TunerTricks has posted the details of a Mac mini installation in a Volkswagen GTi:

When the dimensions for the MacMini were announced, I immediately got to work figuring out what the best way to integrate one into my own car would be. If I was going to put a Mac in my car, I wanted to make sure it had all of the functionality that it would have in a home environment while still maintaining an easy-to-operate interface so that distractions could be kept to a minimum. So the researching, planning, sketching and disassembly of my car?s interior (to see what would fit where) began. After taking the thought process to every extreme imaginable, I decided on the following equipment list:
- 1.42GHz MacMini with 512mb RAM, Superdrive, Bluetooth and Airport Extreme
- Xenarc 700tsv 7″ USB touchscreen monitor with VGA and dual composite video inputs
- Cirque EasyCat USB trackpad
- Griffin PowerMate assignable USB control knob
- Lacie 8 in 1 USB flash card reader
- Belkin USB 7-port powered hub
- Belkin USB four-port bus-powered hub
- Belkin Firewire 6-port mini hub
- Alpine PXA-H701 Multimedia processor with RUX-C701 controller
- MonsterCable MCPI300 300watt power inverter
- Female USB, Ethernet and Firewire ports
- 40gig iPod dock
- Griffin RadioShark USB FM/AM tuner

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What happens when you put your PowerBook, EVDO Card, Bluetooth GPS receiver, iSight, Evocam and Route 66 in your mini van? Read More…

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So the PowerPage has helped me in the past, but this is a crazy little idea I had. you wouldn’t know where I could get my hands on a tiny LCD monitor. I’m thinking with a Bluetooth mouse, Mac mini, and said tiny LCD I could set up a pretty sweet little media center, hosting my music, and stuff.
The only little LCD that I could find is kind of expensive and it seems to not exist. Besides, at that price I may as well go full size. However, part of the benefit of the small size would be the tiny foot print. Is anyone else interested in something like this, or know anything about it?
Thanks,
The kungfumaniac

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MobilePC has posted a five-page article on the history of notebook computers with this interesting piece about the PowerBook’s place in history:

ThinkPads were red hot, but IBM was still a corporate brand for corporate users. College kids and aspiring hackers wanted portables, too: They bought the Apple PowerBook.
Apple had just come off one of the worst beatings in computer history: The Newton had bombed miserably, and the 16-pound Macintosh Portable (see “The Worst Notebooks of All Time”) was a laughingstock of computing.
Apple rebounded from both. Apple designer David Levy, who worked on the groundbreaking 1991 Apple PowerBook 100, notes, “The Macintosh Portable was a black eye for the company. We were Apple! There was lots of pressure to do something that set the world straight on Apple’s ability to design a great product. And we did.”
The Apple PowerBook 100 spawned countless innovations, the most notable being moving the keyboard to the back of the machine and making room for a trackball front and center. In 1995, the PowerBook 500 offered the first true touch pad, expansion bay, PC Card slot, and more. But it was the PowerBook 500′s curvy case that really turned heads, proving that portable computers needn’t look like shoe boxes any more.
In its early ’90s heyday, the PowerBook owned a crushing 40 percent of the portable computing market, until the rest of the industry figured out how to do the same thing.

Read the rest of the article at Mobile PC Magazine.

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The MIT Information Technology Conference, April 20-21, spotlights the latest innovations and emerging priorities. Michael Bell, Apple Computer’s VP, CPU Software and Wireless Technology, will discuss how consumer electronics companies often forget about the “consumer” part of the equation. Registration is online only.

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Some folks are thinking a bit too simplistically about the current Apple legal wranglings. Computer users are not going to be changing their operating system based on perceptions about fairness or who is the underdog. The big issue here is that Apple is damaging its relationship with the mainstream press and over what? To put the news agencies First Amendment protections at risk over controlling some piddling leaks, leaks that have only served to boost the Apple hype makes no sense whatsoever. This smells like a personality disorder and not a business decision. Apple is flying high. Apple stock has split, iPod sales are through the roof and the most important development of all, Apple’s share of the personal computer market is surging after hanging on by a thread for so long. This is all great news, but the press loves to see a reversal of fortune. The fallout over these legal wranglings could cost Apple and the Apple brand dearly. An Apple micro notepad computer, set-top entertainment system, breakout into video distribution – who knows what – is not without risk. Good press and lots of press is important if Apple is to launch the next big thing. Sure it would be a shame if that next big thing were announced by some kid from Harvard and not at a whiz bang press extravaganza, but it would be much worse if the bad blood this engenders with the news outlets puts a seriously negative spin on the next slip up that Apple will inevitably make.

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Ever wished you could have a Mac in your car? We did, so we got to work and installed a Mac in the car. We soon found out that the beautiful interface of Mac OS X was not the ideal solution for the car environment. Dragging a mouse about was simply too time consuming and extremely dangerous if done while driving. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had an interface to get things working instead of having to double click all over the place?” we asked ourselves. Well, we got to work again and i3 was born. The intelligent integrated interface. Basically it’s an application launcher, but it’s so much more than that when you start to use it. Read More…

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According to a ComputerWorld article, Tim Berners-Lee, credited with inventing the basics of the World Wide Web, said the promise of the mobile Internet will remain untapped until developers learn how to make Web pages that can be viewed easily on handhelds.

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ComputerWorld sniffs out CTIA’s annual “Fashion in Motion” show including updates to older heads-up displays, fabric-clad cell phones and laptops — and wireless aromas. Yes, wireless aromas.

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TechRestore has announced a new iPod hard drive upgrade program that provides a fast and easy way for iPod owners to increase their music and storage capacity in full-sized iPod models. The flat-rate iPod hard drive upgrade service starts at US$119 and includes all overnight shipping charges, parts and installation. A TechRestore Certified Technician performs the upgrade in an anti-static and dust-free environment.

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