G+_Steve Vander Ark Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 I'm a long-time user of Car Home Ultra. I recently have been using AutoMate. Making that switch got me thinking about car apps and what I really need during my commute. Here are my thoughts. Car Home Ultra is a launcher, with some nice features such as keeping the display on and setting brightness to full when the phone is plugged in and connected to my car's Bluetooth. Once I get driving (and wait five minutes for the Bluetooth to connect) I don't really look at it very often except to launch an app, such as DoggCatcher for playing podcasts. Once an app starts, the app is what's on the screen instead of the launcher, but I don't really look at that very often either. AutoMate includes a launcher, but it's tiny and clearly not the main focus of the app. Instead, it's designed to show notifications. As such, you'd think that I would look at it a bit more often than I do Car Home Ultra. However, that's not the case. I really just use it to launch an app, and then again, that app is what appears on the screen. I know that the notifications can include the app's controls, but it's actually more convenient to use the actual app. What that means is that there's no compelling reason to go back to AutoMate's home screen, any more than there is to go back to Car Home Ultra. Now I realize that occasionally I might get a text or phone call and need to interact with that, but this is a seldom occurrence and my Moto X intercepts them and tells me about them without my having to look at the screen. All of this made me start to think ... what information do I actually NEED to see on my dashboard? Do I need to see a map? Well, that might be nice, but once again, then I'm looking at an app and I really wouldn't need either Car Home Ultra or AutoMate to do that. Do I need to check the weather? I live in Texas, and in the spring we get pop-up thunderstorms that can directly impact driving, so yeah, checking the weather would be great. What about my media player? Definitely, controls for that would be very helpful. The trouble is, each of these functions is on a separate screen. I realize that AutoMate can show some of that in notifications and that Car Home Ultra can display media controls on its screen, but for those things I could just go back to my phone's home screen and use widgets. Here's what would really be helpful. I want one screen that has it all. I want a map with weather superimposed and traffic conditions -- and since my local TV stations's weather app shows 'driving conditions' as well as traffic (fog, wet roads, etc.) I know it's possible to show that on a map. I want media controls visible on that screen as well. Heck, I'd like something to tell me when a train is coming through so I can select a route that gets me across those busy tracks most efficiently. When calls or texts come in, I don't need to see anything, just be given the option to interact verbally without taking my eyes off the road. Create a car app that combines all these functions into one, easy to read screen and you'll have a car app that is actually useful. In the meantime, I'll stick with Car Home Ultra -- not because it's better, because the two are equally useful/uesless -- but for no other reason than I like that it sets my brightness and keeps the screen on, and I'm used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Julie Wills Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 I use the Pro version of Overlays (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.applay.overlay) to superimpose the widgets I want over Google maps. It takes a bit of getting your head around, and the documentation is a bit sketchy, but it works pretty well. I have it set up so that when I run Maps, it automatically overlays the widgets I want. Widgets can be resized and positioned where you want. I have the podcast widget positioned so that it's just above the keyboard, which I find to be the least intrusive position for it, regardless of what maps view I'm using. The Pro version of Overlays allows you to use a widget shortcut to toggle a widget on and off. My podcast widget is moderately large, so it's useful to be able to hide it for more concentrated navigation, and just as usefully, quickly show it again for podcast control (much quicker and easier than finding the controls in a busy notification shade). On top of this, I use Chomp SMS to pop up incoming messages (with templates for quick replies), and Agent (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tryagent) to read them out to me when I'm connected to my car's Bluetooth. (It also has an option to suppress this for occasions when you have passengers you'd rather not broadcast your messages to!) I'll post a screenshot and link to it in a minute.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Julie Wills Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Here's my screenshot https://plus.google.com/+JulieWills/posts/B87NRCJwmn7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Julie Wills Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 My screen stays on because it's set to do that when it's charging (as it will be in the car), and maps keeps it on anyway. Brightness would be trivial to set with Tasker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Steve Vander Ark Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 Really nice! I'm going to give Overlays a try. So all that's missing is driving conditions/weather overlaid on the map. Well, that and alerts about trains, but I don't know if any app can do that. Too bad. Those 100+-car freight trains make for a LONG wait at the crossing gates, and if I knew they were coming I could use a route that took me across the tracks well ahead of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Julie Wills Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Overlays can give you anything that has a widget. If you have a weather/driving conditions app that has a widget, you could use that, although there comes a point where you overlay so much on your map that you can't see the map :). I'd have thought that a notification would be better for train alerts (possibly read out loud - I've just discovered Out Loud https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hillman.out_loud for general reading of notifications). Or Tasker can say incoming notifications out loud. Could you do anything there with IFTTT? If there's an RSS feed, for instance, you could send them to your phone as a notification with PushBullet (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pushbullet.android) or similar. Or you could maybe do some of it with Tasker (or Llama, or Atooma or Llama, or any of the "check state, do action" apps). This is not a solution where a single app tries to do everything, but a highly personal mashup using apps that do what they do, and do it well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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