# great piece of software,,,



## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

Thinix Touch - User Interface

Thinix - Thinix Touch? - User Interface


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

For a Car PC? No.


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## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

YES it is


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

That's cool. How customizable is it? Does it open programs in a window or as full screen?


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

It appears to lack the integration features of a car PC "front-end" application such as Centrafuse or RideRunner. 

In a car, it's important to have controls such as media controls remain persistent on the screen when you have a navigation screen open for example. You really shouldn't be ducking in and out of applications to go to the next music track while driving.

Another consideration is if you're using digital radios or Sirius/XM. Touch friendly interfaces are really only available for front-ends like CF or RR.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

Yet CF and RR fall short too. Mostly because they're not very customizable. I think there's definitely room for a competitor, although I would expect it to come from the open source world, where customization is king.


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

Well if you're willing to put in the time to skin RR, some would say it's quite customizable.

I don't see how this Thinix thing is any better than RR/CF/etc... or even on the same page when it comes to car-friendly usability.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

One of the attractive features, I think, is that you can customize the "buttons", linking them to specific applications. CF doesn't do this well IIRC. They give you a preconfigured set of buttons that link to "preferred" applications. I know that I dumped it because I wanted to use a different GPS program, a different audio player, and I needed one-touch access to my signal processing programs.

I haven't touched RR in years so I can't comment on whether they do a better job or not.

My main problem with dashboards in general is that there are too many layers between the UI and Windows. This software seems to be nothing more than a skin for Windows optimized for touchscreens. Which is really all you need IMO. Although its effectiveness is going to depend on how easy it is to switch from one window to the next... hence my original question earlier.


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## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

MarkZ said:


> *One of the attractive features, I think, is that you can customize the "buttons", linking them to specific applications.*


Agreed my thoughts exactly. Hey for $30 it's definitely worth a try


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

I certainly don't want to be trying to touch the "minimize" button in an application window when driving so I can get to my navigation screen view. 

I'm almost certain CF allows for custom application buttons, and I'm sure RR does too. RR is free to use, and CF offers a free trial.

Again, the problem with Thinix is it doesn't allow you to have media controls up next to a navigation screen. You'll be forever minimizing your navigation application to get to media controls. Not something you want to screw around with while driving. Also, there's no "skinning" of applications. A media player will have one set of buttons, probably tiny ones, and your nav software will have another set. Forget Sirius/XM or many of the other car apps. 

Really all Thinix is is a glorified app launcher. RR/CF is a true front end that brings the applications together for ease of use and provides some level of integration between them such as music volume attenuation when your GPS has a command to speak.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

sebberry said:


> Again, the problem with Thinix is it doesn't allow you to have media controls up next to a navigation screen. You'll be forever minimizing your navigation application to get to media controls. Not something you want to screw around with while driving. Also, there's no "skinning" of applications. A media player will have one set of buttons, probably tiny ones, and your nav software will have another set. Forget Sirius/XM or many of the other car apps.


No, I think that describes CF, not Thinix. CF you're stuck with a single media player (unless there's a way to hack it). That already rules it out for a lot of people.

With Thinix, if you use a skinnable media player (foobar2000, winamp, etc), then it's not a problem.

CF also only supports their own Nav. You can't use other Nav. With Thinix, you can.

But you're right that the killer here is that you may not be able to switch windows easily. But that would be a huge oversight on their part, so I'm not convinced that's actually the case. If they're designing a touchscreen interface, why would they keep tiny window buttons? I may have to try this software out...


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## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

I know I will be trying it out as soon as I get mine up and running... $30 is so cheap compared to the competition!


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

MarkZ said:


> No, I think that describes CF, not Thinix. CF you're stuck with a single media player (unless there's a way to hack it). That already rules it out for a lot of people.
> 
> With Thinix, if you use a skinnable media player (foobar2000, winamp, etc), then it's not a problem.


With RR you have a choice in media players. Perhaps CF doesn't give you this, but if you're playing MP3s I don't see too much of a need for other media players. You're not watching videos while driving, are you?




MarkZ said:


> CF also only supports their own Nav. You can't use other Nav. With Thinix, you can.


CF originally shipped with their own NAV option, Destinator. There's now Sygic that works with it and many people have iGuidance running in it too. 




MarkZ said:


> But you're right that the killer here is that you may not be able to switch windows easily. But that would be a huge oversight on their part, so I'm not convinced that's actually the case. If they're designing a touchscreen interface, why would they keep tiny window buttons? I may have to try this software out...


