Database Develop

Music in my car

How can I listen to music and applications from my incredible in my car? Is there a cord that plugs into my headphone jack I can plug into my car?
nowandaway

You need an audio external in... I had one installed at a car audio shop
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

I've looking at a few head units to replace my existing stereo. I tried a few units with built in bluetooth at the local big box store.
I set up my phone to play both bluetooth audio and attempted to make a phone call, but the 'helpful' store employee asked me to put my phone away (evidently they're afraid I was amazoning the price). I told the guy I was pairing the bluetooth, but he didn't care. Too bad, because making a phone call would've sealed my sale. I guess I'll amazon it.
I was deciding between a Kenwood & Sony... sorry I didn't get a chance to record the model numbers, but they were ~$175.

They can't exactly forbit you from using your phone you know...that's not legal methinks
__br//0k3/n

I would've laughed in his face. Maybe I would've punched it.. I get those confused.

br//0k3/n said:
They can't exactly forbit you from using your phone you know...that's not legal methinks
__br//0k3/n
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, they can, inside their store. It's private property and they can ask you to either turn off your phone or leave. If you refuse to turn it off, they can tell you to leave. If you refuse to leave, you're legally trespassing and they can have you arrested.
In any case, they clearly didn't want your money.

RoboRay said:
Actually, they can, inside their store. It's private property and they can ask you to either turn off your phone or leave. If you refuse to turn it off, they can tell you to leave. If you refuse to leave, you're legally trespassing and they can have you arrested.
In any case, they clearly didn't want your money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but they can't physically touch you without getting sued. I have two sales / retail jobs.
I have a Kenwood in my car with BT. It auto connects to my Incredible but only if I have the "phone" option under advanced BT settings set to connect. If I just have media set to connect it wont auto connect. But if you use the hands free BT then you'll be fine. It'll auto connect to both phone and media audio.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

ksidirt said:
Yeah but they can't physically touch you without getting sued. I have two sales / retail jobs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well sure, but where did he say they touched him?

The guy didn't threaten me, he just kind of shrugged and pointed towards the spy camera. I ended up with a Clarion _Z500 (I forget the first letter) for $50 off since it was missing the remote. I didn't need the remote since I sit 2' away. Thankfully everything can be accessed via the panel.
It's nice (though not as good as the one in my acura). Via bluetooth it pauses music, answers calls, accesses my phone book and makes a decent call with the included mic.

gonzlobo said:
The guy didn't threaten me, he just kind of shrugged and pointed towards the spy camera. I ended up with a Clarion _Z500 (I forget the first letter) for $50 off since it was missing the remote. I didn't need the remote since I sit 2' away. Thankfully everything can be accessed via the panel.
It's nice (though not as good as the one in my acura). Via bluetooth it pauses music, answers calls, accesses my phone book and makes a decent call with the included mic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats good. If you use. PowerAmp as your music player you can start music and skip songs with BT controls. And IMO its the best music player out, period.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

ksidirt said:
Thats good. If you use. PowerAmp as your music player you can start music and skip songs with BT controls. And IMO its the best music player out, period.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second the PowerAmp notion, it is THE best. I highly recommend buying full version to help support the dev.
Sent from my Droid Incredible running Myn's Warm Two Point Two RLS4.

Jizmodo had this today.
http://m.gizmodo.com/5715932/stream-music-over-bluetooth-from-android-to-car

Yeah, but the problem with FM transmitters in my experience is that if you drive between counties you usually have to change stations and the sound quality is meh.
It also doesn't work well anywhere that FM radio signals have trouble getting to.

Are there any wired solutions to playing music in your vehicle??

androidtrkdr said:
Are there any wired solutions to playing music in your vehicle??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, if your receiver has an AUX jack. Just plug it in.

RoboRay said:
Sure, if your receiver has an AUX jack. Just plug it in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do I plug into the phone through the headphone jack or what??
Thats mainly what I was wondering about was the phone not so much the
reciever as I now I can plug into there.

androidtrkdr said:
Do I plug into the phone through the headphone jack or what??
Thats mainly what I was wondering about was the phone not so much the
reciever as I now I can plug into there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thats all you do. Then you just need to change the INput settings on your car stereo to "AUX" or "MP3".

ksidirt said:
Yeah thats all you do. Then you just need to change the output settings on your car stereo to "AUX" or "MP3".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean "input".
I've yet to find any app that supports control via Bluetooth / Bluetooth controls on a steering wheel. Anyone know of one?
would be nice if bluetooth sent song info over Bluetooth as a ID3 tag

ksidirt said:
Yeah thats all you do. Then you just need to change the output settings on your car stereo to "AUX" or "MP3".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man, thats what I wanted to know.
I thought that to be the case just wasn't sure..

