iPhone GPS: Copilot live
Woody
drive around a few places until the middle of january. I have a few thousand
miles to do so I looked into the GPS thing, as my knowledge of roads and
towns on the eastern side of the USA is about zero. A gps with the hire car
costs about �100 which is just daft, so I was looking at either getting maps
for my tomtom (�50) or getting an cheap ebayed gps (about the same).
Then I found copilot live for the USA is on sale for �11 quid, and it had
generally not bad reviews. As I had already considered taking my iPhone, it
seemed reasonable so I got it.
Playing round with it, it seems pretty good (apart from obviously I can't
really use it well as I am 5000 miles out of range).
Then I noticed the UK version was �26. Considering that the tomtom for the
iPhone is silly money and although my tomtom is good, sabs is a bit old, has
anyone tried this? Reviews seem pretty polorised on it, admittadly with most
people seeming to think it was good.
I know Zoara posted a review recently on the tomtom which was handy.
--
Woody
Jon B
Yeah I've bought it and I'm very happy with it. I'm not generally a sat
nav person, but for �26 I thought very useful at the price.
It isn't yard for yard perfect, but I think as Zoara said that's down to
the phone chipset.
What I like
Speed camera database, can display road speed limits, and can tell you
off for speeding.
It's all configurable, so you can turn sounds on/off, voices, change
distance warnings, audio warnings, what it displays at the bottom, so
ETA, road name, time to arrive, mileage...
You can control your iPod from within the Co-pilot
It will all stream over BT [1]
Full UK postcode search, long/lat, OS grid refs [2], POIs
Price
You can preview the route, pick avoids miles in advance, and cancel them
[3]
It honours the rotate mode (or you can tell it to be fixed)
Has PIO for just about every pub, takeaway, ATM, petrol station etc and
where possible also has the phone numbers, which can then link in to the
phone same as google maps does (you can turn off each one so it does or
doesn't tell you about them).
Outdoors has a pretty quick lock to your location (indoors not so good)
Dislikes
Can be a bit slow to load & respond at times.
Picky, but the garage down the road on the DB is now a car wash, and I
was driving down a 40mph road the other day it was telling me was a
50mph, strange as it knew the speed camera further up the road had moved
200 yards just 3 months ago.
That GPS innacurary the other day meant it thought I'd turned off and
was on a road 50 yards parallel to the right, but that's no worse than
some navigators I've had, and could see the route ahead on screen to
know just to ignore that slip up.
Despite the option for Parking on POIs it seems to lack them, which is
strange when it seems to know about every ATM, pub, shop, church...
Personally I prefer maps, but, I appreciate sat navs are useful to get
you that last few miles to a location, are handy to have to keep you out
the crap when suddenly a route is blocked. It is significantly better
than the guidance that came on the N95, really really significantly
better that I'm actually impressed by it. Shown a friend it with an
iPhone and a sat nav, car charger for the iPhone has now been procured
and co-pilot will be following.
Any specific Q's I'll try and look and see what it can do.
[1] I've got a BT car radio so I can stream the iPod and the sat nav
over the top to the radio.
[2] This is something missing from a lot of cheap sat navs, useful for
some people.
[3] This after my last sat nav, the N95 is superb, that, you say block
ahead and it'd take you left, right, and left again straight into the
back of a traffic jam in town, you couldn't just say avoid this road for
2miles.
--
Jon B
Above email address IS valid.
<http://www.bramley-computers.co.uk/> Apple Laptop Repairs.
ray
There is a cheaper option if anyone is interested. It doesn't do turn by
turn navigation, it's more a substitute for Google maps that doesn't
rely on a data connection.
The app I have is oMaps but there are several very similar apps on the
store. It uses maps downloaded from OpenStreetMap.org and stored on the
iPhone.
It works well with the GPS on the phone, has useful search functions and
the maps are reasonably accurate in cities. They are user updated like
Wikepedia.
If all you need is a map in an unfamiliar city and don't want to pay
roaming charges to use Google Maps, this'll do nicely.
