Carputer in Gen III?

I have a couple of plans which I am working on with a friend of mine that owns a stereo shop.
First is a Mac Mini system in the upper glove box with a monitor attached to that upper cover.
Second is a monitor that will duplicate the ipod touch or iphone's screen. I have not found anything like this yet but it is still in the works.
I will update as it comes closer.

 

I'm so glad to have found this thread. I actually wrote the first "real" Mac carputer front-end software, it was called AMP. You can read a bunch about it here: MacCar - MP3Car.com . I did it while I was in med school and haven't touched it in years. I recently re-downloaded the source code and was thinking about bringing it up to date. It would be really cool to have a Mac mini in a Prius, and there is so much room to put stuff (the mini could go in the glove box, or in the center console thing (underneath the gear shifter, that big empty area down there), and there's a lot of room for a screen, either in that huge area by the A-pillar or on a gooseneck come up from the passenger side of the same little center console huge storage area thing. (if you put the mini and the screen in that area it would be absolutely minimal running of wires.)

My "mental" problem is this: why? I have an iPhone and I basically have any music I want already, and I have XM radio. Am I really going to watch videos in the car? Will my front-end be easier and quicker to use than my iPhone for selecting music? I don't know..

 

If the rumors are true, Apple will soon have a 10" itouch tablet available, with a data plan from ATT or Verizon. I can imagine mounting one of those above the steering column or elsewhere, connected to the car's stereo by aux, bluetooth or USB. I agree, the big question is why? Am I going to visit priuschat or watch movies while driving? Use it as a nav device and/or as a substitute for XM traffic? What would it do for me that my iphone can't already do? I can imagine a much easier, and more powerful, versatile and useful car computer, with a tight integration with the car and touchscreen interface/display. Without that tight integration, a carputer doesn't seem to have a purpose. I thought the original goal was to use the nav screen as the interface display.