Clarion releases innovative “MiND”, Mobile Internet Navigation Device
What happens when you mix together a NetBook, a portable GPS, and a PMP? You get the Clarion MiND, “Mobile Internet Navigation Device”. The new MiND uses the low power Intel Atom processor (running at 800Mhz) found in many netbooks and Linux as the core behind its multimedia and navigation features. The MiND uses Wifi and Bluetooth to establish an Internet connection so you can browse websites on its 4.8 inch, WVGA 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen. It utilizes Firefox as the browser and offers a full HTML browsing experience as well as Flash support. As a PMP, it supports MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, H.264, WMV, MPEG-4 and Real video. An optional in-car dock will deliver real-time traffic data and will also route the audio from the navigation directions and music files through your car speaker system. Very Cool! Every rose has its thorn and the thorn for the MiND is the battery life. Rated at only 2 hours for the standard battery and 4 hours for the extended battery, you won’t be using this baby for very long without a power source nearby. Nonetheless, this is an innovative mashup of some the most popular mobile technologies out there. Kudos for that, Clarion.
[Via DAPreview]
Looks great. But yeah…that battery life…
it looks like a clone of N800
I think this was made official in August. Let me see if I can find the press release…
Yep, here it is: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1527547/clarion_corporation_of_america_unveils_clarionmind_at_the_2008_intel/index.html?source=r_technology
Made official on August 20, 2008. Probably why none of the big sites are running the story again.
Clarion make great headunits for cars so I am definitely looking forward to this.
Great concept, but not-so-great execution. Not Clarion’s fault though. I don’t think the current Atom (Menlow platform) is the best chip for this kind of device–you will need a true SoC like Moorestown/Lincroft or a VIA SoC with integrated GPU to really scale the platform down and maximize battery life.
At least Clarion is thinking ahead (seriously, who expected this from an aftermarket car audio company? Kudos!) It would be great if this had a built-in WWAN (or Bluetooth tethering?) for wide open surfing. When are the carriers going to get serious about multiple data devices under a single data plan?
So why isn’t there a 2-DIN dock/head unit? Clarion could whip that up in a weekend, I’m sure. Give it a modest amp, connect an external antenna for GPS/WiFi/traffic, and charge the unit without having it sitting up on your dash.