--
http://www.dream-weaver.com/email.php
Web development promotion and seo
http://www.spaldingcomputers.co.uk
http://www.overseasmovingsolutions.com/
Woody
news:1j9ukg1.14tfkupssvmizN%data...@hotmail.com...
I didn't realise they had that sort of thing in the iPhone yet. I am
familiar with the openstreetmap stuff, in that with maemo mapper on the n810
you could use it. But you could use google maps offline too, which was
unfortunately a lot better.
Is there a way to steal the google maps with it in the same way?
I am looking for a turn by turn thing really, but very handy to know,
thanks!
--
Woody
Woody
news:1j9uiq2.1o5yok0rhtslcN%black...@jonbradbury.com...
Well, I have a sat nav with updated maps and all, but sabs car the maps are
out of date, and it is one of the cheaper tomtoms, so I am thinking it is
good for her (and it is also better value here, as both iPods are under the
same account)
And �26 is a lot better price than the tomtom
> What I like
all good
> Dislikes
> Can be a bit slow to load & respond at times.
> Picky, but the garage down the road on the DB is now a car wash, and I
> was driving down a 40mph road the other day it was telling me was a
> 50mph, strange as it knew the speed camera further up the road had moved
> 200 yards just 3 months ago.
> That GPS innacurary the other day meant it thought I'd turned off and
> was on a road 50 yards parallel to the right, but that's no worse than
> some navigators I've had, and could see the route ahead on screen to
> know just to ignore that slip up.
> Despite the option for Parking on POIs it seems to lack them, which is
> strange when it seems to know about every ATM, pub, shop, church...
Can live with that. Presumably I can add POIs?
> Personally I prefer maps, but, I appreciate sat navs are useful to get
> you that last few miles to a location, are handy to have to keep you out
> the crap when suddenly a route is blocked. It is significantly better
> than the guidance that came on the N95, really really significantly
> better that I'm actually impressed by it. Shown a friend it with an
> iPhone and a sat nav, car charger for the iPhone has now been procured
> and co-pilot will be following.
OK, I will get that and some iPhone cradle from ebay
> Any specific Q's I'll try and look and see what it can do.
>
no, nothing specific, that is really useful thanks
--
Woody
Jon B
Exactly, I had been a bit tempted by some of those �50 units, but doubt
would have been as good as this. I thought the �26 was worth paying for
the speed camera database to be honest.
> > What I like
>
> all good
>
Oh, another I've thought of, you can shut him/her up using the toggle
switch on the side, the other day coming back up the M1 I'd set the
overspeed warning a bit 'tight' so as the motorway speeds went up & down
I kept getting told off, I knew where I was going for a good hour so
flicked the switch which turns off the voice and warnings for a while.
> > Dislikes
> > Can be a bit slow to load & respond at times.
> > Picky, but the garage down the road on the DB is now a car wash, and I
> > was driving down a 40mph road the other day it was telling me was a
> > 50mph, strange as it knew the speed camera further up the road had moved
> > 200 yards just 3 months ago.
> > That GPS innacurary the other day meant it thought I'd turned off and
> > was on a road 50 yards parallel to the right, but that's no worse than
> > some navigators I've had, and could see the route ahead on screen to
> > know just to ignore that slip up.
> > Despite the option for Parking on POIs it seems to lack them, which is
> > strange when it seems to know about every ATM, pub, shop, church...
>
> Can live with that. Presumably I can add POIs?
>
You can add favourite locations, can't see a way to add a new POI and
tell it this is a Retaurant, but I can add the restaurant and it'll show
up as a star on my map, and can access if via the faves.
> > Personally I prefer maps, but, I appreciate sat navs are useful to get
> > you that last few miles to a location, are handy to have to keep you out
> > the crap when suddenly a route is blocked. It is significantly better
> > than the guidance that came on the N95, really really significantly
> > better that I'm actually impressed by it. Shown a friend it with an
> > iPhone and a sat nav, car charger for the iPhone has now been procured
> > and co-pilot will be following.
