If you’re looking to buy a car kit, then a Parrot Car Kit is the way to go. Over the last few years, Parrot have grown from a relatively unheard of company to one that produces excellent car kits that even the big names in mobiles, such as Nokia, can’t compete with.

Parrot Car Kits come in two options, fitted and portable. Fitted car kits are hard wired into your car (normally through the stereo) and portable car kits clip on to your sun visor and rely on an internal battery for power.

This post will run through each of the current Parrot Car Kits and highlight some of their Pro’s and Con’s to help you decide on which Parrot Car Kit you should go for.

Portable Parrot Car Kits

Parrot MINIKIT SLIM Bluetooth Car Kit

If you don’t want to go to the expense of having a fully fitted kit, then the Parrot MiniKit slim is a great choice – regardless of whether you have a smart phone or a standard feature phone.  The Parrot MiniKit Slim has all the basic features of the fitted kits, but without support for streaming music. It will automatically synchronise with your phone book, allowing you to dial a contact just by saying their name. You don’t have to mess around recording voice tags as the Text to Speech software will automatically match your voice print to a name in your phone book.

The kit is designed to be mounted on your sun visor and controls are kept to a minimum – two dedicated buttons to answer/end calls and a dial to increase the volume and navigate the system menus.

Battery life on the MiniKit Slim is excellent, offering up to 20 days of standby time and 15 hours of talk time.

Parrot MINIKIT SLIM Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MINIKIT Smart

The MiniKit Smart is the latest plug and play Parrot Car Kit. It’s been designed purely for larger smartphones, so standard sized handsets won’t really work all that well with it. Instead of clipping to your sunvisor, the MiniKit slim uses a suction pad to fix to your windscreen and combines a holder and handsfree kit. It’s receiving mixed reviews as it’s designed to hold your phone in landscape mode – perfect for sat nav, but not all smart phones can be used in landscape mode for calling and accessing the phonebook (mainly iPhones).

Parrot MINIKIT Smart

Feature wise it has everything that the MiniKit Slim has, as well as support for music streaming – although the mono speaker won’t really do your songs justice. Controls are just as simple as they are on the MiniKit Slim, but if you’re using it in portrait mode they can be a bit fiddly. The MiniKit Smart uses advanced noise reduction and a reasonably powerful (for a car kit) 2w speaker to make sure instructions are heard, but if I’m being totally honest, for the price, you’d be better off either paying the extra £10 for the Parrot MKi9000 or choosing the Jabra Cruiser and a dedicated Car Holder.

Installed Parrot Car Kits

Parrot CK3100 Advanced Bluetooth Car Kit

The Parrot CK3100 has been around for a long time now, but it’s still a firm favourite, particularly among fleet managers. In terms of features it’s pretty simple – handsfree calling with voice dial and phone book synchronisation. It has a clear LCD display that shows you the name/number of callers and allows you to scroll through your address book without having to touch your phone. Installation is pretty straight forward as the CK3100 connects using the standard ISO connections on the back of your car radio – although not all cars use ISO, so make sure you check before you buy as you may well need some additional cables.

As with all of the Parrot Car Kits, the CK3100 doesn’t use an external speaker in the passenger footwell, instead, all audio is routed through your car stereo speakers. This gives you much more control over volume levels and callers are much clearer and easier to understand.

Parrot CK3100 Advanced Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth Car Kit

The MKi range of car kits are all based around the same basic model – the MKi9000, the only difference is the screen that ships with the kit. In the case of the MKi9000 there is no screen, but that doesn’t hamper it’s performance, especially if you’re using it with a large screen smartphone. In fact, the MKi9000 is our top selling Parrot Car Kit.

The main difference between the MKi range of kits and the CK3100 are their music capabilities. In addition to being able to handle calls, the MKi kits do a brilliant job of streaming music from your phone, MP3 player or USB flash drive through your existing Car Stereo. Controlling the Car Kit is done through a small remote that can either stick to your dashboard or attach to your steering wheel.

