Posts Tagged ‘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
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 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
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.
All Prices correct as of 30/09/09 and are subject to change.
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Tags: GPS, iphone 3g sat nav, iphone 3gs sat nav, iphone car holder, iPhone Car Kit, iphone holder, iphone sat nav, iphone tomtom, mobile maps, navigon iphone, sat nav ipod touch, sygic mobile maps, tomtom, tomtom car cradle, tomtom car kit, tomtom car kit release date, tomtom carkit, tomtom ipod touch,
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Monday, September 14th, 2009
More and more Bluetooth Car kits now support phone book synchronisation – this is where all the phone numbers stored on your phone are copied to the car kit. It’s a handy feature to have, although the benefits may not be all that obvious.
By having your numbers stored on the car kit, it means that kits that support Caller ID can show you the name of the person calling instead of just the number – what’s more, if your car kit supports TTS (Text to Speech) it can also call out the name of the person that’s calling you.
Another great benefit of having a car kit with phone book sync is that some of them will support voice dialling. Now you’re right for thinking that a lot of phones already support voice dialling, and you’re right, but what I mean here is that the car kit itself handles the voice dialling rather than your phone.
On a standard Bluetooth Car Kit, when you activate voice dialling, you press a button on the kit that then puts your phone into listening mode. Your phone then tries to match what you’ve said against either a pre-recorded voice tag or automatically match it to a name in your phonebook – often getting it wrong as the increased wind & road noise can distort what you say.
iPhone and Parrot Minikit Slim
With some car kits that with phonebook sync and voice dialling, it’s the car kit that listens to your voice and matches it to a name or number stored in it and it then tells your phone to dial that number. As the car kit is optimised to reduce wind and road noise, you get a more reliable match and less mis-dialled numbers. The great news with this though is that your phone doesn’t have to support voice dialling in order for this to work and it even works on the iPhone.
Syncing your contacts
Without getting too technical, there are two ways that your contacts can be transferred to your car kit – each using a different Bluetooth profile. Profiles are predefined ways in which two Bluetooth devices talk to each other. One method uses the OPP (object push profile), the other is the PBAP (phonebook access profile). Which one you use depends on your phone and car kit.
OPP (object push profile) is used to receive contacts that are ‘pushed’ to it from a phone. Syncing your contacts to a car kit that uses the OPP profile needs to be done manually and normally involves putting the car kit into ‘receiving mode’ and sending your contacts over one by one or, if your phone supports it, all in one go. To update a contact you’ll need to delete the entry from the car kit and then send the updated contact to the car kit.
PBAP (phonebook access profile) works very differently. Rather than you having to send your contacts to it, the kit connects to the phone and retrieves the contacts from it automatically. Any changes that you make to a contact will be transferred to the car kit the next time your phone is connected. Depending on your phone, you can normally specify which contacts and call logs are synchronised with your kit too.
Of the two, PBAP is the easiest way to sync your contacts, but as the PBAP is a newer Bluetooth Profile some older car kits and phones don’t support it.
Compatibility
In order for you to be able to sync your contacts both your phone and car kit will need to support the same Bluetooth Profile. If you have a phone that only supports the PBAP such as the iPhone 3G, and a car kit that only supports OPP you’re going to have problems. The iPhone will be waiting for the car kit to read the contacts, and the car kit will be waiting for the phone to send the contacts over. Eventually both devices will time out and no contacts will be transferred. If you’ve got this type of kit, you’ll still be able to use the kit for calls and last number redial, but that’s all.
Parrot Kits
From personal experience, I’ve found that Parrot out-perform every other car kit manufacturer when it comes to phone book synchronisation and the additional features that come with it, so if you’re after a kit that will sync easily and give you all the extra features that I mentioned above then take a look at the ones listed below.
Simple Car Kits
Parrot make a couple of simple car kits, but they’re actually both the same – they just look a little bit different. The Parrot Minikit Slim and Minikit Chic are both slim, portable car kits that can pair with up to 5 phones. They support both the OPP and PBAP profiles, so you shouldn’t have a problem in synchronising your phone book with them. The Parrot Minikit Slim/Chic can store up to 1000 contacts per phone (maximum of 2500 for all phones) and has text to speech synthesis to read out the callers name when you receive a call. Unlike most kits, the Minikit Slim/Chic doesn’t have a speaker, instead it has a vibrating panel for improved audio.
