Lately I've been searching around and looking at different options for getting JRemote and Media Centre more car friendly.
I looked at Linux and Android based 2 DIN head units with touch displays and came to the conclusion that they all compromise too much on sound quality and feature integration with the factory car system.
So I've come up with something that I think will work better than I was expecting!
I managed to find an app in the Android App store called Car Launcher AG that has exactly the type of interface I was after with great functionality that exceeded what I though i could find!
It can replace your native app launcher to become your default home screen and supports track controls, text display and album art from within the Dash launcher, as well as launching the usual suspects you'd need in the car, like Nav, Radio, Phone, Internet and nice large views of your Apps and launching JRemote as your audio player. All the main 6 App buttons on the app launcher can be configured to launch your preferred app.
My goal is to mount this tablet firmly infront of the factory headunit, and because its a Lenovo Yoga tablet (running a custom Lineage 7.1.2 Rom) I can fold it down when I need to get to the factory head unit. (which I rarely touch these days as Im either playing music on the phone or using steering wheel controls)
Of course JRiver running on my Pi with 1TB SSD will be coming along for the ride too as the server.
Youtube video and pic below!
https://youtu.be/rqLM19oyJ4sJRemote on tablet for the car by
Hilton, on Flickr