Mobile Fun Blog

Review: Navigon iPhone Holder & Car Charger

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

iPhone Car Holders are a  must have item – especially if you use your iPhone for Sat Nav. I’ve already covered some of the most popular mounting solutions for the iPhone in my post on Using Sat Nav on the iPhone, but this week I came across the Navigon iPhone Holder and Car charger and thought it was worth reviewing.

Navigon iPhone 3GS / 3G Car Holder - With Car Charger

Navigon were one of the first software companies to launch a Sat Nav application for the iPhone and it often features in the top ten apps in iTunes. The Navigon Car holder is designed to compliment their software and provide you with a simple and effective in car holder.

Features

There’s not really a lot you can say about a phone holder, after all, it is just a holder. Unlike the TomTom iPhone Car Kit, the Navigon car holder doesn’t have a GPS receiver or loud speaker built in, but there are a couple of features that make this one stand out.

Firstly there’s a discrete cable holder built in to the underneath of the arm. While this might not sound that great, it does mean that once your cable is clipped into it you won’t have to fish around between the seats to find the end of your charging cable when you want to charge your iPhone.

Built in cable holder saves time

The cradle for the iPhone has a ball joint fitting so that allows you to rotate it through 360° - nothing new, but what I did like with the Navigon holder is that it’s the only car holder that I’ve seen that lets you tighten up the ball joint when it starts to come loose (although the allen key needed isn’t included).

Design

As holders go, it’s slim and it’s not bad to look at, although from the images on the box I did expect it to be a little slimmer than it is, although it’s by no means bulky.

Simple, slim design

The cradle allows you to slide your iPhone in and out quickly and easily and it can be done with one hand, you just pull your phone forward slightly and lift it out. There’s no spring clip to keep your phone in place, but given the shape of the cradle I really can’t see that it would ever fall out.

In the Box

Navigon are rather generous. Instead of just including a generic third party car charger, they’ve partnered with Belkin to include the Belkin Micro Auto Charger + Charge Sync Cable.

Belkin Micro Auto Car Charger Included

This is one of the most compact car chargers available for the iPhone and can be left in your cigarette socket even when not being used – just remove the USB cable and it will look like a standard USB Port in your dashboard.

Why choose the Navigon iPhone Holder?

Navigon Car holder for iPhone

The Navigon iPhone holder is a solid, sturdy holder that will work brilliantly with your iPhone and any Sat Nav App. The suction pad is strong and the built in cable holder is a nice touch – although it would have been even better if you could connect the cable to the base of the cradle so that it connected each time you put your phone in.

My Rating: 9/10

(15 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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Apple iPhone Christmas Gift Ideas

Friday, December 11th, 2009

The Apple iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS have been incredibly popular this year and are going to be two of the most sought after phones again this Christmas. If you know someone who’s got one, or is getting one, you might want to get them a little something to go with their new pride and joy, but with so many cases, covers, docks and other iPhone accessories available, what should you get? To try and make your Christmas shopping a little easier this year, here’s a few Christmas gift ideas for the Apple iPhone.

iPhone Gifts for Under £20

Gelaskins – From £11.95

GelaSkins are very thin protective covers that are made specifically for the iPhone. They are made from a strong vinyl and are available in a range of designs and colours. They can be removed from the phone easily and without leaving any messy residue behind. Gelaskins are a great way to brighten up someone’s iPhone without adding any extra bulk.

Gelaskins are a great way to brighten up the iPhone

iPhone Sat Nav Starter Pack – £14.95

If someone you know uses their phone for Sat Nav and is struggling to balance their iPhone on their lap or the dashboard then this is the perfect gift for them! The Sat Nav starter pack includes a rotating windscreen holder and a car charger for the iPhone.

iPhone Sat Nav Starter Pack

Intempo Bluetooth Speakers for iPhone – £19.95

Fed up of your loved one ruining songs by playing them through the built in loudspeaker on the iPhone? Let them fill the room with their music with the Intempo Bluetooth Speakers. This is a compact, powerful speaker unit that can connect to the iPhone using Bluetooth and play music loudly and clearly without the need to mess around with wires. Just launch the iPod app on your phone, press play and your music will play through the speakers.

