The TJ goes Android

Wow, it seems my front page has not been getting the love it deserves lately, so I’m about to change that. I’ve admittedly been spending a lot of time in the Losias forums lately. It’s populated with the best group of modders, tech enthusiasts, and friends a guy could ask for. A few other side projects have also been taking up some of my time. I do still have my Hutch and OSIDIAS projects to finish, and don’t worry, I’ll back to them soon enough. What I’m going to cover now regards the modding of something other than computers.

It seems that Google’s Android OS is everywhere you turn. Companies have been pumping out new phones and tablets by the hundreds hoping to compete with the iPhone and iPad. Most are mostly forgettable, but every once in a while, something truly great comes along, either because of price point, or features. In the case of the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, it definitely hits the former, and makes up for the latter with one of the best IPS screens I’ve ever seen on a tablet. The is also a huge community dedicated to rooting and getting the most out of the hardware in the Nook. It’s because of the hard work over at XDA-Developers and some inspiration from the MP3Car.com forums, that I find myself here.

I’ve decided to replace the Clarion head unit that has resided faithfully in my ’98 Jeep TJ Wrangler with a Nook Color. Now, by no means am I the first person to add a tablet to an automobile, but other than an iPad install I saw, this is the first Android tablet that I’ve seen. At first thought, at tablet may not seem like it could find a place in an open top Jeep. In reality, it’s more than ideal. With the Nook, it’s more affordable than most head units, can offer GPS and OBDII data with the right peripherals, and can tether to a phone for full internet access. If you are trying to get those features in a head unit, good luck trying to find something for less than $1000. Then of course, you must consider theft and durability. It’s dead simple just to pull the tablet out and take it with you, and it’s infinitely more durable than a large and complicated head unit sitting in your dash.

So, how do I go about getting the tablet in the Jeep? Well, first I had to set a few self imposed requirements.

With the above criteria in mind, I was about to have a little fun! In the next update, I’ll start the install.