Vehicle computer system with wireless internet connectivity

1. A vehicle computer system comprising:

a housing of a size suitable to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard;

a computer mounted within the housing;

an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and

an Internet wireless link to provide access to the Internet.

2. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the housing has a form factor of a single DIN.

3. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the Internet wireless link is connected to the computer via a bus.

4. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the operating system is a multitasking operating system that is capable of concurrently running the multiple applications.

5. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising multiple applications that execute on the computer.

6. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 5 wherein the applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, an entertainment application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, a vehicle diagnostics application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.

7. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 further comprising an application executing on the computer that utilizes the Internet wireless link to access the Internet.

8. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 1 wherein the Internet wireless link is used to download an application to the computer.

9. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:

a network;

at least one client computing device connected to the network;

a vehicle computer system connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device, the vehicle computer system comprising:

a housing of a size suitable to be mounted in a vehicle dashboard;

a computer mounted within the housing;

an open platform operating system executing on the computer; and

an Internet wireless link to provide access to the Internet.

10. A computer network system as recited in claim 9, wherein the content served to the client is received from the Internet via the Internet wireless link.

11. A vehicle computer system comprising:

a support module having a bus;

a computer module connected to the bus, the computer module having a processor;

multiple applications stored on the computer module and executed by the processor; and

an Internet wireless link connected to the support module to provide access for the computer module to the Internet.

12. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 wherein at least one of the applications utilizes the Internet wireless link to access the Internet.

13. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 wherein the Internet wireless link is used to download an application to the computer.

14. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 wherein the support module has a form factor of a single DIN.

15. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 further comprising a multitasking operating system stored and executed on the computer module.

16. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 wherein the applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, an entertainment application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, a vehicle diagnostics application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.

17. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 11 further comprising a faceplate module connected to the bus.

18. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:

a network;

at least one client computing device connected to the network;

a vehicle computer system connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device, the vehicle computer system comprising:

a support module having a bus;

a computer module connected to the bus, the computer module having a processor;

multiple applications stored on the computer module and executed by the processor; and

an Internet wireless link connected to the support module to provide access for the computer module to the Internet.

19. A computer network system as recited in claim 18, wherein the content served to the client is received from the Internet via the Internet wireless link.

20. A vehicle computer system comprising:

a computer;

an open platform operating system executing on the computer;

multiple applications executing on the operating system; and

an Internet wireless link to provide access to the Internet.

21. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 20 wherein the multiple applications include at least one vehicle-related application and at least one non-vehicle related application.

22. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 20 wherein at least one of the applications utilizes the Internet wireless link to access the Internet.

23. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 20 wherein the applications are selected from a group comprising a navigational application, an entertainment application, a communications application, a vehicle security application, a vehicle diagnostics application, a word processing application, a spreadsheet application, a database application, and an appointment/schedule application.

24. A vehicle computer system as recited in claim 20 wherein the Internet wireless link is used to download an application to the computer.

25. A computer network system for an automobile, comprising:

a network;

at least one client computing device connected to the network;

a vehicle computer system connected to the network to serve content to the client computing device, the vehicle computer system comprising:

a computer;

an open platform operating system executing on the computer;

multiple applications executing on the operating system; and

an Internet wireless link to provide access to the Internet.

26. A computer network system as recited in claim 25, wherein the content served to the client is received from the Internet via the Internet wireless link.