Parrot Minikit Slim & Minikit Chic
Fitted Car Kits
The fitted car kits from Parrot are just as good as the portable ones, if not better. As they’re wired into your car, you get much better audio quality as they route the call audio through your existing car stereo speakers as standard, not only that but they are also designed to work really well with the music player on your phone or a stand alone MP3 player or iPod. Each kit has support for streaming your music in stereo over Bluetooth as well as a dock connector for iPhones and iPods, a 3.5mm line in cable and a USB port for flash memory MP3 players. The current range is based around one model with a few noticeable differences between each of the kits.
Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth Car Kit
The Parrot MKi9000 is the kit that the next two models are based on. The kit is fitted completely out of sight behind your dashboard and is operated through a small remote (shown above) that can be attached to your dashboard or steering wheel. The MKi range of kits all support both the OPP and PBAP profiles for maximum compatibility with handsets. If your phone supports PBAP, the first time you pair your phone, your entire phone book will be transferred over to the kit. Everytime you connect your phone, the car kit will then check for any updates and download them automatically. The kit also features phone independent voice dialling, so to make a call, press the green button and say the name of the person you want to call. If you have multiple numbers for a contact, you’ll be asked by the kit whether you want to call them at home, on their mobile at work etc. As there is no screen on the MKi9000, all the menus are voice-driven and the car kit will talk back to you as you scroll through them. If you don’t want to use voice dialling, or aren’t sure what a contact is saved as, you can manually scroll through the phonebook using the remote control, with the kit reading out the names of your contacts as you go through. The MKi9000 is better suited to touch screen or large screen handsets as the kit itself has no display.
Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth Car Kit
The Parrot MKi9100 is exactly the same kit as the MKi9000, but with the addition of a 2 line OLED screen it means you can keep your phone out of sight and still access some of the menu’s on it. The MKi9100 supports OPP and PBAP so your contacts will synchronise in the same way, but by having a screen it means that you can scroll through them visually, rather than have to listen to the car kit read them out to you.
Parrot MKi9200 Bluetooth Car Kit
The last one in the range is the Parrot MKi9200. Again its the same basic kit as the MKi9000 but with a 2.4″ colour screen. The bigger screen obviously makes it easier to scroll through your phone book, but it can also show you album art and detailed information on the song that is currently being played from your phone or iPod. On the back of the screen there is an SDHC memory card reader that can handle cards upto 32GB in size – so depending on how much music you own, you could carry your entire music library with you all the time. The screen is detachable and can be removed easily.
There are other car kits that support phone book synchronisation – I’ve listed a few below, but these don’t have all the extra features that the Parrot ones do – and the voice dialling features are all phone dependent.
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Tags: car kit phonebook sync, iPhone Car Kit, iphone phone book sync, iphone voice dialing, iphone voice dialling, opp profile, parrot minikit chic, parrot minikit slim, parrot mki9000, parrot mki9100, parrot mki9200, pbap profile, phone book sync, phonebook sync, transfer contacts to car kit, tts,
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Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Despite TomTom releasing their Sat Nav application a few weeks ago for the iPhone, the car kit to accompany it is still nowhere to be seen. Rumours of pricing and availability have been floating around for a while now, but this week TomTom have finally confirmed that the TomTom iPhone Car Kit will be available to buy in October.
- iPhone Car Kit from TomTom
More information is slowly starting to emerge on it’s features too. The most surprising news is that the Car Kit can be used with any Sat Nav Apps. The Car Kit can be used for handsfree calling, music playback, turn-by-turn instructions and charging, although the GPS signal enhancements will only be available when you’re using the TomTom App.
If you don’t want to shell out the rumoured £115 for the car kit, there are a number of other options to consider. The best value is the iPhone Sat Nav starter pack which gives you a holder and charger for the iPhone, and the Jabra SP700 is a great bluetooth car kit that clips to your sun visor and can handle your calls and music playback and route them through your car stereo speakers in the same way as the TomTom Car Kit. The price? Less than £55 for both – that’s less than half of the rumoured cost of the TomTom kit for all the same features - and best of all you won’t have to wait upto 8 weeks for them as they’re available to order now!
For more information on the different ways to use Sat Nav on your iPhone in the car take a look at my post on Using Sat Nav on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
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Tags: GPS, iphone 3g sat nav, iphone 3gs sat nav, iphone car holder, iPhone Car Kit, iphone holder, iphone sat nav, iphone tomtom, mobile maps, navigon iphone, sat nav ipod touch, sygic mobile maps, tomtom, tomtom car kit release date, tomtom ipod touch,
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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
OK, I’ve seen some pretty odd ways of using mobile phone’s over the years, but this one really made me chuckle. As you’ve probably heard, you can now get TomTom Sat Nav on your iPhone, and the whole world seem to be going crazy about it.