NCX Designs said:
I think you mean "input".
I've yet to find any app that supports control via Bluetooth / Bluetooth controls on a steering wheel. Anyone know of one?
would be nice if bluetooth sent song info over Bluetooth as a ID3 tag
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Clarion I purchased definitely tags incoming calls, but I'm not sure about tagging MP3s or CDs. I'll check it out.

[Q] Newbie begging help

Hello!
I am looking for something that does not seem to exist. I registered here in hopes that the brilliant minds of XDA might be able to offer me a solution.
I want Bluetooth hands-free calling on my desktop PC.
Let me explain: I work in my garage. I use my garage PC as my only music source. I use it for email and web stuff too, of course, but its main job is providing a streaming source for music from the server in my house.
When I am working and my phone rings, I cannot hear my phone. Tablesaws and routers and sanders are noisy, and the music is blasting.
What I want is the same thing my $200 car stereo does: mute or pause the music and announce the caller ID through my speakers. When I am done with the call, resume the music.
Seems simple, doesn't it? I have been googling this for quite some time. No answers anywhere, it seems.
If/when I push the button to answer, I want to use a microphone and my speakers to talk on the phone...simple as that. Yes, I know, there are a hundred ways of doing this other than my PC (stream to tablet, BT to tab, tablet to stereo, etc.) but nothing is going to live very long in all this sawdust (including my PC, but I don't care) so the goal is to have to buy nothing but a BT dongle and some software.
So...since I work on stereo stuff for a living, the stuff you guys do is a complete mystery to me, but I know what I want.
Does anyone know of an app that does this? If not, it seems to me that this would be a fairly marketable thing, does anyone have an interest in developing this?
Thanks for looking, and hope you have some brilliant answers for my dilemma.
Thanks!
Luke Fisher

well if you plug your phone into the speakers and play music of it like Pandora or even download your own music. Then when you get a call the music will stop and your ring-tone will play through the speakers till you pick up the call or miss the call.

ladclothing said:
well if you plug your phone into the speakers and play music of it like Pandora or even download your own music. Then when you get a call the music will stop and your ring-tone will play through the speakers till you pick up the call or miss the call.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this is true, there are no cross platforms apps that really do what you want. This will happen probably in the next years it has to do with getting the platforms to work together.
I looked into this a couple of months ago, I did find a work around if you want to operate in linux........ then you can get the phone and computer to work together but then you are doing your own custom programming...... and you just want an app sounds like you do not want to be the programmer
Maybe someone else knows more and chime in............

oka1 said:
Yes this is true, there are no cross platforms apps that really do what you want. This will happen probably in the next years it has to do with getting the platforms to work together.
I looked into this a couple of months ago, I did find a work around if you want to operate in linux........ then you can get the phone and computer to work together but then you are doing your own custom programming...... and you just want an app sounds like you do not want to be the programmer
Maybe someone else knows more and chime in............
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linux? Isn't that Charlie Browns best friend? Has a sister named Lucy, right?
Guys, my phone is a POS, ain't gonna go there at all. Samsung Instinct S30, until I find what I need a phone to do I am not giving up any money at all.
I know I can connect a cell phone to a PC with nothing but a simple BT dongle, but getting it to pause the music is the tough part.
Maybe I will just get another JVC KD-R900 and use it for shop tunes. I could run the shop stereo from it, just use the AUX in on the JVC from the PC.
Oddly enough, I listen to full albums, often several from the same artist, so I have no use for broadcast radio, nor sattelite or internet radio, just full CDs on my hard drive.
Thanks for the input so far, guys!
Luke

