 difference:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/57...ar_Stereo.html

same company, same price, significantly updated hardware...

there is a reason why the other listing has no price, its a supplier contract to "fix" a price in a certain market

that is why in the US you see this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDROID-K1-A...-/160890371306
and
http://androidgoto.altervista.org/ad...droid-2-2-650/

the advertised price "floor" is
$650 for US
$300 for China/Pacific rim ( http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/56...avigation.html )

...this has absolutely no bearing on the final price that you can haggle since in effect you are paying for

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20011864-1.html
$150 as of 2010 in the US

+

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/58...model.html?s=p
$16

and contrary to your DIY experience, when a mfr combines two cheap products under 1 roof it brings the price down not up

finally consider
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/App...gin,14976.html

that is what $310 of hardware cost gets you on the open market ...I'm pretty sure they're not spending $70 on a display... more likely $7 ...if

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by themadpants

Now that we have established that CAR-PCs are on the way out and were last decades thing, lets praise the direction they are going in please?

Yes, some people may be offended at the price of some of these units, but to be honest, they are in their infancy in terms of development and potential. They are far more reasonable then a grand for a name brand head unit (which you then have to add all the accessories to, even the Ipod cable for crying out loud)

As more come out to market, the prices will get more competitive, and when more people buy them, the same thing will happen.

Remember what a 1GB compact flash cost when they first came out? The camera shop I was working in had the high speed ones for $1000 and they were flying off the shelves because every pro worth their salt wanted them for the new to market digital SLR's. 6 months later they were $300.

I like to be a "pioneer" in not buying a pioneer

I believe that this is the future of aftermarket head units, and once the big players jump on board, and we have XM and HD Radio options etc etc, we will all win.

So encourage the market. Hell, buy the "unbranded" CA-FI or Adayo units off ebay or Alibaba if you want, just remember that with the price reduction comes the risk of no support/warranty.

I am personally tempted to go this route in all my cars. :happy0180:

25+ year wintel legacy

now try moving a Motorola's android onto a Samsung phone

[2forme]

Originally Posted by CMOS

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/578539505/Universal_Android_V2_2_Car_Stereo.html

$350 including reseller markup

...and before you go screaming for the woods over the $150 difference:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/57...ar_Stereo.html

same company, same price, significantly updated hardware...

there is a reason why the other listing has no price, its a supplier contract to "fix" a price in a certain market

that is why in the US you see this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANDROID-K1-A...-/160890371306
and
http://androidgoto.altervista.org/ad...droid-2-2-650/

the advertised price "floor" is
$650 for US
$300 for China/Pacific rim ( http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/56...avigation.html )

...this has absolutely no bearing on the final price that you can haggle since in effect you are paying for

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20011864-1.html
$150 as of 2010 in the US

+

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/58...model.html?s=p
$16

and contrary to your DIY experience, when a mfr combines two cheap products under 1 roof it brings the price down not up

finally consider
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/App...gin,14976.html

that is what $310 of hardware cost gets you on the open market ...I'm pretty sure they're not spending $70 on a display... more likely $7 ...if

Of course it doesn't take a lot to make these units. Hell, the iPhone makes the most money of any phone.

I'm sure the Pioneer Z140 doesn't take anywhere near 1K$. It's probably nearly identical to the X940BT, with a couple extra goodies added on. Yet it's THAT much more expensive. Why don't you show us links on those?

The point is, is it readily available to the consumer at that price. I've been contacting these people trying to get a quote for 50+ units and haven't heard a single thing back.

Now show me the Ca-Fi 621000 for cheap and we'll be talking.

[2forme]

Originally Posted by CMOS

[FONT=Courier New]http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/578539505/Universal_Android_V2_2_Car_Stereo.html

$350 including reseller markup

...and before you go screaming for the woods over the $150 difference:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/57...ar_Stereo.html

same company, same price, significantly updated hardware...

there is a reason why the other listing has no price, its a supplier contract to "fix" a price in a certain market

LOL, how do you consider a 720MHz CPU to be "significantly updated" compared to a 1GHz.