Quite a few bloggers are reviewing the new software and posting video’s of it being used – which is great, after all £60 is a lot to spend on a software download if it’s no good, but I really think some people need to plan ahead when it comes to creating a video review.
This morning I stumbled on this iPhone TomTom video review on YouTube which shows off how easy the software is to use. They then take it for a spin in the car and demonstrate brilliantly how not to mount your iPhone in the car.
There are some things that sellotape shouldn't be used for!
Sellotaping your iPhone to the dash might be a quick fix, but just think of the mess that’s going to be left on his phone and dashboard when he’s done. Silly really, when for less than £15 he could have got himself an iPhone Sat Nav Pack that includes a rotating windscreen holder and car charger.
On the subject of iPhone holders, I’ve noticed that people seem to think that you have to use sat nav on the iPhone in landscape mode. As most phone holders for the iPhone 3G and 3GS are portrait, I’m guessing this is why people are resorting to sellotaping their phones to the dashboard, but what you may not realise is that Sat Nav works perfectly well in portrait mode too – in fact I prefer it. It means you don’t have to keep rotating the phone if a call or text message comes through and I find that you get a clearer view of what’s coming up on the road ahead. Admittedly, there’s not much in it, but do you really need to see all the side roads that you’re not going to be driving down?
CoPilot 8 on the iPhone: Landscape Vs Portrait
Easiest option of course is to just get yourself a rotating holder so that you can use your phone which ever way you want. The following iPhone car holders can all rotate for use in landscape or portrait mode:
Have you seen any other crazy ways of holding an iPhone in the car? Share them with us using the comments form below!
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Tags: GPS, iphone 3g sat nav, iphone 3gs sat nav, iphone car holder, iPhone Car Kit, iphone holder, iphone sat nav, iphone tomtom, mobile maps, navigon iphone, sat nav ipod touch, sygic mobile maps, tomtom, tomtom car kit release date, tomtom ipod touch,
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
It was announced back in March at the Apple Developers Conference, but until now further details have been very few and far between.. Until now.
We already know that the software and the car cradle will be available separately, and we’re now hearing that the car cradle will retail for around £115, but there is no news yet as to whether this includes the software or not.
UPDATE: TomTom for UK is available now in the iTunes App store for £59.99. No confirmed pricing yet on the car kit. iTunes Link.
iPhone TomTom Car Kit
Another image has surfaced of the iPhone TomTom Car Cradle, this time showing off a few more of it’s features:
- EasyPort Mount from the TomTom ONE and TomTomXL
- Built In Speaker
- Volume Control
- Microphone for handsfree calling
- Mini USB Charging Connector
- Audio Line out (for connecting to Car Stereo)
Sources are also confirming that it will work with the iPod touch too.
We’ve not yet been able to confirm any of this yet with our suppliers, and we’ll post again as soon as we know more.
On a similar note, the rumour mill is also suggesting that CoPilot Live 8 is on its way to the App Store and will be available some time next week for around £26. UPDATE: CoPilot Live 8 is available now from the AppStore – iTunes Link
Decisions decisions…£60+the cost of the car kit for TomTom, £26 for CoPilot…
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Tags: copilot live 8, GPS, iphone 3g sat nav, iphone 3gs sat nav, iphone car holder, iPhone Car Kit, iphone copilot, iphone sat nav, iphone tomtom, sat nav ipod touch, tomtom, tomtom ipod touch,
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Since the iPhone 3G launched last year with built in GPS and the new iPhone 3GS launch this year, people have been calling out for a proper Satellite Navigation Application for it. Well, after a long wait, iPhone OS 3.0 finally provides support for turn-by-turn navigation.
Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS
TomTom were the first company to announce a ‘proper’ Sat Nav solution for the iPhone at last months Apple Developers Conference. TomTom demonstrated the software and introduced the TomTom Cradle – an optional extra to help you get the most out of their mapping software, but they didn’t announce any pricing or release dates. This week though saw the release of the first two Sat Nav apps, and surprisingly TomTom weren’t one of them!