Stereoinstaller1 said:
Linux? Isn't that Charlie Browns best friend? Has a sister named Lucy, right?
Guys, my phone is a POS, ain't gonna go there at all. Samsung Instinct S30, until I find what I need a phone to do I am not giving up any money at all.
I know I can connect a cell phone to a PC with nothing but a simple BT dongle, but getting it to pause the music is the tough part.
Maybe I will just get another JVC KD-R900 and use it for shop tunes. I could run the shop stereo from it, just use the AUX in on the JVC from the PC.
Oddly enough, I listen to full albums, often several from the same artist, so I have no use for broadcast radio, nor sattelite or internet radio, just full CDs on my hard drive.
Thanks for the input so far, guys!
Luke
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... I have just done something similar with my phone.
Here's the setup:
You'll need:
1. A hi-fi system
2. An Android phone (any would do, but some of the apps in Andriod is critical)
3. 16-32gb sd-card
4. Bluetooth dongle for answering phones
Plug your phone into the hifi using the stereo sound jack, and plug your phone into the charger. Play music straight from the phone, and when it rings, you can set certain music apps to mute the music while letting the ringtone through. I'm quite sure that the default music app from el Goog, does that well.

[Q] Duplicate Ipod Functionality

I just got a new car and it has a spiffy usb hook up where you can plug in an ipod/flash drive/phone and it will play music off of it. The ipod works amazingly with the stereo system, displaying titles and artist as well as making navigation really easy. The display/navigation is **** when hooking up a flash drive/phone.
It would be amazing for my phone to work the same way as the ipod.
Right now there doesn't seem to be anything like that out. I know that I probably can't change anything with the way the car's stereo system recognizes and plays devices, so that means the hack would have to be on the phone. The only way I can think it would work is the make the phone spoof as an ipod when connected to the car's usb hook up.
I'd like to know if anyone has tried doing this before, maybe on a different phone or device? Is this possible at all, and if so, where would I start?
The phone I have now is a Captivate running Serendipity rom and the car is a 2010 Honda Civic.

This would be an excellent idea for an app. I hope this can be made possible

Have you tried putting the phone in USB storage mode? Either through the standard menu items, or enable USB debugging, and enable it after you plug it in.
Sent from my Captivate running Continuum 5.5

The mass storage thing works for just playing music but it displays songs terribly, usually just by track number and the number (not the name) of the folder, sorted by creation date. It's basically impossible to use if you have more than a small amount of songs.

I just connect the phone to my car stereo via BT, plug the phone into a car charger, set the display to always on, place it in my dash mount to the right of my steering wheel and use the phone to see the Now Playing info. My steering wheel controls work the phone just fine so I can skip foward/back and raise/lower volume. When I shut the car off the music automatically pauses until I come back and it automatically reconnects to the radio and I just hit Play again.

Miami_Son said:
I just connect the phone to my car stereo via BT, plug the phone into a car charger, set the display to always on, place it in my dash mount to the right of my steering wheel and use the phone to see the Now Playing info. My steering wheel controls work the phone just fine so I can skip foward/back and raise/lower volume. When I shut the car off the music automatically pauses until I come back and it automatically reconnects to the radio and I just hit Play again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My car doesn't have blue tooth so this isn't really an option right now.
I'm actually willing to write an app for this, but I'm not sure entirely where to start. The biggest unknown is how the stereo system recognizes ithe ipod and what it sends/receives to/from the ipod.
If I had some starter code where someone did something similar or documentation on how the ipod works of usb I should be able to at least start writing an app for this.

dpayne19 said:
If I had some starter code where someone did something similar or documentation on how the ipod works of usb I should be able to at least start writing an app for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably not going to find that in here.

I would look up what kind of stereo the car has and the technology it uses. I can bet there is a forum out there on that type of stereo. Your probably not the only one with this question.... If you can list the specs i will look into it myself.

echonc said:
I would look up what kind of stereo the car has and the technology it uses. I can bet there is a forum out there on that type of stereo. Your probably not the only one with this question.... If you can list the specs i will look into it myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The car is a 2010 Honda Civic Ex. I don't know what the stereo system is, it's what ever comes stock.

Welcome to proprietary apple exclusive deals. Do you think the ipod integration and lack of android integration is accidental?
By all means if you can write an app that will make android phones work with iphone docks and compatible stereos more power to you.
It would definitely involve reverse engineering closed source apple code.

