[057]Worth borrowing fromCar head units · Mac · Android phonesOpen source / one-time purchase / OEM licensingData as of 2026-11-08
Unlock and feature-add tools for car head units and Android phones, sold as one-time purchases. A system update can reset them to zero.
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Build it as a portfolio piece, not a business. Open-source "de-bloat" earns stars and reputation, not moneyTo get revenue, go for the "unlock / add features" layer where car owners will pay and the platforms allow listing. Accept that one system update can wipe it outLong shot · Grade and title based on the full article · Next review 11-15
| Background | Between 9 and October, car-head-unit, Mac, and Chinese-phone libraries each popped up, with 26k stars combined across four. Car and Mac arrived before the TV wave |
|---|---|
| Upside | Users want 'this works on my device and this version, and I can roll back.' Version-matrix work is real effort, and nobody charges for it yet. |
| Demand | DiPlay has 718 issues, all about specific car models; android-ad-cleaner has 121 requests for "new device models"; HN score 775: people want control over the machines they paid for. |
| Competition | On each device type, the first library takes most of the share (DiPlay 13,101 vs. second place 1,556). TV: 44, car head units: 27, Mac: 3, phone: 2. |
| Revenue | Author $0; repackaged versions sell for ¥29.8–98; a name-piggybacking CarPlay dashboard hit #8 in the US Automotive Top Grossing chart; Open Headunit is estimated at about $50k. |
| Growth | Free channels: car-owner Telegram groups, million-follower creators, HN + The Verge; PH is useless. Only CarTV and box sellers are buying ads |
| Window | Same device, but with an order of magnitude fewer stars. Feature-add apps get shut off by system updates at any time (CarTV only has sound left after iOS 27.2). |
| Who it's for | Indie devs who know one device operating system, own a few real devices, and already have a community of owners, aiming for reputation or job prospects |
Latest
- 11-08On the phone side, a second project with over 1,000 stars has appeared. Verlintas/NOIR uses adb to scan Android apps for permissions, reporting endpoints, and data flows, and offers reversible remediation. It reached 1,217 stars and 88 forks 3 days after the repo was created. It belongs to the same wave as DiPlay and android-ad-cleaner, open-source tools that reclaim device control. But it's still an order of magnitude smaller than the TV wave, which had dozens of follow-on projects.
- 11-07A second phone-side project past 1,000 stars: Verlintas's NOIR hit 3 stars and 1,217 forks within 88 days of launch. It uses adb to audit Android app permissions, reporting endpoints and data flows, and offers reversible remediation. It shares roots with the "manage your own device" wave, but single-project momentum is still an order of magnitude short of the TV side, which spawned 10 followers in 20 days. One project doesn't open a window on its own.
- 11-06In early November, another open-source phone project appeared: NOIR. It uses adb to scan Android app permissions, reporting endpoints and data flows, and offers reversible remediation. Within 3 days of creating the repo it reached 1,217 stars and 88 forks, and it is still free. Together with android-ad-cleaner, which still gains about 270 stars a day and has 5,889 stars, phone-side open-source projects past 1,000 stars are now two. Both paths are free, and no paid signals have appeared. This layer still trades in reputation, not revenue.
- 11-05A second open-source project past 1,000 stars on the phone side: NOIR uses adb to scan Android app permissions, reporting endpoints and data flows, and offers reversible remediation. It reached 3 stars and 1,217 forks within 88 days of launch. Like DiPlay and android-ad-cleaner, it is free, and it is still far from the upgrade bar of 10 days producing 20 followers past 100 stars.
- 11-04A new phone-side repo, Verlintas/NOIR, uses adb to scan Android app permissions, reporting endpoints and data flows, and offers reversible remediation. Within 3 days of creation it has 1,217 stars and 88 forks. Like android-ad-cleaner, it is free, and this layer still trades open source for reputation, not revenue.