A very long shot this, probably belongs on a motoring or mobile-phone forum....
I drive a 2009 Mazda 6, which has hands-free functionality built in that won't work with any old mobile phone so I haven't used it yet. Instead, I've been getting by with my old Nokia brick, but it is getting old, like me, and the battery is not so good nowadays. Also, when things get going with my business, living rurally, I expect I will get a fair few calls coming in and out while I am behind the wheel, so am thinking it may soon be time to make the technological leap.
Any one out there able to recommend a suitable phone for my car? I only need basic functions but has to be compatible. I'm totally clueless about phone technology.
Don't want to clog the forum up with irrelevant stuff, so happy to receive email on this one rather than replies here.
some mobile comes in a small package but has power to spare. Lovely little phone, assuming you can keep up with it. HTC has gone from being an unknown manufacturer for bigger brands to one spewing out leading Android smartphones.
Don't you just love old threads being resurrected. I never saw this thread first time around.
Me - I couldn't concentrate on the road while speaking to someone on the phone. I can only just manage with the radio on. I was using a sat nav to get to my driving test centre earlier in the week - surprised I never caused a crash reading all the different figures.....current time, journey distance, distance remaining, time remaining. I even found myself saying to the woman on the sat nav I was going to buy petrol first and that's why I was taking a different route. When she didn't believe me I told her to shut up.
Cars with USB sockets - whatever next?
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
Know what you mean about satnav. I spent more time looking at all the graphics and data, than looking ahead of me (I do the same with the onboard trip computer, trying to make the fuel economy 200mpg!)
Used it for the first time on a long journey, which I have done many times before, using good old road maps but thought I would see where it took me. It was great on the way, using a slightly different route than I normally take, and diverting me to another route once, when there was a long delay on the M5 (I forgot, I had left on a Friday, which is a holiday change over day, and the world and his wife were leaving Cornwall and heading back to the Midlands)
Different story on the way back though. Hadn't gone more than two miles, when it sent me up a road that became a buses only route, with rising bollards blocking the road! 100miles later, it got confused at a motorway junction and sent me 20 miles in the wrong direction!!
Back to good old AA roadmaps for me, TomTom can stay at HomeHome
Have you thought about a hardwired hands-free kit that pairs with most phone brands? They cost about £150 to buy and get fitted (unless you know someone handy who could fit it for you cheap, then you can just buy the kit).
The kits I am talking about are hardwired in through your stereo/cd player, so no worries about having to charge or continually pair up. Once fitted you just pair your phone bluetooth kit as a one off, after that the pairing is stored and you don't have to worry about pairing every time you start the car the way you would with other devices. They match most modern phones, so you don't have to worry about having to buy a particular phone, and anyone else who uses your car, partner, kids etc can have their phone paired too. Every time you get in the car, there's no plugging in, you just drive and and forget about it until the phone rings. When you get a call, your, your bluetooth kit rings, which is sitting on your dash.
I used to have one of these in my old car before I sold it, and I sorely regret not transferring it to the car I purchased, I really miss it. I have tried alternatives on the cheap and wasted about £85 in the process - bluetooth headsets that constantly need charging, usb devices that plug clip to my visor etc but they just don't compare. Bluetooth headsets are good enough, but you have to hook them on your ear and fiddle with your phone to connect them up everytime you get in the seat, a real pain. The hardwired kit is the way to go for lazy people like me.
Make sure you get one that pairs with any phone, some brand kits like Nokia for example only work with Nokia phones. The parrot is a popular one, I had a cheaper brand that was great too (can't remember the brand now), but the parrot lcd version shows you the number of the person calling and has a few more features.
Edit: check out http://www.parrot.com/uk/products/hands-free-car-kits. There are alternatives to this brand of course, a dealer local to you should sell several different, but this will give you an idea of what they do. You could pay big money for the all singing all dancing ones with music compatibility etc, depends what you are in to, but I personally am just going to go for the basic receive/make calls one again, it did the job for me. I am fed up now an am just going to bite the bullet and pay for a full install again and put the other stuff on ebay.
-- Edited by mushroom on Sunday 28th of August 2011 05:56:20 PM
-- Edited by mushroom on Sunday 28th of August 2011 05:58:13 PM