Nexus 7 Car Head-unit Install

Nexus 7 Head-unit Install
Hi all, long time reader, first time poster. I'm working on a Nexus 7 Car Head-unit install, and figured I would post my working through the install, hardware, software, and kinda just help all the tons of people I see out there who have the same idea, but just have no idea how to go about it.
This is ment to be half a tutorial (once everything is done) and half a brainstorming to give me idea's for things I haven't thought of or considered. I'll be coming back and updating this OP with pictures, and the build as it gets worked on.
Goals of the Install
I want to be able to run my entire car off the Nexus. I have already set up wifi tethering from my S3 to get internet into the Nexus, and thus open up a realm of possibilities. Necessary features are Nav, and Music. I rarely call from my car, but in car calling would be a nice feature to have as well. I also go out to the track ever now and again, and adding car stats (boost, RPM logging, acceleration, mapping) would be great. The biggest reason to do the install is that one the hardware is configured, you literally have a ultimately customizable setup that will take years to outdate.
The Hardware
1 x 2003 Subaru WRX
1 x Nexus 7
1 x Samsung Galaxy S3 (T-Mobile)
1 x MRX-V60 - Alpine 5-Channel Subwoofer Amplifier
1 x 7 Channel Equalizer
lots of hacked wiring
The Software
This is where I would love some feedback on on what I may be missing, better solutions to what I have suggested, and just some general awesome idea's!
Music:
Pandora, Play Music, DI.fm, Soundcloud, Radio.com
In Car Phone/Text:
Talkatak, Google Voice
OBDII Support: (Future Project)
Right now this is not a nessiacty as the hardware to do this could get very tricky. However I know I can read from the OBDII port with a bluetooth OBDII dongel and an app like Torque Lite. However I do own a tatrix cable, and am considering if it would be possible to go from the USB to the tablet, and find an app/write one what allows for the tablet to control the car in real time.
Nav:
Google Navigation, Local
Track Apps:
aLapHD
The Two Builds
There are two ways to go about this. The first would be the simple and easy way which is to hack together a charger wired to the power source of the car, and use that to keep the tablet charged. Then run a 3.5mm audio into the amp, and have sound run from there. There are a few issues with that. 1. There will be no volume control, as the Tablet's buttons will be part of the center console. I suppose I can run a controller to the amp, that will let me adjust volume. 2. This will not allow for the possibility of adding OBDII support.
The second option is to purchase a micro USB dock that does audio out. Hack it apart, and run the audio to the amp, and the power to the power. This would be necessary if I want to do a full USB ODBII connection (I believe, please tell me if I'm wrong), and would be much "cleaner" when it comes time to take the tablet out of the car for any reason (hardwire sync, parking in the "ghetto").
What I need Help with
Have any idea's. Tried something similar and have some tips. Have suggestions for apps, hardware configurations I haven't listed, or just generally want to say "sick man". Please let me know. I would love to have some people who are also interested in doing this join in on my build, and we can work together to eliminate any issues to make tablet installs easier. I will be coming back and updating this OP throughout the entire process so please look for updates!
Thanks All!

(reserved for pics)

Check out a half-DIN equalizer or crossover to solve your volume, fading, equalizing concerns... can't post a link because this is first post!
I'd like do do this in the future... I hope someone comes out with a custom set of apps that make this really cool and easy... maybe even a custom ROM.
Basically what I'd want out of this is:
Auto-on with power. Auto off after 10 minutes of no power. FM radio tuner. Maybe the ability to connect a rear-view camera (wifi?). Bluetooth OBDII would be good enough for me.
I'd also appreciate the ability to connect to at least one camera and use it as a DVR, but I think that it would probably be beyond feasibility with the Nexus 7...

What I really want to see is the ability for the Nexus to be a full Bluetooth head unit. I want it to pair with my phone for both internet (already do this, works great) and have it act as a headset essentially. This is the part that appears to not exist anywhere. The ability for the Android Tablet to act as a hands free device. I mean if a car stereo can fully integrate with your phone read your address book, start and answer calls hands free, stream music, everything from your phone then why the heck not the tablet! Someone needs to write the BT stack that can handle that. Apparently it doesn't exist for android. It exists for Windows, but not Android. That is just wrong. Are there any car stereo head units running Android as their OS? If so can someone dump their rom so we can see what all it can do for a project like this?
I really want this!

I have had mine in the dash for a couple weeks now, streaming Bluetooth to the radio which I relocated, also using NFC sticker to turn on WiFi, bluetooth , set audio volume, screen brightness and start playing music. Tasker to put unit into car mode, its sick! I'll be following, really interested to see what you come up with. My car is N 06 altima and the Nexus 7 fits almost like a glove where factory stereo use to be.

