Honda announced the Honda ‘Studio E’ Concept Vehicle. It is an SUV with full multimedia capabilities, running on top of MacOSX: “The personal audio computer has its own workstation with keyboard, mouse and a 17-inch liquid crystal display. To play to a larger crowd, a motorized 42-inch plasma screen rotates down from the ceiling and interfaces with the audio computer to display custom visual patterns in step with the music out the back of the vehicle, or it can play DVDs.“
Honda Studio E Concept Vehicle Features Mac OS X
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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wait, to play this dvd, I need to update my glibc.so.B
8-))))
shouldn’t say linux, it ought to be Desktop Environment on top of Linux kernel
Considering it’s branded as a “multimedia computer” I would hope not (see the previous article for reasons why)
I’m just wondering what powers that thing… the guts from a PowerMac or perhaps a TiBook? Or did they get Apple to custom manufacture them a board?
Ummmh….I think you posted to the wrong story, dude….
[I’m just wondering what powers that thing… the guts from a PowerMac or perhaps a TiBook? Or did they get Apple to custom manufacture them a board?]
It is a concept car, so the puter doesn’t have to withstand vibration.
The fold down 42-inch plasma screen is WAY over the top, but otherwise I like it! Gaget lover/Computer lover/Audiophile/Videophiles dream vehical!
And of course OSX, the ultimate media capable Unix, was the perfect choice.
That’s the market Motorola wants to be in. Embedded and automotive.
No wonder TiVo is doing so bad… they are using Linux!
The largest plasma screen I saw was around 36″ or 38″, and it was large. I certainly can’t see how they are able to integrate such a large screen inside a SUV.
I saw clips of this SUV on TechTV and from top to bottom, it’s overkill. Seriously speaking, when would you ever need THAT big a TV in your vehicle? Then there’s the speaker system…
Having a large speaker system in a vehicle, but the 42 inch plasma screen will never make it past concept. Ever held a Super Bowl party in a Honda?
“What happens if you run Keynote on it and it crashes. Does the car also crash?” That would be the question of an idiot if Keynote and os was produced by Microsoft.
kinda stupid, but it’d be nice if you could turn around the screen (maybe reverse it too), and watch in the rear view mirror.. i could just imagine like everyone that drives it crashing and stuff.. moo..
tty:
===
How long do you think you can keep laughing?
This is one of those situations when getting a good circle of friends could help you land a job in the not so distant future… think about it and act soon…
Serge:
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I have to use crappy software from MS everyday at the job. Even when it doesn’t crash, I can’t use it very effectively, because it is badly done.
But it crashes — and boy, how it crashes!
And what can I do? Nothing. Nada. Nichts. Rien. Nenio.
The only humane behaviour I can possibly do is cry — or more exactly, whine.
Now, do you want me to stop whining because it bothers you?
Frankly, my dear… you know the rest. Have a nice day.
I think it’s an interesting idea myself. Being a musician and videographer, I can see the uses for such a vehicle.
I could easily put a show on the road with this vehicle and not have to worry about the hassle of renting equipment from various A/V houses all over the city.
Multimedia artists would love it!
[I have to use crappy software from MS everyday at the job. Even when it doesn’t crash, I can’t use it very effectively, because it is badly done]
hehe, this indicates your inability to solve problems
there are ports of gcc compilers for win32 and open source software pacakges for windows platform
put it the linux way, if you have to use a non-perfect thing, try to do something to improve it or the app you have to deal with every day.
at work, I deal with win95 with 32 MB on very old machines and win98 on recent hardware in addition to linux boxes and nt/win2k/xp etc. all the boxes I can put my hands on are pretty stable and IMHO, win95/IE5.5 on 32 MB offers a better experience than linux+opera/mozilla, although your mileage may vary.
like this 60″ plasma
http://www.epinions.com/Zenith_60_Plasma_HDTV_Monitor_Display_Telev…
and this 60″ LCD panel
http://www.tv-shop-online.com/electronics/B000068V2M/Zenith_D60WLCD…
I really don’t think its practicle for most people, most people only drive 1 person per vehicle, if you don’t belive that have a look at your local freeway.
2. On long haul trips, traveling with passangers its more interesting to look out at things on the highway or see what other people are doing in there vehicles. then watch a DVD.
And there is already enough distractions on the road without a 42″ display catching your eye.
But thats just my opinion.
This looks like a very practical solution for selling at shows,
conventions, festivals, etc. The whole thing is self-contained, the
screen is big enough for an audience of a dozen or so (typical for a
stand), and you are ready to start the show as soon as the vehicle is
parked.
It’s a typical application for a multimedia computer, which the Mac is
now becoming.
Now they need a good presentation program. like Scala on the Amiga,
and it seems there is one under development. (Released as a buggy
Version 1.0, so not yet ready for real world use.)
