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Streetdeck Car Computer makes you want to be stuck in traffic

04:30 - Monday 10 July 2006 by Humphrey Cheung - source: Tom's Hardware

Fontana (CA) - Being stuck in traffic is a hated situation commonly experienced by city dwellers, but Streetdeck is selling car computer software that makes those painful waits more enjoyable. The Streetdeck software helps drivers find destinations with voice-prompted GPS navigation along with playing back music, videos and pictures, which is in line with the company’s motto of "Pray You Get Stuck in Traffic".

Click here to see the Streetdeck slide show ...

We wrote about Streetdeck back in February, but it was just over the weekend where we had a first hand look at the software in operation. At the DubWars autoshow held at the California Speedway racetrack in Fontana California, one of the exhibition cars showed off a newly installed car computer with StreetDeck software. The Volkswagen Golf GTI had a 7" touch-screen monitor in the front, while the computer and two 19" Samsung monitors were in the trunk.

The software is basically a driver-friendly front-end interface that integrates GPS navigation and entertainment. Typing on a keyboard could be dangerous while driving, but the StreetDeck device supports finger gesture typing and navigation, which makes data input more convenient as well.

Pictures, songs and videos can be browsed and played by swiping your fingers across, down or diagonally over the screen. Many of the commands are intuitive and we were easily navigating the system after a few minutes of practice. Swiping your finger from left to right causes you to jump forward to the next song or picture, while going from right to left makes you go back. Drawing an "R" brings up the radio menu, while making a "D" brings up the DVD player.

Streetdeck allows the software to be installed on almost any Windows-capable computer, but previous buyers have opted for miniature and small form factor computers because of power, heat and space considerations. The StreetDeck software is currently available for download for $150, while a boxed version sells for $200. Bundled computer systems are available for $1700 and up.

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