Car Penguin: Launcher & Maps

Road Companion : Smart Automotive Apps

In-app purchases

About this app

Got Android on your Car? Car Penguin brings what matter for your driving journey to the surface. Make it your default head unit launcher and enjoy your trips. With convenient interface the application serve driver’s needs including maps and navigation, media/music player, phone calls, contacts and more. Car Penguin supports multi-languages, multi-themes and bidirectional layout.

Feature’s summary

Customized Dashboard
The dashboard has been designed to gain fast access to essential fixtures with customization to the layout and content.

Important: Each page in the application has its’ own option menu. While page is open, press the menu icon (hamburger icon) to display its options.

Maps, Search for Places, Points of Interests and Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Google maps displaying current locations, current addresses and traffic with ability to configure maps with multi-themes and layouts. Search Google map places, save places to lists for easier future navigation, and uses Google APIs for directions and turn-by-turn navigations. Other navigation features including statistical information and logging to all your trips.

Playing Music and Watching Videos
Car Penguin uses its own media player including media control for local audio and video files, album lists and separate page for other predefined apps shortcuts. Other well-known media providers can be fixed as external widgets in the dashboard and/or in the toggle bar as well.

Smartphone Integration
Displaying contacts/favorites lists of saved numbers to dial either using the system default dialer, or transfer the phone calls over Bluetooth to your cell phone. Transferring calls over Bluetooth, syncing call log and SMS require Car Penguin Server (free app: http://carpenguin.com) to be installed on your cell phone.

Other features including:
- Car Graphic/Photo and Device Info
- Weather Information
- App Browsing and Shortcuts
- Screen Saver
- Sound Recording
- Speedometer
- Reading Calendar
- Raise/lower Volume on Speed
- Notification and Speed Warning

Ratings and reviews

Great app ftmp. I paid for all the upgrades. However I still cannot access custom theme options. Regarding map - when not in route mode, the map should zoom out depending on user speed. Also should be a way to hide the navigation menu, as it looks cluttered and causes the map to shift too far to the right side.

I really love this layout! However I have a couple of pretty big knockoffs, first they isn't a integration of spotify into the apps media player which really sucks. But I'd be ok with that if it would actually allow me to pause/play music being played by bluetooth from my phone. But it doesn't. In the app it mentions a "server" app, but it doesn't exist on the playstore. Finally the volume buttons don't work at all. Overall it's a great design, but lacks simple and basic features.

I just installed your Launcher on an Android HU and really do love the logical layout - far above all the others in my opinion. However, there is no RADIO option which strikes me kind of odd as most Android HU's come with built in AM/FM radios. Is this something that you're working on? Also, can there be a persistent media bar (located at the bottom, similar to the persistent bar at the top) that would show what's being played (be it radio station, media file, or streamed via Bluetooth audio, and/or YouTube video) ? If you just did the above two, your product would be practically perfect for a true stock HU launcher replacement. As a developer myself (would love to be part of your dev team :) for free too :), I totally appreciate your work and have already purchased it (2.99) to ensure this moves forward as there is a large potential. Cheers

What's new

- Full screen mode
- Layout resize
- Different map layers