Brandon Holland (of the wireless keyboard hack fame) is at it again. This time, he's managed to fit an Apple TV into his 1990 Eagle Talon and have it hooked it up to an LCD screen. Not only that, he also wrote a custom GPS plugin to use with his USB GPS unit.

Here is his email:

I just recently finished putting an Apple TV into my car which is a 1990 Eagle Talon nicknamed "The Zapper" (Watch Futurama). The component output of the Apple TV is converted to composite using SVideo.com's Component to RCA convertor. The output of the convertor is then displayed on my in-Dash 7-inch LCD. The audio is plugged into the aux of my deck. The Apple TV and video convertor are both run off of my 300-watt invertor hidden beneath the dash. The screen and the Apple TV are powered on and off using switches. I also wrote a GPS plugin for the Apple TV called Road Trip. It uses my USB GPS device to display its current location on a map. I am hoping to have the plugin online very soon. All of the media content on the Apple TV gets synchronized to my iTunes via wifi as soon as I park my car in the drive way! Everything works great!

Keep you eyes on the road, Brandon...

Readers, don't you get any ideas!

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Comments (4)

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written by raj , October 05, 2007

Cost of Car: $1000
Cost of AppleTV Hardware: $1700

lulz

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written by Pecos Bill , October 05, 2007

How hard would it be to replace the AppleTV's power supply with one designed for a car? Seems more logical to me. Plus, it needs some sort of timed shutdown script, or, better would be timer on the power unit.

If the 7" accepts DVI, you could have gotten an HDMI to DVI converter. Not sure that matters all that much.

The WiFI sync is VERY sweet.

All of this discussion begs the question, why not an iBook or MacBook? Cost? Power mgt built in and their power bricks convert to DC so much easier to replace. They also have their own screens. A small bluetooth trackball and stowed BT keyboard and you're set. Alas, the 'book doesn't lend itself to auto sync without extracting the AppleTV OS and hacking it in.

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written by Anthony , October 06, 2007

something like that gps plug-in for osx would be awesome. i'd much rather prefer a mac mini in my car.

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written by Benjamin , October 11, 2007

I love this idea and am going to do it soon. Is there a hack that would let bring touchscreen functionality to this?

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