Each MKi kit has a connectivity cable that has a 3.5mm line in, USB port and Apple Dock connector. This allows you to connect pretty much any audio source to the kit and enjoy the sound through your car stereo. If you connect an iPod or iPhone using the Dock connector you can also use the remote to control your music playback. Every Parrot Car Kit is easily updated. Frequent software updates are available free of charge from the Parrot website and will often improve compatibility/usability.

The Parrot MKi9000 has phonebook synchronisation and advanced speech recognition built in. This allows the MKi9000 to automatically retrieve all your contacts from your phone and transfer them to it’s own internal memory. Pressing the Answer key on the remote will activate the voice dialling and you just say the name of who you want to call. No messing around recording voice tags, just say thej name and it’ll dial the number.

Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth Car Kit

If you do have an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, you have two options when it comes to voice dialling. You can either use the voice features of the MKi9000, or you can use the Voice Control features built into the iPhone by disabling phonebook synchronisation in the Bluetooth settings on your iPhone. I’ve chosen to use the Voice Control features on the phone purely because it allows voice control of the iPod app as well as calling. Instead of fiddling with the remote, I can just hit the answer button and say “play” and it will start playing music back – either over a bluetooth connection or through the Dock Connector. Voice Control on iPhone even allows you to tell the phone to play a particular album, playlist or artist, so if you have an iPhone and decide on a Parrot MKi Car Kit, I’d strongly recommend turning off phonebook sync.

Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth Car Kit

There are very few differences between the MKi9000 and the MKi9100, other than the display screen. If you use a standard feature phone like the Nokia 6700 or choose not to have a car holder then this will be a much better choice. The high contrast LCD screen will show you the name and number of the caller, allows you to see the contacts in your phone book as well as see the settings for the car kit – you can still access all these on the MKi9000, but with out the screen all your options are read out to you.

Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth Car Kit

If the idea of a screen sitting on your dashboard makes you nervous, don’t worry, it’s detachable and can be taken with you when you leave the car. In terms of features and usability, it’s very similar to the CK3100, but with music support. The MKi9100 is still worth choosing even if you don’t plan on using it for music. The £25 difference in price is minimal when you take into account the extra features that you get – easy software updates, removable screen and better phonebook sync & voice dialling.

Parrot MKi9200 Bluetooth Car Kit

The MKi9200 is significantly different to the MKi9100 and MKi9000. Most obvious is of course the screen. It comes with a 2.4 inch colour screen that will not only show names and numbers of callers, but also their photo and during music playback, album art is displayed (if present on your phone). The screen also has an SD card reader built into it. This means that instead of storing your music on your phone or USB stick, you can put all your music on an SD card (max 32GB) and have it in the car permanently.

Parrot MKi9200 Bluetooth Car Kit

Controlling the car kit is done using the same remote that comes with the other two kits, but with the bigger display, navigating the menu’s is a little bit quicker and easier. If you have use your smart phone or an iPod as your music source in the car then you may not need the extra features that you get with the MKi9200 as the MKi9000 will be more than adequate.

Parrot Unika Steering Wheel Interface for MKi Car Kits

The Unika isn’t a car kit, but a rather clever accessory that works with the MKi range of car kits to fully integrate it into your car. It allows your existing steering wheel stereo controls to operate the car kit and completely eliminates the need for the remote control. Installation is a little fiddlier, so we’d recommend having it fitted by a professional installer. You don’t need to have dedicated telephone controls on your steering wheel, as the Unika will use a combination of key presses to activate the kit. In a Ford Focus for example, pressing ‘Rewind’ then ‘Forward’ will start music playback, pressing the SRC button will answer calls and confirm menu choices and a double press of the SRC button will activate voice dialling.

To check compatibility with your car, head over to the Parrot Unika Support Pages and enter details of your Car and Parrot Car Kit.

Parrot Unika Steering Wheel Interface

Parrot Head Units

Head Unit Car Kits haven’t ever proven to be all that popular, even though the idea behind them makes perfect sense. Installation is so much easier than fitting a regular kit, not only because of the reduced wiring, but the fact that you don’t have to find space behind your dashboard to hide the control box. Parrot currently only have the RKi8400 available, and the newly announced Parrot Asteroid should be available very soon.

