MapmyIndia In-Dash Navi-tainment

A car entertainment and GPS navigation console that is as smart as your Android phone

I love the touchscreen gadgets that come with fancy new cars. A single console integrates a reverse-view camera and GPS navigator, while also letting me play a CD or DVD. I want it all, and I want it in my old car. Alas, there aren’t many options available. And even if there are, they tend to be prohibitively expensive.

MapmyIndia has a solution. It is not the best stuff going, but it is still a good option at its price, especially if your car has enough space to install a 2 DIN music system.

The first thing that hits you when you see the In-dash Navi-tainment system—as MapmyIndia likes to call it—is that it runs on Android. Yes, the same operating system that runs many of today’s smartphones. The next thing you notice is that it has a USB dongle, with which it can take you onto the internet. So you can not only go to Twitter and Facebook from your car, but also download your must-have apps without hooking up another computer. Also, if you want to use a navigation interface other than the one that comes bundled along with this package, you can download it directly to your navigation and entertainment system.

The bundled navigation interface— the new MapmyIndia Maps version 7—offers a detailed national-level map that can guide you to over 576,000 towns and villages in India. Plus, it also has street-level maps of more than 4,000 cities. Maps of 36 major cities have house-level details, and 20 cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore even have 3D maps.

The biggest problem I have with this system is that if you insert or eject a CD, the CD interface pops up and that of the GPS navigation moves to the background. That is fine for a music buff, but not for someone who is perhaps lost in the city. But this is still a good option if you are looking to upgrade your car stereo and also buy a GPS navigation console.

Another issue is that many car makers fit their cars with stereos that are customised to specific dashboards. So, installing something like this may be a slight problem.

car entertainmentGPSnavigation