Intempo Bluetooth Speaker System for iPhone

iPhone Gifts for Under £30

Knomo Sleeve – £24.95

Spoil someone this Christmas with a luxury sleeve for their iPhone. Knomo Leather sleeves are a stylish way to protect the iPhone. They have a velveteen lining that helps to keep the iPhone clean and free from fingerprints and smudges.

Knomo Sleeve For iPhone 3GS / 3G - Dark Brown

Ed Hardy Backplates – From £29.95

If you know someone who lives for designer names, then why not get them an Ed Hardy Backplate for their iPhone this Christmas? Ed Hardy designs for the iPhone are available as either Backplates or Stickers and each design is based on one of Ed Hardy’s famous Tattoos.

Ed Hardy Stickers and Backplates for the iPhone

iPhone Gifts For Under £50

iPhone OtterBox Defender – £34.95

Looking for a case for an iPhone owner who loves being outdoors?  Look no further. The OtterBox Defender for the iPhone is a triple layered case that can withstand even the most serious of knocks. It has a clear membrane to protect the screen, a polycarbonate shell that wraps around the phone and a strong silicone skin that absorbs impact. Perfect for anyone who loves hiking, walking or any other outdoor activity.

OtterBox For iPhone 3GS / 3G Defender Series - Black

iPhone 3G & 3GS Premium Pack – £34.95

Can’t decide on which accessory to get them? Why not get them all? We’ve combined our most popular accessories for the iPhone and created the Premium Pack. The Premium Pack includes a high quality Car Holder, Screen Protectors, External Back Up Battery, Sync & Charge Cable, Dock and a FlexiShield Skin and saves over £40 compared to buying them individually!

Premium Pack For Apple iPhone 3GS / 3G

Jawbone 2 – £49.93

The Jawbone2 Bluetooth Headset is a great gift for anyone who spends a lot of time chatting on their phone or needs to use their phone in the car. Jawbone have just about the best noise cancelling technology in them, so no matter where this is used, you’ll still be able to hear the person who’s using it.

Jawbone 2

iPhone Gifts For Under £100

iHome iPhone Docking Station – £62.95

iPhone speakers and docks are everywhere you look, but this one stands out from the crowd. The iHome Dock holds the iPhone in portrait mode and rotates 90° so that you movies or TV shows can be shown in widescreen. The iHome Dock has a built in alarm clock with snooze, battery back up, full remote control and a display that rotates to match the orientation of the stand. A must have accessory for every iPhone user.

iHome iPhone 3GS / 3G Docking Station

Etymotic HF-2 Headphones – £84.95

Music is important to most iPhone users, so give them a gift that will really let them enjoy their music and immerse them in sound. The Etymotic HF-2 Headphones are premium earphones that have been specifically designed for the iPhone and has an in-line microphone and control pod that can answer calls, play/pauser music and skip/rewind tracks. The HF-2 comes with a choice of noise isolating ear buds that keep out almost all background noise, leaving the listener to enjoy their music without interruptions. The HF2 is available in Red, Black or Blue.

Etymotic HF2 High Fidelity Headphones - Black

Hopefully you’ve seen something here that will make the perfect gift this Christmas, if not, why not take a look at our full range of iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS Accessories.

All prices are correct as of 10/12/09. Pricing and availability are subject to change. For the latest pricing and delivery information, please see the individual product pages.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Hands on Review of the iPhone 3G Car Pack

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Since the launch of Sat Nav on the iPhone earlier this year, the number of in-car holders for the iPhone has grown significantly and with so many available, I decided to go hands on with one of the latest car holders for the iPhone 3G & 3GS – the iPhone Car Pack – to see what makes this one different from the rest.

iPhone 3G Car Pack

The Car Pack is made up of 3 items – a suction mount, a cradle for your iPhone and a car charger and putting it together takes just a few seconds.