Parrot RKi8400 Bluetooth Car Kit

It was launched at the same time as the MKi range of kits, but the RKi8400 isn’t proving as popular as Parrot would have hoped – although that’s probably due to most cars now having a non standard sized radio in them, rather than poor performance. The RKi8400 is essentially the same as the Parrot MKi9200, as it has the same 2.4inch colour screen, multiple ways to connect your iPod, MP3 player or USB stick and an SD Card Reader. The front of the stereo pops off, not only for security reasons, but also to expose a storage area where you can leave your iPod or MP3 player connected.

Parrot RKi8400 Bluetooth Car Kit

As with the MKi Kits the RKi8400 will synchronise with your phone to give you access to your phone book and voice dialling, as well as having a full keypad on the head unit itself. The replacement for the RKI8400 has just been announced, but no launch date has been given yet. The basic idea is the same, but the Parrot Asteroid will be running the Android operating system in an attempt to make media management even easier. We’ll post more details on the Asteroid as we get them.

If you’ve got any questions about any of the kits mentioned here, feel free to ask them in the comments below. For full details on any of them, head over to the Parrot Car Kits page on the Mobile Fun site.

The TomTom Car Kit is still one of our best selling iPhone Car Holders even though it doesn’t fit the iPhone 4 very well. We’re constantly being asked when an updated version would be out for iPhone 4, and until now we’ve been kept in the dark.

Free TomTom Car Kit Adapter for iPhone 4

Thankfully though, TomTom have announced that as of last Friday, anyone who purchased the TomTom Car Kit that has now upgraded their phone to an iPhone 4, can now get a free adapter that will allow you to use your shiny new iPhone with your existing kit.

All you need to do is find the serial number that’s printed on the back of your car kit (under the barcode), complete a short form on the TomTom website and then sit and wait patiently for it to be delivered!

When iPhone 4 came out, we were all looking forward to using Sat Nav on it – mainly because of the faster processor and the ability to leave your Sat Nav running in the background while you take calls or read a text message. You can imagine our disappointment when we realised that the TomTom holder doesn’t work with iPhone 4.

When I say it doesn’t work, that’s not strictly true, it will work, but it doesn’t fit the holder very well and it’s likely to fall out. If you’re willing to pay that much for an in car solution, you’re going to want one that holds your phone securely.

It’s probably only a matter of time until an updated version comes out that supports iPhone 4 and the upcoming 4th generation iPod touch, but until then there are a number of alternatives that you should consider.

I’ve already covered Sat Nav Apps & iPhone Car Docks for iPhone 3G/3GS, but thought I’d take another look at what’s available and review the options to the TomTom kit. I’ve tried a number of different set ups to try and find ones that match the features of the TomTom kit as closely as possible. The results turned out to be very similar to those for the 3GS, but some of the pricing and features have changed.

Just as a reminder, the main features of the TomTom Car Cradle are:

• Charges your iPhone
• Ability to play your music through your car stereo using 3.5mm line in
• Built in speaker for handsfree calling
• GPS Enhancer
• Volume controls
• Price for Software & Cradle £149.99

In most cases, every feature could be matched, with the exception of the added GPS support, but having said that, the antenna has been improved on iPhone 4 and I’m not convinced that it’s all that necessary.

I’m also basing this on the next version of the iOS software – version 4.1 as it has full support for AVRCP, the bluetooth profile that allows you to control your music using a third party device, such as headsets, speakers and car kits.

Option 1 – Jabra Cruiser

• CoPilot Live UK & Ireland £19.99
• Jabra Cruiser £69.95
• iPhone 4 Car Pack £18.47
• Total Cost £108.41

It’s not all in one like the TomTom, but this set up will save you over £40! CoPilot Live is a great alternative to TomTom. The software has been updated for iPhone 4 and now supports the Retina Display and Multitasking. Extras like Traffic and Text-To-Speech are available via in app purchase.

The iPhone 4 Car Pack includes a secure, rotating windscreen holder for your iPhone 4 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 Cruiser is one of the best portable car kits available. It has a built in FM transmitter that can stream music, calls and directions from your iPhone 4 through to your car stereo using Bluetooth. It has music controls that allow you to play/pause/track skip without having to touch your phone.