Nexus 7 in altima
sneakk said:
I have had mine in the dash for a couple weeks now, streaming Bluetooth to the radio which I relocated, also using NFC sticker to turn on WiFi, bluetooth , set audio volume, screen brightness and start playing music. Tasker to put unit into car mode, its sick! I'll be following, really interested to see what you come up with. My car is N 06 altima and the Nexus 7 fits almost like a glove where factory stereo use to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
Can you upload a picture of your install? I own a altima and I am looking to install the Nexus 7 on my dash as well. And also, did your factory stereo have bluetooth? If not, what are you streaming bluetooth to?
Thanks

Just gonna subscribe as I thought of doing something similar
Sent from my LG-E739 using Tapatalk 2

Look into this thread
http://www.mp3car.com/worklogs/152658-nexus-7-android-in-a-2001-audi-s4.html
here's a video also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLi9wCFZ7M

timskyline86 said:
Look into this thread
http://www.mp3car.com/worklogs/152658-nexus-7-android-in-a-2001-audi-s4.html
here's a video also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdLi9wCFZ7M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anyone can post on his site, tell him to connect two middle pins in usb plug, then it will start charging from the lighter socket.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

Does anyone know of a micro USB dock/cable that then splits to power, usb, and audio? I know of one's that will do 2 of the three, but nothing that does all three. Maybe just a USB and power one, and run the audio straight out of the 3.5mm on the N7.
Amp was ordered, and will be here next week. Prelimanary fitment pics coming soon...

Hello, I'm considering permanently mounting a nexus 7 in my car. It seems like the perfect in car device.
With this in mind I have updated my CarHome Ultra app to better accommodate the Nexus 7 screen. I will be posting a new video soon showing it running on the 7.

I've looked at doing this as well, I've always been prevented by the issue of the FM radio. I use the car a lot in places where I get no or poor connection via the phone, but the radio works fine, so loosing it would not be an option as I use the FM radio quite alot.
I've been trying to figure out away to control an FM radio via the Nexus so if anyone out there has any info it would be greatly appreciated.
Jonnym

Jonnym said:
I've looked at doing this as well, I've always been prevented by the issue of the FM radio. I use the car a lot in places where I get no or poor connection via the phone, but the radio works fine, so loosing it would not be an option as I use the FM radio quite alot.
I've been trying to figure out away to control an FM radio via the Nexus so if anyone out there has any info it would be greatly appreciated.
Jonnym
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Load a hand full of mp3s on the device. Then use Tasker to switch to switch to your favorite music player when reception is bad
Sent from my LG-E379 running ICSyndicate 2.0

I am actually currently doing a very similar project with a Nexus 7 and my Nissan 350z
I am planning on installing the Nexus 7 inside my dash (to replace sat nav dash)
HOWEVER
what about routing the power button on the tablet? Because If you cant access the power button the tablet will only get power when the car is on and if you dont use the car for a day or two the tablets battery would go flat and next time you turn on the car the tablet would go into charging mode (screen with charging battery only) and not boot up into android jelly bean.
Theres 2 potential solutions:
1. Open the tablet and wire the power button to a custom one, however on opening it I have found the button is actually a physical push press button and cannot be wired.
2. There is potential to change a file on the android system to tell the tablet to boot up when a charger is plugged in, check these threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1187631
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1815131

Any updates from the OP?

Here's my install. Kept the factory radio intact, if not using the nexus, everything looks totally stock.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1847452

regalpimpin said:
Here's my install. Kept the factory radio intact, if not using the nexus, everything looks totally stock.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1847452
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What OBD ll connector are you using?

tallyforeman said:
What OBD ll connector are you using?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xitech xr7 purchased off amazon over a year ago.
http://www.amazon.com/XiTech-ELM327...TF8&qid=1347466620&sr=1-3&keywords=xitech+xr7
Never had any problems with it.

Despite working in the car industry and loving gadgets and mod-ing...I haven't really seen what people are up to these days in terms of car mods. The Nexus 7 makes so much sense and looks great!