Mouting it on your windscreen is quick and easy too. The suction mount is solid and unlike some cheap suction holders, doesn’t need to be moistened to stick to the windscreen and once it’s attached the only way to remove it is to release the clamp. The clamp itself is a lot easier to use than you’d expect too.  Normally, suction mounts have a small plastic lever that doesn’t seem to move very much and as a result it doesn’t create much suction to hold the cradle in place – that’s not the case with the Car Pack though, the level moves a considerable amount, which provides plenty of suction to keep your holder in place.

Once it’s attached to the windscreen, you’ll need to adjust the angle of the holder to suit your driving position. This is done easily enough as the cradle can be adjusted in 3 ways. Depending on which way up you’ve attached it to the windscreen, you can adjust it up/down, left/right and the cradle can rotate through 360°. While it’s easy enough to adjust, it’s not really something that you can do once you’ve started driving, so I’d make sure that you’re happy with the position before you set off – the reason I say that is the up/down and left/right joints are locked in place and to adjust them you need to press a button and then rotate it – something that really needs two hands.

The Cradle that you slide your phone does a great job too.  You slide your phone in from the top, and once inserted, a spring loaded clip moves into place to prevent the phone from falling out – (more useful for when the phone is being used in landscape mode).

Overall it’s a great holder. I’ve tried many different car holders over the years, but can happily say the iPhone Car Pack is one of the most solid I’ve ever used.  The locking arm means that once set, it’s not going to keep moving around or start to drop every time you go over a bump in the road.

My rating: 9/10

(No Ratings Yet)

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Alternatives to the TomTom iPhone Car Kit

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

With pricing now confirmed for the TomTom iPhone Car Kit at £99.99 without the Sat Nav Application, it makes the whole package a little expensive at just under £160 – especially when you consider that you can buy a fully functional stand alone TomTom GPS unit for less than £120.

Now, don’t get me wrong, TomTom do make great Sat Nav systems, but I’m really not convinced that their iPhone offering is really worth the £160 that they’re asking for it. The car cradle is a clever bit of kit, but there are other devices out there that will do the same thing. The main features of the TomTom Car Cradle are:

• Charges your iPhone
• Ability to play your music through your car stereo
• Built in speaker for handsfree calling
• GPS Enhancer
• Volume controls

I’ve spent a bit of time this week searching out the best alternatives to the pricey TomTom set up and here’s what I found:

Option 1 – Jabra SP700

• CoPilot Live UK & Ireland £25.99 (iTunes Link)
• Jabra SP700 £38.53
• Sat Nav Starter Pack £14.95
• Total Cost £79.47

It’s not all in one like the TomTom, but this set up is less than half the price! CoPilot Live is a great alternative to TomTom. The software has been around for years on Windows Mobile devices and is the pre-installed mapping application on most T-Mobile and O2 smartphones. Feature wise it does everything that TomTom does, but for a lot less money. It’s currently rated as a 4 star app on the iTunes App store, compared to 3 stars for the TomTom app.  The Sat Nav starter pack for iPhone includes a compact, rotating windscreen holder for your iPhone and a car charger. If you’ve already tried using GPS on the iPhone in your car, you’ll know necessary a  car charger is. Having the screen on permanently and locking on to a GPS signal drains the battery quite quickly. The Jabra SP700 is much more than just a standard Bluetooth speaker phone. It has a built in FM transmitter that can stream music, calls and directions from your iPhone through to your car stereo using Bluetooth.

Use the Sat Nav Starter Pack and Jabra SP700 to get the most out of CoPilot Live

Option 2 – Venturi Mini

• Navigon MobileNavigator British Isles £37.99 -£54.99 (iTunes Link)
• Venturi Mini £54.95
• iPhone Car Pack £17.95
• Total Cost £110.89 – £127.89

Navigon was the first Sat Nav app for the iPhone, and its relatively low price made it incredibly popular. On iTunes it’s currently rated as a 3 and a half star app, so better than TomTom, but not quite as high as CoPilot Live. The iPhone Car Pack includes a robust, adjustable holder that can hold your iPhone in almost any position as well as a car charger to keep your phone fully charged. The Venturi Mini is a Bluetooth car kit that is designed to fit in your cigarette lighter permanently. To charge your iPhone, you just need to connect your existing iPhone USB cable to the USB port on the side of the Venturi. The Venturi works in a similar way to the Jabra SP700.  It connects to your phone using Bluetooth and will then stream your music, calls and sat nav directions through to your car stereo using its built in FM transmitter. If your car stereo has a line in/aux in connection, you can connect the Venturi to it using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable (the same as the TomTom Cradle).