Use the Car Pack and Jabra Cruiser to get the most out of CoPilot Live

Option 2 – Venturi Mini

• Navigon MobileNavigator British Isles £19.99 (iTunes Link)
• Venturi Mini £56.47
• iPhone 4 Car Pack £18.47
• Total Cost £94.93

Navigon was the first Sat Nav app for the iPhone, and has recently had a number of new features added and a price cut. 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. You can charge your iPhone 4 by plugging your USB cable in to the USB port on the side of the Venturi. The Venturi works in a similar way to the Jabra Cruiser.  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). This will give  a more reliable connection to your stereo, but means you’ll have wires trailing across your dashboard.

Unlike the Cruiser, the Venturi doesn’t have track skip buttons, so you’ll only be able to play/pause your music.

Navigon on iPhone 4 with the Venturi Mini

Option 3 – Parrot MKi9000 Fitted Car Kit

• CoPilot Live UK & Ireland £19.99 (iTunes Link)
• Brodit Holder with Dock Connector £49.99
• Parrot MKi9000 Bluetooth Car Kit £99.95
• Total Cost £169.93

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 you needing to mess around with cables or plug anything in.

Co-Pilot works extremely well with the Parrot Mki9000

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/track skip and activate voice dialling.

On the subject of voice dialling, it’s actually a feature of the MKi9000 rather than the phone and will work with all models of iPhone. The only downside is that there isn’t a way to activate voice commands on iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS. The prices shown here don’t include installation and vehicles without an ISO stereo may need additional cables.

Summary

All three of these solutions work great with iPhone 4 and any of the available Sat Nav applications available for the 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.

Personally I’d opt for either the Jabra Cruiser or the Parrot MKi9000.

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

All Prices correct as of 20/08/2010 and are subject to change.

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

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.

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.

• Advanced Bluetooth Visor Car Kit – Supports OPP only
• Movon MK20 – Supports OPP only
• Supertooth Visor Voice – Supports PBAP
• Sony Ericsson HCB-150 – Supports PBAP

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.

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:

• Griffin Window Seat for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS
• Brodit Passive holder with Tilt / Swivel
• Brodit Passive Holder With Dock Connector & Tilt / Swivel
• iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS Sat Nav Starter Pack
• iPhone 3G & 3GS Deluxe Carry Holster

Have you seen any other crazy ways of holding an iPhone in the car?  Share them with us using the comments form below!

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:

1. EasyPort Mount from the TomTom ONE and TomTomXL
2. Built In Speaker
3. Volume Control
4. Microphone for handsfree calling
5. Mini USB Charging Connector
6. Audio Line out (for connecting to Car Stereo)

Sources are also confirming that a separate model will be available for the iPod touch.

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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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!

First to launch were Navigon - MobileNavigator: Europe came first, with MobileNavigator: British Isles appearing in the App Store this morning. (Both are available now from iTunes and clicking the links will launch iTunes and take you directly to the App Store).

Second to release a full turn by turn App is Mobile Maps 2009 by Sygic. From the reviews it’s getting, it’s a better option than Navigon as it has a few more features such as full postcode search.

Navigon posted this video demoing the software.

If you do invest in a Sat Nav App for your phone, it’s not just the App that you’re going to need.  You’ll need something to hold your iPhone and a way of keeping your iPhone charged, as battery life will be dramatically affected by using Sat Nav, especially on long journeys.

Depending on your budget and what you want to achieve in your car, there are a number of options available:

Something Simple

iPhone Rotating Car Holder

If you don’t want to break the bank and just want a simple, no fuss solution, then you’ll need to get yourself an iPhone 3G Car Holder and iPhone Car Charger.  The holder simply fixes to your windscreen using a suction cup and can be used in either landscape or portrait mode.

Brodit Active Holder for iPhone 3GS

If you don’t like having things stuck to your window or the tell tale circle on the glass that says you have a Sat Nav system, then you should also consider a Brodit Active Holder for the iPhone 3GS. These are phone specific cradles that will hold your iPhone securely and have a car charger wired into them, so there is no need to fiddle with cables.  They are made from a strong ABS plastic and have a soft touch coating to prevent your phone from getting scratched as you use the holder.  You can use your iPhone in both landscape and portrait modes as these holders have a rotating bracket. Brodit Active holders are designed to be screwed onto your dashboard, although if you don’t fancy doing this you can use a Brodit Pro Clip.  These are secure mounting pads that clip on to your dashboard and can be removed without causing any damage to your vehicle. ProClips provide an ideal base for fixing an active holder on to.

