Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Open Source
AMP: Front Row-like Touchscreen Interface

In preparing our recent carputer post, I came across AMP, the Front Row-like touchscreen interface Sam used for his car based Mac. Designed by author Aychamo with an extensible plugin architecture AMP already has plugins allowing you to import and access your iTunes library, movies, and photos. It even sports a mini-web browser and a war driving interface which lists detected Wireless Access Points. The interface seems to be optimized for a 800 x 480 touchscreen display which is common on the 7" LCDs that are often used in carputers. Aychamo already appears to be hard at work on version 2.0 of AMP and more information can be found on the AMP forum at MP3Car.com

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
William said 1:39PM on 1-04-2007
Could this also be the interface we'll see next week when the new video iPods are announced? FrontRow Mobile!!! I sure hope so...
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tim said 2:07PM on 1-04-2007
matt lu, you never post here...but when you do, i remember why i read this site.
can you fire laurie and erica and promote yourself?
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tim said 2:07PM on 1-04-2007
sorry - *mat, not matt
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JS said 2:13PM on 1-04-2007
Frankly, I'm just wondering when we can stop using this idiotic "wardriving" term, which has nothing whatever to do with war. Is it just 'cause we think "war" makes it sound serious or important or cool? I would have thought Iraq would have cured us of that.
How about a contest to come up with a better name. It should be pretty damn easy: "netscanning", anyone?
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neil said 2:34PM on 1-04-2007
JS: Thats a question for leo laporte for TUAW right there.
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Karl Childers said 3:42PM on 1-04-2007
JS: Please stop being so hyper-sensitive. It irritates me and makes the baby Jesus cry.
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Leonard Nimrod said 5:40PM on 1-04-2007
@JS
Words are essentially living things in continual change; they fluent rather than fixed. The parts of a word do not have to be make correlate with the definition. This is especially true with English, where most words were borrowed from other languages.
Take the last name of my screenname, for instance. Nimrod is widely known as meaning "idiotic" or "Follish", yet this common adjective was origianlly a proper noun. Biblically, it was the name given to Noah's grandson. He was seen as a great hunter and thus to call to someone a "nimrod" meant to call someone a "good hunter".
However, this all changed from something as simple as a Looney Tunes cartoon when Bugs Bunny referred sarcastically to Elmer Fudd as a "poor little Nimrod".
There are countless examples from you to choose. Here are some fun examples:
- How did 'bad' come to mean 'good'?
- How did the term 'cockpit' go from literally meaning appit for cock-fighting become the seat the pilot sits in?
- How did 'gringo' fromthe Spanish word for "Greek' come to mean a foreigner, especially an American?
More words will crop up, the definition will change and the only recourse you have is to makeup your own terms or definitions and hope they catch on.
Check out this site for some interesting stuff about etymology: http://www.wordorigins.org/
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andy said 7:02PM on 1-04-2007
why isnt there a proper site about this software, id love an in depth guide to its features etc, not just a tiny forum :(
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