It's not just about switching windows, but having consistency and persistency in the controls and control placement.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

sebberry said:


> With RR you have a choice in media players. Perhaps CF doesn't give you this, but if you're playing MP3s I don't see too much of a need for other media players. You're not watching videos while driving, are you?


Well that depends. Does CF's audio player have a replaygain feature? Does it have kernel streaming and ASIO support? How does it do attenuation? Does it have multichannel support? Does it have downmixing/upmixing? If so, what kind of interpolation does it use? 



> CF originally shipped with their own NAV option, Destinator. There's now Sygic that works with it and many people have iGuidance running in it too.


I couldn't get iguidance to work with it. It might be possible, but it's not intuitive.



> It's not just about switching windows, but having consistency and persistency in the controls and control placement.


Maybe. It's cool to have big buttons on the side to control audio playback while your GPS is up. But, at the same time, that reduces the effective screen area for the navigation. It's definitely a tradeoff.

For me, I prefer physical controls for audio playback anyway, so it becomes moot. I use the powermate for volume and would like to find a steering wheel interface for playback controls. So I think, like most things, the choice of front end is definitely user-dependent.


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## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

I sent the company email and got a prompt response.

Here's what I got back in my email:

_I believe you are talking about our Thinix Touch product?



1) Does your product open apps in full screen?



It can. There is a row of navigation tabs along the top and you can chose to have the app open over that (full-screen) or keep the tabs-shown by forcing apps to stay under the row of buttons.



2) How easy is it to switch apps (think while driving)?



Pretty easy, though we don’t recommend to do while driving for safety reasons of course. You would minimize an app like normal (minimize button in top right), then open another by hitting the large button, or if the app is running you could launch it from the dock.



I will check out the post. Thanks for the email._


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

Thanks for sending that email off. Looks like they have an "always on top" dock, which I think solves the issue sebberry was concerned about. Probably in a less elegant way than CF though, but it's cool that it's customizable.

I wonder if the icon/button sizes are adjustable too?

I'm downloading the evaluation now and will let you know how it goes.


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## ashman5 (Aug 30, 2009)

MarkZ said:


> Well that depends. Does CF's audio player have a replaygain feature? Does it have kernel streaming and ASIO support? How does it do attenuation? Does it have multichannel support? Does it have downmixing/upmixing? If so, what kind of interpolation does it use?


I too like the look/feel of Centrafuse and now that J.River has the loopback option, I think most of this applies to, not only CF, but any Direct Show capable player.

Loopback lets J.River do all the audio processing.

It's still limited in it's ability to use VST's in the multichannel setups.


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## chad1376 (Dec 27, 2012)

I'm very interested in the results of whoever ends up being the first guinia pig on this. I've decided I don't like Cetrafuse and want flexibility to use standard windows programs as much as possible. Right now I'm in a toss up between giving this a try, or Windows 8.

With my build, I'll have a physical volume control, which would aleviate what seems to be the biggest flaw with both interfaces. I'm gunning for this one since it visually has an appropriate car stereo look. Win 8 looks like an interface designed by Fischer-Price.

Hurry up, the Win 8 $40 upgrade deal expires at the end of the month.


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## MarkZ (Dec 5, 2005)

I tried this software last night. I wasn't terribly impressed.

1) It wasn't clear to me that you could edit the programs. That was my main complaint with CF. It might be possible, but they don't make it obvious how you go about doing it.
2) Switching windows proved to be a pain in the ass after all.
3) It really is just a launcher. The programs that are launched operate in their usual windows. For example, the windows volume control isn't reskinned. You hit the volume control button in Thinix and the small volume slider appears.

CF is winning so far.

Actually, I'm going dashboard-less, because CF lacks the necessary functionality too.


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## chad1376 (Dec 27, 2012)

Darn! - the screen shots on their web site looked so promising. I do appreciate you being the guinea pig for the benefit of the rest of us though.

I guess Win-8 it is.


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## Ultimateherts (Nov 13, 2006)

Here's the thing though with Windows 8:

•To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768

*•To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768*

You tell me what car monitor can do 1366 X 768?


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## sebberry (May 1, 2008)

I just installed the latest trial of CF. You can download an app launcher plugin which embeds applications in the CF window. 

I haven't downloaded this plugin yet to try it.


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