Mac Mini

I think it would be useful to start a new thread regarding the Mac Mini and its potential use as a carputer in the Prius.

Main factors to discuss are:

How should it be powered?
An isolated system that was kept charged off of the primary system in the Prius would be ideal; especially if sufficient battery capacity existed to allow the mac mini to remain in standby for an extended period of time without harming the Prius. Automatic transition to shutdown/standby and startup/wakeup with Prius start/stop modes (ignition, accessory modes. etc.) would be great.

How should it be controlled?
Integration into the MFD for video and mouse control would be ideal but existing embeddable touchscreens for auto applications seem to be better choices given the difficulty of connecting to the MFD.

How should it be integrated?
Connection into the car audio system seems a natural step but it may be simpler to replace the entire audio system rather than force integration. Bluetooth integration would be nice but the Prius only seems to support a headset profile (removing the possibility of integrating a calendar, etc. with the mac mini - although of course you could just use iCal)

Other considerations
A suitably config'd mac mini could easily replace the radio and CD. Obviously Nav functions could be performed by the mac as well... Finally, complete cell and voip phone integration is quite feasible as well.

There are numerous examples of what's possible but here is a recent one that really pushes the envelope imho:

http://tunertricks.com/blog/index.php?p=40

see also this thread:
http://priuschat.com/forums/mfd-touchscree...een-vt6993.html