TomTom on iPhone 3G

TomTom Car Kit for iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS

If you plan on using the TomTom software, then this is probably your best option. The TomTom Car Kit does just about everything you need all in one small discrete holder. The suction mount can be fixed to either your windscreen or dashboard (using a fixing plate) and can be rotated for use in either landscape or portrait mode.   As well as holding your iPhone, the TomTom Car Kit will boost your GPS signal for improved tracking; it has an FM Transmitter that allows you to play music from your phone through your stereo speakers, and a built in loudspeaker for the voice navigation while you’re driving.  Pricing and availability are still to be confirmed.

Music Streaming, Hands-Free Calling and Navigation

If you really want to get the best from your iPhone and want an in car set up that can be used with your iPhone 3G / 3GS for handling calls, music and navigation there are a number of Plug & Play and professionally installed options available.

Play music from your iPhone 3GS through your Car Stereo with the Jabra SP700

There are a few iPhone 3GS Plug & Play Car Kits that will work with the iPhone 3G, and the Jabra SP700 is one of the best. The Jabra SP700 is a self install Bluetooth Car Kit that simply clips to the sun visor of your car and pairs to your iPhone using Bluetooth.  The SP700 supports the A2DP profile, which means that you can stream your music to it over Bluetooth and listen to it either using the speaker in the SP700 or you can stream the music from the SP700 to your car stereo speakers using its built in FM Transmitter, in a similar way to how the TomTom car kit works. When you use the Sat Nav app on your iPhone, any voice commands will also be played through your car stereo speakers so you shouldn’t ever miss any directions.  The battery life of the SP700 is upto 14 hours talk time and 250 hours stand by.

Streaming using Bluetooth can be quite a drain on the battery, especially if you are using Sat Nav at the same time, you will almost certainly need a car charger and a way of mounting the phone in the car. Personally I’d recommend using a Brodit Active holder for iPhone 3G and a vehicle specific ProClip.

Fully Integrated to your Car

If you want a more permanent solution or one where you don’t need to recharge the handsfree unit, then the iPhone 3GS fully fitted Car Kit will be your best bet.

Parrot MKi9000 for iPhone 3GS

I’ve tried most of these kits out with the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS, and by far the best option here is one of the Parrot MKi Car Kits.  Parrot only make Bluetooth accessories and because of that they make sure that every phone works brilliantly with their car kits.

There are three kits in the MKi range, but the Parrot MKi9000 for iPhone 3GS is your best bet, mainly because you don’t need an external screen.  You can play music from your phone through the MKi9000 either by connecting the Dock Connector (which will also charge your phone) or you can stream it using Bluetooth.  The Mki9000 will synchronise with your phone book, and supports voice dialing – even on the iPhone 3G.  There is also a small remote that you can attach to your dash or steering wheel to control your music (Play/Pause and Volume only when streaming using Bluetooth).

When you use Sat Nav on your phone, voice instructions come through your car stereo clearly, and if music is playing at the same time, it briefly mutes out the music so that you don’t miss any directions.

You won’t need to buy a car charger for your iPhone as this kit will charge your iPhone when you connect the dock cable, but you will still need a holder for your iPhone 3GS.

Depending on how this kit is installed into your car, you may find that the charging cable may not be able to reach the windscreen, so a dashboard holder such as the Brodit Pass through Holder for iPhone 3G & 3GS will be a better option.  It’s made from the same soft touch plastic as the Brodit Active Holder, but instead of having a car charger attached, it has a Dock Connector on the bottom so you can leave the charging cable connected permanently.

We would recommend that you have your car kit professionally installed. Click here for details on Mobile Fun’s Car Kit Fitting Service.

Over the next few months we will see even more Sat Nav applications make their way into the app store, with products from Telmap, Co-Pilot and Navicore still in the pipeline.

If you’ve used any of these Sat Nav applications or accessories, let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.