Hey all
Just to add to the discusion;
Radio/DAB
Frontier silicon are the only company that I can find that do an app that can control an external radio and stream it's signal to the tablet as opposed to picking up the signal over the cellular network.
App:
Their page
http://www.frontier-silicon.com/products/software/DOK_App.html
Play store
http://tinyurl.com/d24gwm4
Module:
http://www.frontier-silicon.com/products/modules/briefs/Venice6_PB.pdf
now the problem with this is, aside from building the module in somewhere' the audio out as it feeds out of the module, but I was thinking I could use some form of y split cables near to my amps 'in'.
Media storage and playback
As far as storage for everything video/audio atc and a player to match I was thinking of useing xmbc
http://xbmc.org/
andriod port;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1813089
and pairing this with a WiFi DLNA HDD that I would wire in remoted off (say in the boot)
GPS
For improved gps I was going to use an external bluetooth gps reciver then allow mock locations on the tablet, there are also a few apps that help with this.
This app seems to have good support and a nice help page.
App:http://tinyurl.com/a9s7gvo
An example of a external GPS receiver
http://tinyurl.com/a339vu7
Hands Free
The only work round I seem to have found atm though far from perfect is this
http://www.scosche.com/consumer-tech/product/1919
it allows you to to 'cut in' the audio stream, but (can't fins the tread now will keep looking) the guy who was playing round with this was having audio issues.
not an idea solution but workable.
before my mind starts melting again;
How I plan to implement the tablet is to use tasker to wake the tablet when power is supplied then shut of down after, if I disable all kinds of connectivity when tablet shuts down then reactivates when it wakes up everything should run smoothly. Power will be cut because I'll wire in the ignition live, like you do in a stereo anyway, an this shouldn't put a drain on my battery to much, an if the dash build is good it shouldn't be too much of an issue extracting the tablet to hard boot anyway.
Volume and Audio
Volume and audio quality is another issue that needs to be addressed.
http://tinyurl.com/d2zbbnf
Seems like an ok work round.
Another way would be to install a direct in-line volume control as suggested in other threads, and put in an external DAC or hardwired EQ.
On a side note I came across this........ http://www.crutchfield.com/p_773AIRDAC/NuForce-Air-DAC-Receiver.html?tp=59282 ........ although you need to use their plug in senders but I'm sure this can be worked round with the knowledge on this forum, an would provide a very nice solution. then again there are quite a few bluetooth devices around. this probably wouldn't allow for in-line controls though.
well thats it for now, hope this helps push this forward to a working system
ben
nice build thread containing alot of theses ideas;
http://www.mp3car.com/worklogs/152658-nexus-7-android-in-a-2001-audi-s4.html

Android Auto headunit vs just tablet?

Hello all, I had a Son XAV-601BT, which was supposed to be a very promising and awesome android headunit, but ended up being a dud because mirrorlink doesn't work well, etc, I can only connect my phone with bluetooth and play music through it. I just got a Nissan Titan and want to up my in car experience. I had a good bit of audio equipment I took out of my old 240sx and was going to reuse it, which included the 601BT, 2 kicker amps (one for the sub, another 4 channel for speakers), and polk audio speakers, but the headunit is basically.. meh.
I was wondering what would be the ideal route to go to get the best experience. I know they have head units that have all the android auto stuff built in, but since I already have a nice amp I can use to drive the speakers, would I be better off just using a tablet and getting things connected up that way? I would like to be able to utilize good quality voice for commands and phone calls, but I am not sure if using a tablet for that would work (using the phones capabilities through the tablet to make calls and texts via bluetooth or some other way.)
If anyone has any recommendations on how I can have a nice sized mounted capacitive screen to control my audio (spotify), navigation, and be able to use voice commands (though I could technically just make them through my watch as I have been), I would love to hear some suggestions. If the best route to go would be an actual android auto headunit, then so be it, but I would like to know if alternatives can do this.

See my sig for Headunit app for Android Auto. Nexus tablets are working well with it.
Tablet solution likely takes some time to get it the way you want it, but it makes it very customizable and can be done cheaply-ish.
There are 2 popular lines of $300 Chinese HUs discussed on XDA. They are best described as... the Chinese stuff you find on EBay/Alibaba etc. Source is available but the latest Newsmy is still stuck on Android 4.4.
Or for $500-2k get a Pioneer or Kenwood Android Auto 4100/6100/7100NEX. There's a custom ROM just come out for some Pioneers, but it will take time to mature.

Awesome, thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I was looking in to some of the interesting setups people have, such as using an Arduino with an IR transmitter that you connect to the tablet, so you can use a standard smaller headunit, hide it in the dash to connect to the speakers and control the volume, and the tablet can be mounted nice, and when you hit the volume etc on the tablet it makes the Arduino blast the IR to the head unit, and it makes the volume go up as if you pressed the button (or in this case, the remote)
That might work well with a head unit app or something similar. I will download the APK's you linked and check them out!