.KEYWORD autopc0400
.FLYINGHEAD SOFTWARE REVIEW
.TITLE New software products for the Auto PC
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Over the past few months some exciting new software products have emerged from the Auto PC software industry, and Mark Moeller has been checking them out. In this month’s informative article, he’s going to introduce you to some of these new products.
.AUTHOR Mark Moeller
The Auto PC software industry has been quietly and slowly growing, and recently some exciting new software products have emerged. Over the past few months, I’ve been checking out some of the new software products for the Auto PC. I want to use this month’s article to introduce you to some of these new products.
Note that none of these products are Auto PC certified. This is a process that few software vendors have chosen to comply with, primarily due to the fact that most Auto PC software is free and certification costs are not. Auto PC certified software goes through a testing and validation process by an organization to verify that the software complies with recommended Auto PC program guidelines. This will become more important in the future as the equipment manufacturer can optionally configure Auto PC 2.0 in order to prevent the installation of non-certified programs. Indications from Clarion’s George Giles on the Club AutoPC bulletin board (see http://www.clubautopc.com), is that Clarion will be permitting non-certified programs to run on their 2.0 Auto PC.
.H1 Omega One’s Active Volume
The folks at Omega One have been one of the leaders in the aftermarket Auto PC software. Active Volume is a must-have for every Auto PC owner. It dynamically adjusts the volume on your Auto PC based on how fast your vehicle is going. I have a Honda Civic, a vehicle not known for its quiet interior. Before Active Volume, when on trips down the freeway, I had to crank my Auto PC volume up to 17 or 18 to be able to hear the music over the road noise. However, the vehicle is pretty quiet at low speed and when I pulled off the freeway onto surface streets I’d get blasted out, so I’d have to adjust volume to 9. Active Volume does this for me now. It always maintains a nice listening level based on my vehicle’s speed. One catch is that a GPS is required so Active Volume will know how fast I’m going. The volume level increases are totally configurable through a control panel applet and there are several presets for the most common vehicle classifications. The current version of the product is version 1.2. You can purchase it from Omega One at http://www.omegaone.com.
Omega One also has two free products, a Compass screen saver and a control panel applet that sets your Auto PC’s clock from the GPS. They also sell two games, MindMelt (a memory game) and Dominoes. Additionally, they sell a product called Omega One Foundation Classes, a set of libraries to assist in speeding the development of Auto PC software.
.H1 SoDeog’s SyncTalk: PalmPilot talks to Auto PC
For those folks who use a Palm device as their PDA of choice there is a glimmer of hope from a company called SoDeog. They have released for beta test a product called SyncTalk. It allows Palm devices to talk to Windows CE devices, including the Auto PC. I have their product installed on my machine, and it works just great for beaming contacts back and forth. Currently, it only beams one contact at a time but the software is still in beta and SoDeog is going to add support for beaming multiple contacts. Since beaming from a PDA is the only practical way to get contacts into the Auto PC, multiple contact beaming from the Palm device to the Auto PC is really a minimum requirement for interoperability. You can download this software from http://www.sodeog.com.
.H1 Mobile Visions Software’s Mobile Combat: a great game
Imagine the following scenario from Mobile Visions Software’s Mobile Combat, the best Auto PC game yet:
.QUOTE The year is 2015. Road Rage by motorists has become commonplace on America’s road system, and the police simply cannot handle the increase in drivers and modern day armament they have put on their vehicles.
.QUOTE In an effort to combat the malicious drivers on the road, American President Bill Gates has authorized a volunteer, federally backed vigilante group called DRIVE (Delegates of Rage In-Vehicle Equalization). This group has been commissioned to eliminate abusive drivers on the road, saving their vehicles when possible so they can be enlisted into the DRIVE force.
.QUOTE You have just passed your test and been accepted into DRIVE. Your car has been equipped with the state of the art Clarion 310C computer system. In addition to managing your weapons it comes complete with its own Combat Simulator to keep you on your toes when you aren’t engaging the scum of the highways.
So begins the play of Mobile Combat, a speech enabled game for the Auto PC that simulates battles occurring between you in your vehicle and the bad guys in a variety of other vehicles. You choose what weapons and accessories you want to use and the type of vehicle you want to drive. Each vehicle has a set of three scored attributes associated with it: Armor, Power, and Handling. Each time your vehicle is attacked, one or more of these areas have their scores reduced. Of course, each time you score a hit on the bad guys their points get reduced. The first one to get to zero in one of these categories blows up and looses the round.
I found this game addictive. The first time I played it was on a trip to a meeting at Microsoft from my home about 100 miles away. I totally lost track of time playing this as I learned what weapons worked best in various scenarios and which was the best vehicle to use. I also received random insults from the "driver" of the other vehicle that came across a simulated mobile radio. I think my favorite insult was the, "This is too easy," just as I was about to be blown up with a 50 caliber machine gun.
There is way more to this game than I can write about here. It has a very well-done speech user interface, you never need to look at it except when setting it up, and it has good online help and great sound effects. You can learn more about this game and purchase it for $25 at http://www.mobilevisionssoftware.com.
.H1 MusicPlayer: MP3 playback for your Auto PC
Finally, someone has managed to produce an MP3 player for the Auto PC 1.0. This is a major engineering achievement. Whoever did this is a very talented programmer and deserves a big raise and stock options. It can be downloaded at a Web site entitled "Home of the Auto PC." There is no real author name associated with it. The current implementation basically takes over your Auto PC while it is working, turning off speech recognition. If you switch away from the player to another application, it stops playback. Also, it does not use the high fidelity output channel of the Auto PC so no equilization or other sound contouring is possible. Regardless of the shortcomings, though, it plays MP3 files just great from either CF cards or the CD-ROM. You can download this player from http://home.swipnet.se/autopc.
.H1 Mecel’s McMate: A virtual trivia partner
Mecel has been making free software for the Auto PC for quite some time. Their main business is doing Auto PC software for Auto PC manufacturers such as Delco and their Communiport product. However, as a side project, Mecel occasionally delivers what I would call "proof of concept" applications as freeware for the Auto PC. The latest of these is something they call McMate.
McMate is a virtual personality that installs on your Auto PC and interacts with you and your passengers, playing trivia games, telling jokes, and offering reminders of important events. I personally enjoy the trivia games. McMate poses a question to you then gives you four possible answers, one of which is correct. You say the number of the answer you believe is right and McMate lets you know whether or not you’re correct before moving on to the next question. Questions come in sets of various sizes and topics. However, there is no "Phone-a-Friend,""50/50," or "Ask the Audience." On the bright side, McMate never asks you, "Is that your final answer?" You can download McMate at http://www.mecel.se/autopc/html/home.htm.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
You can order Active Volume from Omega One by visiting http://www.omegaone.com.
You can download Sodeog’s SyncTalk software from http://www.sodeog.com.
You can learn more about Mobile Visions Software’s Mobile Combat at http://www.mobilevisionssoftware.com.
You can download MusicPlayer from http://home.swipnet.se/autopc.
You can download Mecel’s McMate at http://www.mecel.se/autopc/html/home.htm.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Mark Moeller is a 14 year veteran of Microsoft. After shipping the first version of the Auto PC he left Microsoft to found AutoPCWare, a company focused on helping manufacturers and software vendors build Auto PCs or products for the Auto PC. Mark was the design architect of the first version of the Auto PC and has a number of patents pending or awarded on the Auto PC. You can visit his Web site at http://www.autopcware.com, or email him at markmo@autopcware.com. To read more of Mark Moeller’s work for Windows CE Power, visit http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/markmoeller.html.