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Tags: GPS, iphone 3g sat nav, iphone 3gs sat nav, iphone car cradle, iphone car holder, iPhone Car Kit, iphone sat nav, iphone tomtom, mobile maps, navigon iphone, sat nav ipod touch, sygic mobile maps, tomtom, tomtom ipod touch,
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
The Apple iPhone 3GS is a touchscreen phone packed full of features. To get the most out of your phone, you’ll need to treat yourself to a few extras – but what do you need? The amount of iPhone 3G Cases and other accessories available for phones now is almost overwhelming, so to help you out, we’ve compiled a list of our top ten accessories for the Apple iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
Xtand for iPhone 3GS & iPhone 3G
1. Xtand for iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS
One of the best new features I’ve found with iPhone OS 3.0 on both the iPhone 3G and the 3GS is the ability to type in landscape mode, and this stand makes it even easier as it holds your iPhone at the perfect angle for landscape typing. With the Xtand you can keep your phone in clear view on your desk, and can rotate it to use the phone in both portrait and landscape mode. The Xtand is ideal for watching movies, browsing the internet or flicking through your music using coverflow. The Xtand is styled to match Apple iMacs and the new Unibody MacBook Pro.
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Tags: 3g s accessories, 3gs accessories, iphone 3g accessories, iphone 3g s accessories, iphone 3gs accessories, iPhone Car Kit, iphone cases, iphone chargers, iphone stereo bluetooth, parrot mki9000, xtand,
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Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Having owned the iPhone for a few months now, I thought it was about time that I got round to replacing my old Sony Ericsson HBH700 car kit, with one that works with the iPhone. not an easy task as I’m sure most iPhone users will agree.
Using the iPhone with a car kit is slightly trickier than other mobile phones, mainly due to its extremely limited Bluetooth Profiles. As the iPhone is only capable of streaming mono audio from voice calls over Bluetooth, advanced car kits that support voice dialling, music playback and phone book synchronisation would all be wasted with the iPhone 3G.
I’ve spent hours looking at the various Car Kit options available and currently, the best solution available is the MKi series from Parrot. The Mki series are currently the only car kits that are "Made for iPod" and "Works with iPhone" licensed.
There are 3 different kits available – the starter kit is the MKi9000, which as well as being a Bluetooth Car Kit, features a cable that connects to the dock connection at the base of your iPhone and allows you to play your music back through your car stereo. It comes with a small remote which can either be stuck to your dashboard, or attached to your steering wheel. The remote lets you answer and end calls and control your music playback and volume – all with out touching your iPhone.
The MKi9100 has all the same features but adds a small detachable 2 line OLED screen that shows caller ID and song information. Finally, the MKi9200 has a 2.4" colour screen, with an SD memory card slot that you can use for playing back music stored on an SD memory card (up to 32GB).
I opted for the MKi9000 as the screen on the iPhone is more than adequate for showing information on songs playing and caller ID. I’ve fitted an iPhone 3G Brodit holder in my car. This allows me to leave the dock connector connected to it permanently – all I have to do now is simply drop my iPhone 3G into the cradle when I get into the car, the Bluetooth connects as soon as I start the ignition and as the iPhone is connected using the dock connector, my iPhone gets charged while I’m driving. Answering calls is as easy as it gets with the remote – easier in fact than trying to press "answer" on the iPhone as you’re bouncing through pot holes! There’s no need to unlock the handset to change the track you’re listening to either, a simple press of the remote and the song changes.
If you don’t want to go down the route of having a fully fitted car kit installed, but still want a car kit that will work with the iPhone 3G, there are a few options to consider. If you want to be able to listen to your music through your stereo as well as receive calls, then I’d look at the Venturi Mini.
The Venturi Mini plugs straight in to your cigarette lighter. It has a 3.5mm line in socket, so you can connect your iPhone to it using a 3.5 to 3.5mm audio cable and it will stream your music and calls through your car stereo using its in built FM transmitter. The Venturi Mini kit has a 2 line display that shows the frequency that you need to tune your stereo in to. The Venturi can also charge the iPhone, you just need to connect the two together using a USB cable. To save time and hassle when you get in the car, I’d opt for the Brodit holder again, this way you can leave the charger permanently hooked up, you’d just need to plug in the audio cable.
Mobile Fun Recommended Solutions:
If you don’t need or want to play your music though your car kit, and you only want a simple handsfree car kit, then you shouldn’t encounter any problems using any of the other kits listed below, but its worth remembering that you will only be able to answer and end calls using these car kits .
Fully Fitted – Voice Only:
Nokia CK-7: A simple no frills kit from Nokia, audio quality is great as you’d expect from Nokia, and there are no issues pairing up or connecting. Call audio will come through an external speaker as standard, but with the right cables, can be upgraded to go through your car stereo.