It’s a concept vehicle, the whole point of these things is that you throw in every neat and/or crazy idea you can think of, this does two things..
1) It says, “hey, look at what we can do, aren’t we smart?”
2) It gets people (potential customers and designers) thinking about new possibilities outside of the box.
tty >> hehe, this indicates your inability to solve problems
If you meant political inability, yes, unfortunately you’re right. But things change, my friend, and I have great hopes for Linux at my job.
At home, of course, it’s Linux for me and everyone, 24/7. And I haven’t heard any requests for Windows.
>> put it the linux way, if you have to use a non-perfect thing, try to do something to improve it or the app you have to deal with every day.
People in Windows environments have to be paranoid to survive. Those guys at my job think computers are a pain in the neck — they don’t know Linux yet (or other good OSes, for that matter).
Non-perfect thing? MS’s apps are well done — they are perfectly tuned to do what they were designed for: frustate users. Your only way out is to use third-party utilities, things as out-of-the-box are designed to prevent idiots from blowing up their machines. In doing so, they crippled many important functions. Particularly the last versions, though they may be more stable as everyone says, go to greater lengths to reduce usability.
>> there are ports of gcc compilers for win32 and open source software pacakges for windows platform
Even if I were allowed, why would I develop for Windows? I want MS to shrink to, say, 5% of the market. They have 90+%. Programming for Windows is the Wrong Thing(TM) to do. And, in this case, I say it as a fact, not my opinion. Capisce?
>> I deal with win95 with 32 MB on very old machines and win98 on recent hardware in addition to linux boxes and nt/win2k/xp etc. all the boxes I can put my hands on are pretty stable and IMHO, win95/IE5.5 on 32 MB offers a better experience than linux+opera/mozilla, although your mileage may vary.
By all means, use what you think is best for your work — supposing you can choose. Even Win95 is not a bad option. In fact, I’m trying to downgrade to Win98 from Win2k, to see if I can recover many features I lost after the upgrade.
Regarding browsers, sorry, Opera 6 draws circles around IE6 — and I’m talking about features, not holes. I can imagine IE7, if it comes to exist, will be some ten times the size of Opera 7 — with less features. And this without mentioning other fine browsers for Linux.
Lenghty answer, I know, but no work today… Yay!
[tty >> hehe, this indicates your inability to solve problems
If you meant political inability, yes, unfortunately you’re right. But things change, my friend, and I have great hopes for Linux at my job. ]
so you basically prefer your co-workers suffer rather than providing assistance because your employer choose Windows 😎
[By all means, use what you think is best for your work — supposing you can choose]
I have more choices than linux only minds – file/printer server – linux, firewall, a decent hardware router, desktop – windows.
linux desktop made great progress, except they don’t fly on 32 MB low end boxes and cant compare feature-wise with win95+office95/97 plus they are dog slow, making recent hardware feel like pentium 100 with 16 MB on win9x.
[Regarding browsers, sorry, Opera 6 draws circles around IE6 ]
only trouble is opera can’t do basic things correctly, making the extra features useless.
tty>> so you basically prefer your co-workers suffer rather than providing assistance because your employer choose Windows 😎
I can’t see how my words could be interpreted to reach that conclusion. Ah, yes, you think I could fight to force Linux on my co-workers… Is this what you meant?
I can’t. Even fixing MS apps is beyond our reach. We do things like avoiding Word bugs but then that’s our limit. Certain functions simply are not possible in a Windows environment. We could do something if we had the source…
If you’re using linux as firewall (or any BSD, e.g.) that explains half your “Windows stability”. 🙂
tty> only trouble is opera can’t do basic things correctly, making the extra features useless.
The circle is complete. That indicates *your* inability to solve problems. :-XP
It’s a typical application for a multimedia computer, which the Mac is
now becoming.
The mac was always a multimedia computer, and it was the first multimedia computer.
Now they need a good presentation program. like Scala on the Amiga,
and it seems there is one under development. (Released as a buggy
Version 1.0, so not yet ready for real world use.)
How do you know if it’s Buggy? Have you actually used it?
Well, I guess there’s only one way to explain this… they have to integrate overkill electronics to cover up for the cracker jack box they call an engine. Only a major nerd with too much money would buy this underpowered sack of crap.
The mac was always a multimedia computer, and it was the first multimedia computer.
The Mac’s initial market apparently isn’t multimedia. It was for print houses. Amiga, IMHO was the first real attempt at multimedia, but stuff like Commodores and Ataris were much better in multimedia than Macs of their age.
How do you know if it’s Buggy? Have you actually used it?
Simple. Thousands of people complaining it is buggy. Heck, there is even a story on it, perhaps in the front page, if not in the archives.
I have read the press release 5 times and I have not seen any mention of Mac OS X from the official Honda release. And I saw the pictures on the other web site which look like nothing more than a cut and paste job done on Photoshop. Sorry but I will have to see it to believe it.