No, go ahead, we'll wait.

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by 2forme

Of course it doesn't take a lot to make these units. Hell, the iPhone makes the most money of any phone.

I'm sure the Pioneer Z140 doesn't take anywhere near 1K$. It's probably nearly identical to the X940BT, with a couple extra goodies added on. Yet it's THAT much more expensive. Why don't you show us links on those?

The point is, is it readily available to the consumer at that price. I've been contacting these people trying to get a quote for 50+ units and haven't heard a single thing back.

Now show me the Ca-Fi 621000 for cheap and we'll be talking.

Uhmm... because the mfr. controls the pipeline from inception to best buy? Its not my fault that there is sufficient base of idiots with too much credit to keep those prices inflated, I never asked anyone to buy a severely overpriced radio now did I? In fact, I was comparing everything to a budget PC build which neither of these can match on a cost/performance basis. Also, I'm not a shopping assistant, I already found you your $650 radio, feel free to browse the other 20,000 listings. And no, shopping direct from china is not convenient but is it 3-400$ worth of hassle to hit up the 20 people that listed these?

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by 2forme

LOL, how do you consider a 720MHz CPU to be "significantly updated" compared to a 1GHz.

No, go ahead, we'll wait.

I misread the model no. so I take that particular statement back. The clock by itself does not mean much.

[2forme]

Originally Posted by CMOS

Uhmm... because the mfr. controls the pipeline from inception to best buy? Its not my fault that there is sufficient base of idiots with too much credit to keep those prices inflated, I never asked anyone to buy a severely overpriced radio now did I? In fact, I was comparing everything to a budget PC build which neither of these can match on a cost/performance basis. Also, I'm not a shopping assistant, I already found you your $650 radio, feel free to browse the other 20,000 listings. And no, shopping direct from china is not convenient but is it 3-400$ worth of hassle to hit up the 20 people that listed these?

Right, because a 1000$ + dollar hassle laden pc build is much more efficient at being a car stereo than... a car stereo.

Keep pimping your pipe dream, son.

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by 2forme

Right, because a 1000$ + dollar hassle laden pc build is much more efficient at being a car stereo than... a car stereo.

Keep pimping your pipe dream, son.

well, if I got lazy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Atom-D...item19ce0b2d89

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-DH67CF...item5d30403db0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-ITX-Car...item2ebbe4efcf

so not exactly $1000 more like $500 and change unless you want to spec. yours out to become the IT backbone of some 3rd world nation or possibly command a small navy

also,

now, I'm not a fan of metro but it sure wipes the floor with android 2.2 as a radio/media interface, try navigating 2,000 audio files and videos spanning 50 different formats on an android or the base FR-S stereo and see how well they cope with "being a radio"

...and to reinforce my original point, this is also a full ibm compatible PC so it actually does everything my other desktops do, not to mention that this system is fully modular so if I'm not happy with any of the performance or interface or something inevitably breaks, I only swap the weak link at a fraction of the price, if you're unhappy with your shenzhen special in any way

[2forme]

d

Originally Posted by CMOS

well, if I got lazy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Atom-D...item19ce0b2d89

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-DH67CF...item5d30403db0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-ITX-Car...item2ebbe4efcf

so not exactly $1000 more like $500 and change unless you want to spec. yours out to become the IT backbone of some 3rd world nation or possibly command a small navy

also,

now, I'm not a fan of metro but it sure wipes the floor with android 2.2 as a radio/media interface, try navigating 2,000 audio files and videos spanning 50 different formats on an android or the base FR-S stereo and see how well they cope with "being a radio"

...and to reinforce my original point, this is also a full ibm compatible PC so it actually does everything my other desktops do, not to mention that this system is fully modular so if I'm not happy with any of the performance or interface or something inevitably breaks, I only swap the weak link at a fraction of the price, if you're unhappy with your shenzhen special in any way

+ Hard drive ($100)
+ GPS dongle and software (100$)
+ LCD screen (250$)
+ Materials to build in LCD screen (not sure)
+ FM USB dongle (75$)
+ OS (100$)
+ Media front end software (125$)
+ wifi (15$)

What were you saying about 500$? And at the end of it all, you're left with a really slow car pc that kinda sucks.