Fully Fitted – Voice Only:
Nokia CK-100: The CK-100 is essentially the replacement for the CK-7. The main difference is that the CK-100 is an ISO powered car kit that can be powered using your car stereo, and calls will be played through your car stereo speakers without any extra cables. (As long as your car stereo has an ISO connection)
Fully Fitted – Voice Only:
Parrot CK3000: The CK3000 is the predecessor to the MKi series. It also uses ISO connections, so calls are routed through your car stereo. There are no issues with compatibility, but as an external speaker is not included with the kit, you’ll need to make sure your stereo has ISO connections – if it doesn’t you’ll need to get an ISO converter.
Simple Car Kit – Voice Only:
Clip & Talk: Small, portable and easy to use. Clips on to your sun visor and has its own internal battery so you can still use your cigarette lighter to charge your phone if needed. Call quality is good, and sound is routed through the built in speaker.
Simple Car Kit – Voice Only:
Motorola T505: The Motorola T505 does have a few features that you won’t be able to use with the iPhone 3G, but it does have a built in FM transmitter that will allow the audio from your calls to be routed through your car stereo. It does support streaming music from Bluetooth devices, but this won’t work with the iPhone 3G. Audio quality is excellent.
The kits listed above aren’t the only ones that will work with the iPhone, but are the ones that will have the better compatibility. As Bluetooth is a universal technology, pretty much any Bluetooth handsfree device will work with the iPhone, but the limitations on the phone itself mean that only the very basic features will work – Mono Audio and answering/ending/rejecting calls. Lets all hope that Apple decide to enable a few more Bluetooth Profiles in one of their next software updates for the iPhone!
View all Fully Installed Car Kits
View all Plug and Play Car Kits
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Monday, January 5th, 2009
One of the biggest investments you can make for your mobile phone is a fully fitted car kit. They allow you to use your phone safely and legally in the car, and in some cases keep it charged so you’re never with out power, but with each new phone that comes out, the connections change and eventually render your car kit unusable. So what do you do? Pay to get the kit replaced? Keep your old phone and hope your mates down the pub don’t notice? The THB System 8 Car Kit solves all these problems by allowing you to quickly and easily update it.
The Kit:
The THB System 8 Car kit is made up of the same basic parts as every other car kit, but with one noticeable exception – the cradle that holds your phone is interchangeable. When you buy the THB System 8 Car Kit, you need to buy two parts – the System 8 Base Unit and the System 8 cradle thats right for your phone. Fitting the kit involves hardwiring the control unit into your vehicle, but when its time to change your phone, simply unclip the phone cradle and attach one for your new phone. Its that simple!
How does it work?:
Depending on the phone you are using, your phone connects to the System 8 car kit using either a Bluetooth connection or your phones handsfree port. To use the car kit, you simply slide your phone into the cradle and all calls will switch over to the car kit. To make a call, just use your phone as you would normally. While your phone is in the cradle, the System 8 cradle will charge your phone (some older or folding handsets will need you to plug a lead into the phone in order for it to work). Phones that use a Bluetooth connection to the car kit only need to be in the cradle to charge but in order to answer calls you will need to press the answer button on your phone, so its best to keep it in the cradle when ever you’re in the car. The audio for calls is then routed through a loudspeaker that is normally mounted in the passenger footwell. It is possible to connect the System 8 car kit to your car stereo for improved audio quality.
Easy to change:
Unlike wired car kits by most other manufacturers, the cradles on the System 8 are interchangeable. The kit was designed to make it easier for people to replace their cradles when the change their phone. There is no need to remove fascia panels in your car, or try and trace wires back to control boxes. The cradles simply click into place and are removed in seconds.
Compatibility:
The System 8 Car Kit is designed to be compatible with as many phones as possible, and there are currently over 50 phone cradles available for Nokia, Sony Ericsson, BlackBerry and HTC phones. For all other makes there is the Take & Talk Bluetooth Cradle which will work with most Bluetooth enabled phones on the market. For a list of all compatible phones, take a look at the compatibility chart. THB carkits are only designed for voice calls and can’t be used for playing back music from your mobile phone.
Installation:
If you’re planning on fitting the kit yourself, you can purchase additional cables to make installation easier. You can use an Elan Intelli-mute to power the kit and route the audio through your car stereo. You will need two cables to do this, the Intelli-Mute and the Accessory Harness. For more details on how the Elan Intelli-mutes work and can make installation easier read our blog post on "Making the most of your fitted car kit". If you don’t feel confident in fitting the kit yourself, why not let us fit it for you?
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