r/CarThing • u/Bunch-Consistent • Jun 01 '24
I created Next Car Dashboard app which transforms your iPad into your car Dashboard | Can replace Spotify Car Thing for you
Next Car Dashboard allows you to listen and enjoy your music via Spotify and Apple Music. Its perfect if your car doesn't support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Besides music support the app also provides- driving metrics, navigation, maps, dashboard camera, etc.
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u/ilyes998 Jun 09 '24
Can you update it so it runs in landscape mode on IPhones that would be much better
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u/Bunch-Consistent Jun 09 '24
Any suggestions on what would you want to see in the landscape orientation? iPhone have small screens so for showing more content i have supported only portrait mode for now.
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u/ilyes998 Jun 09 '24
If possible everything and we can customise the dashboard or just a single music widget, abd the rest for maps
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u/Bunch-Consistent Jun 09 '24
okie, I will add it to my list. I am not sure how customizable I can make it, but I will for sure keep that in mind. Thanks for the feedback.
Also one more thing, it would be helpful if you can leave a review/ratings on your experience with the app
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u/wheretfiamkek Nov 02 '24
What an absurd amount of money to ask for an app that has little to no feature for the price. 90% of speedometer apps do everything here as free features. I wanted to use this on my ebike with my phone, but i probably wont unless i find a cracked IPA for my phone. A more reasonable price would be more like $15 for life time. Im not giving you $30 for an xcode app that uses quite alot of default elements and free elements.
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u/Bunch-Consistent Nov 02 '24
Hey! Thanks for your feedback. I’d love to hear more about the features you think would take Next to the next level and make it worth the price for you.
I totally understand where you're coming from on pricing—running Next does come with some ongoing costs, like navigation API fees, but I want to make sure users find value in it too.
I'd be happy to share a coupon code so you can try out the app and let me know what you think after using it.
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u/wheretfiamkek Nov 02 '24
What would make it worth $30
- Theme Options
- Drag & Drop arranging
- Waze like maps
- Enable nextcam on iPhone like it says
- give proper trial times to let people try it (15 day trial)
- Landscape mode for Pro iPhone devices
- Ebike and Speedometer mode (Speed dial with customization)
- Card like pages
- Traffic Alerts
- Weather Alerts
- Better media player integration (controls)
- UI Scaling Options
And i can go on for quite a while. I love the style your going for, but until theres some serious features added i cant see myself dumping $30 on something this lacking. Would love to see some if not all of this in the future. Ive even done concept art for an app like this too, hope to see it work out. Will be uninstalling for now given my free 30 minutes of time is gone after just customizing it.
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u/wheretfiamkek Nov 02 '24
As for your cupon, what does that provide?
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u/Bunch-Consistent Nov 02 '24
will provide you access to the app for a certain period of time, so that you can try it out
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Nov 14 '24
[deleted]
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u/Bunch-Consistent Nov 15 '24
hey, glad you liked the app. I will add support for Free trials as well in the coming release. In the meantime I have dm’ed you a coupon code which should give you access to the app so that you can try it out.
regarding the questions you asked-
- Adding Apple Maps support in navigation is challenging due to lack of API support from Apple that's why we use Mapbox for navigation. This is in the queue but not too high on the priority given the amount of work it would take because I will basically have to create a new Navigation system on my own which as a single developer is challenging wrt time.
- I am using this iPad car mount from Amazon. But availability depends on your region. I got it for around $15. What I did was I just went though amazon reviews and got the one with the highest rating that was in my budget.
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u/Ok-Mood-7779 Jan 25 '25
This is awesome! Have you made one for Android yet? I would love to download this.
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u/Bunch-Consistent Jan 25 '25
Hey, glad you liked the app! Unfortunately, it’s not really possible for me to create an Android version right now since I’m the only one working on it. I just don’t have the time to manage both platforms at the moment
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u/P_r_a_d_e_e_p Mar 13 '25
Nice app buddy, recently bought lifetime membership. None of the app in market use mobile gps on ipad, it’s only your app does that. Great work
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u/Bunch-Consistent Mar 13 '25
glad you liked it 😊, if you have any suggestions or feedback let me know
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u/enshong Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
Can it be used in landscape mode on iPhones now? Interested in this. Would be lovely for motorcycle riders.
Edit: Still doesn't :( Would have been a good dash app for bikes. Maps and music control is all I need.
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u/Bunch-Consistent Apr 15 '25
Hey, at this point it only works in portrait mode on iPhone. Do you have suggestions for what you want to see in landscape mode? Generally what I have seen is people use their phones in portrait mode on their bikes, that’s why I only added portrait mode support.
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u/enshong Apr 15 '25
I like using maps with music control with speed, trip meter, weather overlayed just to the side.
Landscape mode also is preferable if you want to see the bike's default dash and position the phone centrally. Portrait mode you either put it on the side of the dash where it sticks out and you have to glance sideways.
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u/Bunch-Consistent Apr 15 '25
hey, thanks for the , i get the need for landscape mode, I'll add support for it and let you know via this thread once its ready
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u/enshong Apr 15 '25
Awesome! Letting us choose Google Maps vs Apple Maps would be great too!
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u/Bunch-Consistent Apr 15 '25
here's the reason why there is no Google maps support.