Venturi Mini & iPhone Car Pack

Option 3 – Parrot MKi9000 Fully Fitted Kit

• CoPilot Live UK & Ireland £25.99 (iTunes Link)
• Brodit Holder with Dock Connector £39.99
• Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth Car Kit £89.95
• Total Cost £155.93

This set up isn’t so much about saving money compared to the TomTom kit, more a case of showing you how much more you could get for the same sort of price. Without doubt, you’ll always get better audio quality using a fully fitted car kit than you would with a portable one. The Parrot MKi range of car kits have been designed with iPods and iPhones in mind and they work almost seamlessly. The MKi9000 kit is fitted behind your dashboard and is completely out of sight.  There is a multi connector cable that has a USB port, 3.5mm headphone jack and an Apple Dock connector. This cable connects your iPhone to the car kit and will route call audio, music and directions through your car stereo at the same time as charging it. The Brodit holder that I’ve suggested here has a dock connector on the bottom too, so you can connect this cable to it, then whenever you slide your phone into the holder it will connect to the car kit without having to mess around with cables. If you’d rather not use cables, then you can use the kit over a bluetooth connection and get the same functionality from it. A small remote can be attached to your dashboard or steering wheel and can be used to answer/end calls as well as play/ pause music and activate voice dialling (Voice dialling is feature of the MKi9000 and will work with all models of iPhone). The prices shown here don’t include installation and vehicles without an ISO stereo may need additional cables.

Co-Pilot works well with the Parrot Mki9000

All three of these solutions work great with the iPhone and any of the available Sat Nav applications available for the iPhone, including the TomTom App.  You’ll find more information on each of the Sat Nav Apps on the App Store within iTunes or on your iPhone. To give you a clear idea on the differences between the TomTom Kit and the other options mentioned here, I’ve put a chart together to show the main differences.

Features	TomTom Cradle	Jabra SP700	Venturi Mini	Parrot MKi
Charges iPhone
Plays Music through Stereo
Hands Free Calling
GPS Enhancer
Volume Controls
Holds phone in Landscape
Music Controls
External Microphone	Optional

All Prices correct as of 30/09/09 and are subject to change.

(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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A guide to the best Car Holders for phones in Cases

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

The best way to keep your phone protected against knocks or scrapes is to keep it in a case, but this can cause a few problems if you plan on using your phone in a holder in the car. Most car holders are moulded specifically for your phone and don’t allow for any added bulk from cases.  Having said that, there are still a number of ways that you can mount your phone in the car while it’s in a case.

There are a couple of things to remember though, the main one being that access to your phone will be slightly limited, so depending on the case you’re using, it may be safer to remove the case from the phone – especially if it covers the keypad. The other thing to bear in mind is that the car holders use side grips to support your phone, so some buttons might become unusable while it’s in one of these holders.

If you want a holder that will give you full access to your phone without covering any buttons or access ports, you’ll be better off with a Brodit Holder but you can’t use them at the same time as a case

I’ve been through our range of Car holders and listed below the best ones for holding phones in cases.

Case Specific Holders

Two of the biggest case manufacturers, Krusell & PDair have realised that people need a way to mount their phone in the car when they’re using a case and have produced holders that are specifically designed to work with their cases.  Krusell offer 2 different holders for your phone, one for your windscreen, one for your dashboard.

Krusell Car Windscreen Holder

This holder fixes to your windscreen using a small suction pad and will hold any phone in a Krusell case securely.  The mounting port of the holder can be rotated through 360° so you can use your phone in landscape mode for applications such as satellite navigation or music software. It has a quick release suction mount and a flexible arm that lets you position the arm exactly how you want it.

Krusell Car Windscreen Holder

(more…)

(No Ratings Yet)

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