You can't seem to grasp the point of where this is being used. Windows (and Windows 8) isn't made for the car. Android is MUCH better for in car use than Windows.

Sure, your CarPC *CAN* do everything your desktop can, but how many pieces of software can operate effectively on a 7" RESISTIVE touchscreen, while in a moving vehicle. How many support gestures?Next to none.

Oh and managing videos and music, Android wins again. Sure, I can click through folders and then select the song I want.... or.... well here's a pretty picture for you (maybe you'll understand pictures).



See those buttons laid down the middle of the screen? Those are sorting buttons. Artist, Album, Song, Genre... all one tap away. Oh and if you want to play everything in a sorted group...just click PLAY. No multiselecting. BTW, I have a 32GB card in there chocked full of music.

Videos?



... Doesn't get much easier than that.

Listen we get it, you're excited about your CarPC, but your ignorance is getting tiring. I currently have BOTH a CarPC and an Android HU. I think I'd know just a bit more about it than you do. You're acting a lot like a politician, trying to bend the facts to suit your point while ignoring others. It's growing old, fast. If you wanna talk about how awesome your CarPC is, start your own thread instead of whoring up this one.

[themadpants]

Originally Posted by CMOS

25+ year wintel legacy

now try moving a Motorola's android onto a Samsung phone

I am struggling to see your argument? What is your point?

And please don't forget to include the cost of a licensed copy if windows in your "wintel" build.

Now try moving your win 7 or win 8 onto a Samsung phone? This argument is invalid.

Can you please create your own "wintel" build thread to show us how awesome it is, instead of cluttering OP's Android thread? Thanks much..

*edit* I see the OP has said the same thing in his post. I look forward to your thread, and I will not bash or clutter your thread with arguments. Instead I will give you Kudo's on what you have accomplished, and what works for you. Cheers!

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by 2forme

d

+ Hard drive ($100)
+ GPS dongle and software (100$)
+ LCD screen (250$)
+ Materials to build in LCD screen (not sure)
+ FM USB dongle (75$)
+ OS (100$)
+ Media front end software (125$)
+ wifi (15$)

What were you saying about 500$? And at the end of it all, you're left with a really slow car pc that kinda sucks.

You can't seem to grasp the point of where this is being used. Windows (and Windows 8) isn't made for the car. Android is MUCH better for in car use than Windows.

Sure, your CarPC *CAN* do everything your desktop can, but how many pieces of software can operate effectively on a 7" RESISTIVE touchscreen, while in a moving vehicle. How many support gestures?Next to none.

Oh and managing videos and music, Android wins again. Sure, I can click through folders and then select the song I want.... or.... well here's a pretty picture for you (maybe you'll understand pictures).



See those buttons laid down the middle of the screen? Those are sorting buttons. Artist, Album, Song, Genre... all one tap away. Oh and if you want to play everything in a sorted group...just click PLAY. No multiselecting. BTW, I have a 32GB card in there chocked full of music.

Videos?



... Doesn't get much easier than that.

Listen we get it, you're excited about your CarPC, but your ignorance is getting tiring. I currently have BOTH a CarPC and an Android HU. I think I'd know just a bit more about it than you do. You're acting a lot like a politician, trying to bend the facts to suit your point while ignoring others. It's growing old, fast. If you wanna talk about how awesome your CarPC is, start your own thread instead of whoring up this one.