>
> OK, I will get that and some iPhone cradle from ebay
>
I got one of these
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Duragadget-Iphone-windscreen-suction-warranty/d
p/B001SG1J9G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259340646&sr=8-5>
as it'd specifically hold the iphone whilst still in its case, and one
of these
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/FoneM8-IPHONE-TOUCH-CHARGER-BLACK/dp/B001IZW1CG
/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259340664&sr=8-1> so it doesn't
die after an hour.
> > Any specific Q's I'll try and look and see what it can do.
> >
> no, nothing specific, that is really useful thanks
No probs.
Woody
> Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Well, I have a sat nav with updated maps and all, but sabs car the maps
>> are
>> out of date, and it is one of the cheaper tomtoms, so I am thinking it is
>> good for her (and it is also better value here, as both iPods are under
>> the
>> same account)
>>
>> And �26 is a lot better price than the tomtom
>>
>
> Exactly, I had been a bit tempted by some of those �50 units, but doubt
> would have been as good as this. I thought the �26 was worth paying for
> the speed camera database to be honest.
>
>> > What I like
>>
>> all good
>>
> Oh, another I've thought of, you can shut him/her up using the toggle
> switch on the side, the other day coming back up the M1 I'd set the
> overspeed warning a bit 'tight' so as the motorway speeds went up & down
> I kept getting told off, I knew where I was going for a good hour so
> flicked the switch which turns off the voice and warnings for a while.
That is handy
>> > Dislikes
>> > Can be a bit slow to load & respond at times.
>> > Picky, but the garage down the road on the DB is now a car wash, and I
>> > was driving down a 40mph road the other day it was telling me was a
>> > 50mph, strange as it knew the speed camera further up the road had
>> > moved
>> > 200 yards just 3 months ago.
>> > That GPS innacurary the other day meant it thought I'd turned off and
>> > was on a road 50 yards parallel to the right, but that's no worse than
>> > some navigators I've had, and could see the route ahead on screen to
>> > know just to ignore that slip up.
>> > Despite the option for Parking on POIs it seems to lack them, which is
>> > strange when it seems to know about every ATM, pub, shop, church...
>>
>> Can live with that. Presumably I can add POIs?
>>
> You can add favourite locations, can't see a way to add a new POI and
> tell it this is a Retaurant, but I can add the restaurant and it'll show
> up as a star on my map, and can access if via the faves.
hmm.. I was thinking that there are big databases of POIs around.
>> > Personally I prefer maps, but, I appreciate sat navs are useful to get
>> > you that last few miles to a location, are handy to have to keep you
>> > out
>> > the crap when suddenly a route is blocked. It is significantly better
>> > than the guidance that came on the N95, really really significantly
>> > better that I'm actually impressed by it. Shown a friend it with an
>> > iPhone and a sat nav, car charger for the iPhone has now been procured
>> > and co-pilot will be following.
>>
>> OK, I will get that and some iPhone cradle from ebay
>>
> I got one of these
> <http://www.amazon.co.uk/Duragadget-Iphone-windscreen-suction-warranty/d
> p/B001SG1J9G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259340646&sr=8-5>
> as it'd specifically hold the iphone whilst still in its case, and one
> of these
> <http://www.amazon.co.uk/FoneM8-IPHONE-TOUCH-CHARGER-BLACK/dp/B001IZW1CG
> /ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259340664&sr=8-1> so it doesn't
> die after an hour.
I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle, it
is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
--
Woody
zoara
> Then I noticed the UK version was £26. Considering that the tomtom for
> the
> iPhone is silly money and although my tomtom is good, sabs is a bit
> old, has
> anyone tried this? Reviews seem pretty polorised on it, admittadly
> with most
> people seeming to think it was good.
> I know Zoara posted a review recently on the tomtom which was handy.
As I think I mentioned in my "review", I took the dubious route of
pirating a few of the sat nav apps. I was willing to pay, but not
without an easy refund if it wasn't up to much. It was the right choice
as I would have got refunds on all of them; most for the app itself,
though TomTom would have scraped by if only the iPhone's GPS reception
was better (though other people have commented that their reception
isn't at all bad).
