Windows in-car computer boots up down under

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 04 December 2007

Page 1 of 2 ! Although combination car radios exist with CD and DVD players, iPod connectivity, TV tuners, GPS and an interface to the car’s own on-board computer and electronics, the Gizmosis Infill G4 is the first true Windows XP in-dash computer, with full PC and Internet capabilities, at a price. On sale overseas for a year and a half, the Gizmosis Infill G4 in-car PC has finally landed down under, giving road warriors the best in-car, in-dash connected Windows PC experience available. Filling into the ‘double-sized’ car radio slot on modern cars, usually seen accommodating car radios with large screens and in-built GPS navigation, the Infill G4 is a Windows XP computer with a 1.5Ghz Via processor and auto-rated 40GB hard drive (built to withstand the extra shocks experienced while driving). Seeing the Infill G4 in action, it’s clear that this is the most advanced in-car Windows computer yet with a range of capabilities that let you take advantage of the computing power of the Windows operating system while being able to safely drive down the highway, thanks to speech recognition and other features we’ll look at in more detail in a moment. That said, when voice commands were used, there seemed to be a slight delay for the unit to process what was said and perform the requested actions, but ultimately the computer acted as directed, which is a pretty important consideration if you’re going to spend the money getting an Infill G4 installed into their card. The hard drive can be optioned up to an 80GB or 100GB model, the included 512MB of RAM can be doubled to 1GB if desired, and the inbuilt 6.5-inch Sharp LCD-TFT Touch Screen operates in day or night mode, is nicely tiltable, has a wide-viewing angle, runs at a resolution of 800x480 and dedicated touch controls on the left hand size of the screen, while a second independent LCD screen can also be connected to the unit. Thanks to a custom designed touch interface for the touch screen (separate to the touch buttons on the left hand side of the LCD), which sits on top of the regular Windows XP desktop, the functions you’d expect to find are all a touch away, including music, Internet radio, DVD and video file playback, a Sirf-Star III GPS receiver and GPS navigation software from CoPilot, although the CoPilot software is an optional additional software purchase. Additional features inlcude: an email program that reads incoming mail to you in that computerised voice we’re all familiar with while you’re driving, web browsing, a button to take you to the regular Windows desktop, a config screen and an app favourites button. In addition, a rear view camera is available as an option, which when installed in your car lets you see your rear view through the Infill G4’s screen and as 5.1 surround sound output is available, you can hook it up for the surround sound effect when passengers are watching movies or playing games.      Plug in an optional USB mobile broadband solution in from your local phone company, and the Infill G4 connects to the web just as you’d expect, letting you surf the web, check and listen to email, and even use VoIP applications such as Skype and others. Please read onto page 2 to continue. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >

Visitors last 30 days Suscribers

904,266 13,751