ORA Electronics
ORA Electronics (at http://www.orausa.com) has a cellular phone interface kit for the Auto PC called "TelCar". TelCar plugs into the Auto PC's universal serial bus to provide a completely hands-free interface to Motorola MicroTAC and several models of Nokia phone. This interface allows the Auto PC to dial your phone by voice command from the Auto PC's address book. Audio from your conversation comes through the speakers in your car that are connected to the Auto PC.

CF+ Type II
There are a number of manufacturers of Compact Flash and Compact Flash + Type II cards. These cards slip into the CF+ slot on the Auto PC. In my last article I mentioned Socket I/O. I use the ATA Compact Flash cards to install software on my Auto PC that I download from the Internet as well as for backing up my Auto PC. [OK, so this could get confusing. You're backing up your car, which means putting it in reverse, or you're backing up your car, which means copying your Auto PC data to a CF card. Fun! - DG]

Clubs, bulletin boards, and general information
Unlike the original IBM PC, there's an actual Microsoft sponsored Auto PC club intended to give its members special perks and benefits and to receive feedback on the Auto PC. Find it at http://www.clubautopc.com. There's a bulletin board there where registered Auto PC users and guests can exchange information about the Auto PC. Microsoft monitors this board and there are frequent postings from the software developers and testers on the Auto PC team. Certainly, the product designers watch and read these boards to learn what the users are looking for. This is the place to post your suggestions and feature requests to help shape the future of the Auto PC. There is also some free software to download for your Auto PC including a calculator program from Infogation.

Another site that I recommend looking at is Enjoy The Music (at http://www.enjoythemusic.com/autopc) . They have lots of information on the Auto PC including breaking news, links to software and hardware vendors, editorial comment and reviews.

Of course Microsoft has a solid base of information available on the Auto PC (at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce/autopc) and some articles on the Microsoft Developers Network.

Using Lycos, Webcrawler, or other Internet search engines you'll find various links to other Auto PC sites and message boards. There are a number of Auto PC retailers online and you can purchase the product at a great price through some of them. There are a number of magazines online that have articles on the Auto PC (of course Windows CE Power does the best job!) and the two search engines I mention seem to do a better job a gleaning these from the vast amount of information on the Internet.

Summary
There are clearly some exciting add-ons available for the Auto PC. You can begin to see the power of the product showing through as vendors introduce such products as the CarPort interface. Companies such as Infogation who have dedicated themselves to exclusively developing software for the Auto PC are going to be the big name leaders in the years to come as the Auto PC becomes standard equipment from automotive manufacturers and as the aftermarket heats up. I encourage you to participate in Club Auto PC and make your voice heard.

And, if you are a software developer, commit some resources to building great software for the Auto PC. You have an opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Yes, it is sometimes true that the only thing that pioneers get are arrows in their backs -- but there are many more pioneers that go on to reap the benefits of being on the leading edge and taking a risk. One of those successful pioneers in the software industry has created an opportunity for others to pioneer - go for it!

Frank McPherson is a Senior Information Specialist at EDS. He is a Microsoft Windows CE Most Valuable Professional, and Assistant Forum Manager of MSN's Computing Central Windows CE forum. His maintains the Windows CE Knowledge Center at http://start.at/know_ce, and he can be reached via e-mail at frank@fmcpherson.com.