I went through maybe three or four sat nav apps, and while the CoPilot
got a definite "no" at its original price (forty quid, I think) I may
well consider it for £26 as it was the best I tried bar the TomTom. The
reason I decided against it was that the UI was just too fiddly for me
to feel comfortable using whilst driving. You'll have been able to play
around with that already, so you know what it's like. And that kind of
stuff is totally subjective anyway.
In short, I'd say the CoPilot is a decent second-best to the TomTom,
with the obvious upside that it's a lot cheaper. The downside is it's
fiddlier, and the potential negative that it has in common with the
TomTom is that it relies on the not-great GPS chip in the iPhone.
-zoara-
--
email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm
ray
Unless you know otherwise, there is no way to download and store Google
maps for use offline.
Debbie Wilson
> I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle, it
> is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
Hi Woody,
What cradle charger/FM transmitter do you have, out of interest? is the
audio quality reasonable - is there much interference? I want to get
something like that for my iPhone as our car radio is basic and doesn't
have an audio input, but I'd like an all-in-one device like that for
playback via radio and charging on the move.
Cheers
Deb.
--
http://www.scientific-art.com
"He looked a fierce and quarrelsome cat, but claw he never would;
He only bit the ones he loved, because they tasted good." S. Greenfield
Woody
> Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>> I didn't realise they had that sort of thing in the iPhone yet. I am
>> familiar with the openstreetmap stuff, in that with maemo mapper on the
>> n810
>> you could use it. But you could use google maps offline too, which was
>> unfortunately a lot better.
>> Is there a way to steal the google maps with it in the same way?
>
> Unless you know otherwise, there is no way to download and store Google
> maps for use offline.
Well, I know otherwise, which is why I was asking if there was an app that
did it on the iPhone!
As I said, there is maemo mapper that does it, and I have seen a few other
utilities that do it (and I once did it manually as I was after a big map!)
--
Woody
Woody
news:1j9us8g.1n6gg40jq2rheN%djma...@mac.com...
> Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle,
>> it
>> is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
>
> Hi Woody,
>
> What cradle charger/FM transmitter do you have, out of interest? is the
> audio quality reasonable - is there much interference? I want to get
> something like that for my iPhone as our car radio is basic and doesn't
> have an audio input, but I'd like an all-in-one device like that for
> playback via radio and charging on the move
Oh it was just something I got off ebay, as far as I remember it was 95p
plus �10 postage from china. It is a cradle with a pole that mounts into the
car cigarette lighter, has a lead that goes to the iPod / iPhone, and a
number of radio channels down the side. It holds it well.
The quality on some days is fantastic, some days less so!
There is never car interference, which is what affects some of them, but
sometimes the radio is a bit unclear. The range is useless though so it is
better if your cigarette lighter is near your radio!
--
Woody
Debbie Wilson
> Oh it was just something I got off ebay, as far as I remember it was 95p
> plus �10 postage from china. It is a cradle with a pole that mounts into the
> car cigarette lighter, has a lead that goes to the iPod / iPhone, and a
> number of radio channels down the side. It holds it well.
Oh OK - maybe I'll look on there first before shelling out �30-odd for a
brand name jobbie. Thanks!
SteveH
> Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > Oh it was just something I got off ebay, as far as I remember it was 95p
> > plus �10 postage from china. It is a cradle with a pole that mounts into the
> > car cigarette lighter, has a lead that goes to the iPod / iPhone, and a
> > number of radio channels down the side. It holds it well.
>
> Oh OK - maybe I'll look on there first before shelling out �30-odd for a
> brand name jobbie. Thanks!
I'd probably shell out for a decent one if I were you.
I've had a couple of cheap ones and a couple of decent ones over the
years - the decent ones are the only ones that have continuously worked
in a wide variety of cars.
--
SteveH
Debbie Wilson
> I'd probably shell out for a decent one if I were you.