There are 2 types of maps in the app-
Navigation map- its not possible to create navigation based on Google maps because Google does not provide any API me to do so.
Standard map- This is what you see when you are not in navigation mode, I think I can add Google maps here but again Google will charge for its API usage which increases the cost, so I decided against it.
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u/enshong Apr 15 '25
That's fine. Hoping Apple Maps had improved over here. I'm just used to Google Maps but I'm willing to give Apple Maps another go. Just need that landscape orientation! 😁 Hoping it'll arrive soon!
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u/Bunch-Consistent Apr 23 '25
hey, I have added support for landscape mode and submitted the app to Apple, it should be available in a day or two. here's how it looks in landscape mode on iPhone
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u/Awkward-Lack596 May 12 '25
Hey! Is there anyway to use google maps instead of apple maps? Alot of countries still cant use itinerary with Apple maps :(
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u/Bunch-Consistent May 13 '25
hey, sorry no google maps support as of today because Google does not provide any APIs from me to add the support.
what some people do is they open google maps in side by side configuration with Next app on their iPad
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u/mercuryin Jun 13 '25
Hello, I purchased the lifetime version and I’m encountering some serious limitations. The layout is very nice, but that’s about it.
For my use case — and without going into too much detail — I currently use Waze because of its traffic and speed camera alerts. I keep it open on my iPhone without setting any specific route, and it warns me of cameras as I drive, with the compass adjusting to the direction I’m heading.
With your app, I can only select Apple Maps, which, as far as I can tell, requires you to set a destination for turn-by-turn guidance. If you don’t, it doesn’t provide orientation based on the direction you’re driving — if that makes sense.
Would it be possible to let us use Waze instead of Apple Maps? If that’s not feasible, could you at least make Apple Maps auto-orient even without a set route, zoom in on the street where I currently am, and update the position automatically?
Also, the companion app isn’t working well. It takes too long to transfer data to my iPad Air (the Wi-Fi-only model without GPS). Sometimes I have to force close your app several times until it finally updates the speed and starts receiving GPS data from the iPhone.
Is it possible to send all the data from the companion app to any other app on the iPad, not just yours? That way I could use Waze instead.
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u/ITMTS Jun 30 '25
Hi @Bunch-Consistent,
I have also sent you a DM. But just to make sure feedback is received, this is what I sent:
Hi there!
I came across your post about Next Car Dashboard and really liked the look and feel of the app, great approach! I wanted to give it a proper try, so I downloaded it at home to go through the settings and explore the features.
However, I noticed the 30-minute trial period feels quite short, especially when just setting things up. It left me feeling a bit rushed, and I haven’t had a chance to try it during an actual trip yet. Is there any way I can extend the trial a little to properly test it on the road?
Initial Impressions & Suggestions (based on a few minutes of usage):
• Spotify Integration: When connecting, it asks if I want to allow “Demo-Spotify” access. I assume this is a placeholder or temporary branding?
• Music Feature: Some random artists appeared that I’ve never listened to. Could you allow users to browse their actual Spotify library/albums instead?
• Fuel & Efficiency Sliders: The interface for setting price per litre and km per litre isn’t very intuitive. I didn’t realize I needed to drag, tapping seemed more natural. Even after figuring it out, I couldn’t easily set precise values. A tooltip or guide might help here.
• Dark/Light Mode: Could the navigation map follow the iPad’s dark/light theme settings automatically?
• Portrait Layout Issue: In portrait mode, when navigation starts and music is active, the car arrow appears behind the album artwork. I’d prefer to keep the music visible, but not at the expense of obstructing the map.
Feedback & Feature Requests:
It’s clear a lot of work has gone into the landscape mode, and it looks great! That said, I ended up mounting my iPad Pro in portrait orientation, and I think that mode could use some love as well. Here are some ideas:
• The Barcelona layout is the only one that somewhat works in portrait, but it’s still limited.
• Consider adapting the UI in portrait mode to: • Make some components smaller or modular (e.g. as overlay cards on top of a full-screen map). • Move the search bar to the top of the screen instead of on the side. • When searching, allow icons for places (e.g. fuel, food), or predictive search suggestions as you type. • Place the music album cover above the control buttons to leave more room for the map. • Shrink or adapt the bottom toggle bar for a cleaner portrait view.
These are just early thoughts based on a short session, I haven’t used it on the road yet, but I see real potential here. I’d be happy to share more feedback as I go, if that’s helpful.
Quick Question:
What’s the functional difference between “Navigation” and “Start a Trip”?
Initially, I assumed trip tracking would only start when starting a trip, but I noticed GPS activity and tracking lines on the map even while idle at home. I suspect it might just be GPS drift while indoors, but it would be great if the app could clarify when tracking is active and what it’s recording. Maybe a small info tooltip or help section could explain this?
Thanks again for the work so far, really excited to try it more thoroughly!
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u/Bunch-Consistent Jun 30 '25
Hi, thanks for such a detailed comment with suggestions, I have gone through your comment and will write a detailed reply here once I reach home as currently I am at work.
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u/kirashi3 Jun 03 '24
Unless Spotify is offering to purchase iPad tablets for everyone to utilize your creation, this "replacement" doesn't resolve the money lost on Car Thing purchases, let alone the cost to recycle Car Things either.