There are several threads floating around this forum with some very slick custom iPad installations. I've been running a ram mounted iPad dedicated to my truck for the past 24,000 miles and just completed a custom in-dash installation in another new (to me) toy, a 2004 911.

I thought it would be cool to have a thread dedicated to the software, setup and user interface tweaks on these iPad installations. Also happy to hear about android software setups as well!

 

On the 911, I'm running a fully integrated jailbroken iPad mini with the following primary software:

• (Cydia) Activator: Auto-lock and auto-unlock on USB power; Custom keypresses for sleep and reboot since I don't have easy access to the main sleep button. To auto-launch PodCar.
• PodCar: This is now my main auto-launched screen. Really surprised how well it works. It has a nice clock/info screen, integrates in nav and maps, plays all your iTunes music, has a pretty nice streaming radio app, and a few other features. Best part about it is it is designed for use in a car, so the buttons are big, text large and readable, and you can use coarse gestures to do many things.
• Slacker and Pandora: Very similar streaming music apps. Hard to go back to FM or even sat radio after getting these guys set up.
• (Cydia) SBSettings: Allows easy toggles of things otherwise hidden in multi-level menus, like Bluetooth and a bunch of minor tweaks. Not essential, but handy.
• Waze: Hands down, my go-to map application, both for traffic/accident/police info as well as turn-by-turn routing.
• Google Maps, Apple Maps, MotionX GPS, MotionX Drive, Beat-the-traffic: These are my second tier map applications... honestly the very rarely get used. Apple/Google maps once in a while if I need to search for a particular *type* of place, like 'hardware store'. Both of these do this type of search better than Waze.
• Harry's Lap Timer: This is really a dedicated track road course race track application, but is an amazing application. It does have some functionality that is useful off the track as well, including reading/displaying OBD2 parameters if you have a bluetooth or wifi OBD2 connection.
• Evernote: Evernote keeps my life on track... I can make notes/clippings on my phone, computer, or or iPad and automatically and seamlessly access them from anywhere.
• (Other): Of course I have other things like weather, browsers, my calendar, email, etc. but I don't really need to access these things on the car-mounted iPad most days.

 

For those not familiar with the brand new IOS 6.1 jailbreak, here is the actual developers site:

evasi0n.com

 

The F150 is running an iPad2 on a RAM mount, as opposed to the custom installed iPad mini on the 911. It also runs in portrait mode instead of landscape.

Same basic load as the mini, with a few changes...

• Activator: Still use auto-lock and auto-unlock on USB power, but don't need the custom key-presses as I have easy access to all the buttons.
• PodCar: This is a landscape only app! too bad, as I really like it.
• Waze: This is my #1 app in the truck, as I'm actually using it to get somewhere instead of for enjoyment in the 911.
• Harry's Lap Timer: Sigh... No pickups allowed on high plains raceway!

I've been running this for years with no jailbreak (and no Activator) Not nearly as needed in this application because of the easy button access.... It is nice to finally get rid of the stupid swipe/lock screen.

 

My boy [MENTION=111512]Ecko150[/MENTION] is gunna love this thread! Thanks for posting.. I'm sure my customers will love this info

 

Hell yeah. Thanks for the tag. I've been looking for a thread like this.

 

I was thinking about having my mini IPad mounted in the truck. I need suggestions, are there any?

 

I haven't got mine installed yet, but this is what I have...

1) NCSettings (Cydia)- like SBSettings but much cleaner and works well in 6.1. Puts your toggles in notification area.

2) My Dashboard- it's a decent open screen, like PodCarHD. Something better, some things worst. Personal preference.

3) Dash Commander- 2011 Lariat recommended this to me... Pricey, but works well.

4) Activator- for me it works better than plug-in.

5) TuneIn Radio- podcast and local radio for my news streamed via Internet

6) CoPilot Live HD- I bought this for the offline maps and nice interface, but can't comment on it yet because I haven't used it in real life travel.

This was a great idea. Software is a huge part a install!

 

Just checked this out. Definitely much cleaner interface and easier to use toggles than SBsettings. Thanks!

Is this the app you are talking about? Seems too busy for a primary car screen, but for 99¢, I could check it out.



Compare to PodCar:


Figuring out the best iPad OBD2 gauge setup is on my list....

• What OBD2 dongle are you using and are you using any cydia bluetooth tweeks? I purchased a cheap wifi dongle and it was intermittent at best (using Harry's lap timer as the application interface). I have an inexpensive bluetooth dongle that worked great on a nexus7 with Torque that I was testing, and was going to try and get it working with the iPad using Roqybt4 and roqyOBD to hopefully allow the inexpensive dongle to work with the 'only approved BT devices' iPad.
  
• More impressions on the software and usefullnes? I know that without going into the Ford custom OBD2 PIDS, not much information comes across the OBD2 interface. Can you let us know what you are able to actually monitor, particularly boost (or MAP if you don't have the ecoboost?)

You'll have to report back on this one... So many good cheap or free nav apps, I'm reluctant to pay for one that might not get used... Particularly interested in the off-line map downloads. MotionX GPS also allows map downloads, but honestly the process for selecting/downloading/managing map segments to download is hideously bad and the map download speed even with a fast wifi connection is s-l-o-w... Like in days! *If* CoPilot could download detailed maps relatively easily and allow me to take advantage of my 64GB of storage for detailed maps, it might be worth it for trips 'off the grid'.

 

i definitely want podcar! looks awesome