I'm bending facts? you just added a $100 hard drive

http://microcenter.com/product/38857...rive_%28SSD%29

does your build have a 120GB 6Gb/s SSD? no then how about?

http://microcenter.com/product/39949...id_State_Drive

a $100 GPS dongle?
http://eshopic.store.buy.com/p/usb-2...241611566.html
what about this already overpriced $20 dongle?

a $250 LCD screen?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/52..._HD_1080P.html
so twice as expensive as this radio WITH a screen?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/62...or_7_inch.html
how about the same monitor you get on the "$650" radio for $45

$75 for radio?
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DVB-T...665153426.html
well this one for $13 will also do TV

I can live with $100 for OS since I can buy it once and keep it for 5-10 years without issues, I still have XP on a few machines and they are well supported to this day

I'm not even sure what you want to spend the $125 media front on... you have to completely blow off the built in metro utilities, then VLC, then MWP and then 50 other media managers that are free for download, then give up on making one yourself which you can write on the device itself and then ditch all the emulation of all the other systems to finally arrive at "I'll pay $125 for something else"

I can live with $15 for wifi

So lets sum it up
$260 for PC
$60 for SSD
$20 for GPS
$45 for screen
$13 for radio
$100 for OS
$15 for wifi

$513... wow, add another $100 to ship it all and were still below MSRP on the adayo and this is just what I got to with 15 mins worth of googling, it may not be a Half-Life cruncher but heck, dual core x86 at more then twice the speed of your radio isn't exactly underpowered, most netbooks had "fair" performance with one severely throttled 1.66Ghz core but thats ok, add a $150 and have an i3 at 3.1Ghz, how many orders of magnitude beyond your android would you like to go?

Much better then windows? well lets see, both have a phone interface but yet windows can manage multitasking as well as ohh say a PC, not to mention that 2.2 is now pretty much obsolete outside the cheap tablet market while XP, 7 and 8 are fairly well established, also you can run all 3 + any number of linux distros from one machine, heck you can vm them to run at the same time and throw in unix android and icrap for good measure ...and yes I did omit Vista as I consider that to be a 7beta more than a real OS...

And thank you for the pictures, having memory loss for the better part of the 90s and recent decade I would have never known about tags and "play by" options, now what happens when you add a whole bunch of mp3 without tags or misformatted tags or corrupt headers? ohh that's right you end up with the worlds most popular recording artist "unknown" spanning 500 screens, 100 years and every know genre ...but I know you will argue that you went through 32GB worth of mp3s and corrected each tag to reflect that Eminem = Emainem = ENM = random white guy = marshal matters... it sure is a lot more convenient then dropping them all into a folder...

And I have hardware dating back to 1983, the only common theme is that every single one of these ventures casio, palm, webos, blackberry, android create a new hyperinflated device eco system, incompatible with all other hardware, that makes no financial sense when compared to a regular PC of the time and then flop when the next thing comes along leaving all devices obsolete... 7 years ago you would be running a blackberry retrofit what would you do with it today? My P4 from same time frame still works great, has drivers for all the new hardware, will accept a modern OS and still has parts available. Once again, $200 is not an awful price for a car stereo so go have a ball, but at $650, or rather $700 once you add that precious 32GB card that's still slower and smaller then the cheapest SSD, you are taking a bunch of underinformed people for a costly ride by pretending that this somehow reflects a true market value of the device. My main gripe with this thread is what seems to be your personal financial interest in having these units valued as close to $650 as possible.

[CMOS]

Originally Posted by themadpants

I am struggling to see your argument? What is your point?

And please don't forget to include the cost of a licensed copy if windows in your "wintel" build.

Now try moving your win 7 or win 8 onto a Samsung phone? This argument is invalid.

Can you please create your own "wintel" build thread to show us how awesome it is, instead of cluttering OP's Android thread? Thanks much..

*edit* I see the OP has said the same thing in his post. I look forward to your thread, and I will not bash or clutter your thread with arguments. Instead I will give you Kudo's on what you have accomplished, and what works for you. Cheers!

$100 for Win8 accounted for.

How is it invalid? you want me to move windows to an android phone that specifically violates x86 compatibility rules? I compared two phones that had the "same" OS and "same" hardware but somehow they act different. I can take a retail Win7 and add it to pretty much every x86 from past 10 years if it has enough RAM which is neither a high demand nor unexpected.

I'm waiting for all the bugs in the car to surface before altering any major parts under warranty, was not expecting a 30 item list of issues this early and by early next year all of the hardware will be updated. I'm simply adding the voice of reason to the conversation since $650 is a lot of money to spend on a $150 tablet attached to a $15 stereo.