>
> I've had a couple of cheap ones and a couple of decent ones over the
> years - the decent ones are the only ones that have continuously worked
> in a wide variety of cars.
Any particular recommendations of ones that you have tried? There are so
many differing reviews and things out there, I'm not sure what to get!
SteveH
> SteveH <itali...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'd probably shell out for a decent one if I were you.
> >
> > I've had a couple of cheap ones and a couple of decent ones over the
> > years - the decent ones are the only ones that have continuously worked
> > in a wide variety of cars.
>
> Any particular recommendations of ones that you have tried? There are so
> many differing reviews and things out there, I'm not sure what to get!
Just looked back - both my 'decent' ones have been Griffin iTrips.
They've worked in cars known for dodgy radio reception where the aerials
are built into the rear demister wires.
Cheap ones suffer from interference from the engine and other radio
stations.
--
SteveH
Flavio Matani
I would concur on this. I have in the past bought a couple of these
cheap things from gadget shops here in Camden and they work while they
work and then... they will not work with newer devices (i. e. 3G or
3Gs iphones or latest gen ipods) -I suspect it is down to some Apple
authorisation/verification routine in the firmware but whatever it is...
--
flavio matani
guitar tuition
http://www.flaviomatani.co.uk
http://fflavio.com
zoara
> "ray" <data...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1j9uqjs.19pxl1k1hsc9qtN%data...@hotmail.com...
> > Unless you know otherwise, there is no way to download and store
> > Google
> > maps for use offline.
>
> Well, I know otherwise, which is why I was asking if there was an app
> that
> did it on the iPhone!
> As I said, there is maemo mapper that does it, and I have seen a few
> other
> utilities that do it (and I once did it manually as I was after a big
> map!)
There's a jailbreak app that does it - X-road or something.
ray
I haven't tried any of the SatNav apps, just oMaps, but I have found
that my iPhone 3Grand Sport latches on to satellites a great deal
quicker than the TomTom Bluetooth GPS unit I use with my Palm.
The iPhone will pinpoint my position on Google Maps and oMaps within a
very few seconds whereas the TomTom unit will often take a couple of
minutes or more especially if it hasn't been used for a few days.
I'm aware the iPhone, and other smart phones, uses assisted GPS which
obviously helps. Accuracy while moving is another matter however and
this is also an issue with the gps chip in my Blackberry when used with
the Vodafone branded navigation application.
ray
Debbie Wilson
> Just looked back - both my 'decent' ones have been Griffin iTrips.
> They've worked in cars known for dodgy radio reception where the aerials
> are built into the rear demister wires.
>
> Cheap ones suffer from interference from the engine and other radio
> stations.
Thanks for that, Steve - that's very useful to know.
Cheers,
Debbie Wilson
> I would concur on this. I have in the past bought a couple of these
> cheap things from gadget shops here in Camden and they work while they
> work and then... they will not work with newer devices (i. e. 3G or
> 3Gs iphones or latest gen ipods) -I suspect it is down to some Apple
> authorisation/verification routine in the firmware but whatever it is...
All useful information - thanks Flavio.
Jon B
> "Jon B" <black...@jonbradbury.com> wrote in message
> news:1j9um72.lckxk61k7bkjcN%black...@jonbradbury.com...
> > Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
> >>
> >> Can live with that. Presumably I can add POIs?
> >>
> > You can add favourite locations, can't see a way to add a new POI and
> > tell it this is a Retaurant, but I can add the restaurant and it'll show
> > up as a star on my map, and can access if via the faves.
>
> hmm.. I was thinking that there are big databases of POIs around.
>
Not sure, is there any you have in mind you can point me at I can test,
not seen anything obvious for those in the actual software but can
relook.
Woody
> Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > "Jon B" <black...@jonbradbury.com> wrote in message
> > news:1j9um72.lckxk61k7bkjcN%black...@jonbradbury.com...
> > > Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Can live with that. Presumably I can add POIs?
> > >>
> > > You can add favourite locations, can't see a way to add a new POI and
> > > tell it this is a Retaurant, but I can add the restaurant and it'll show
> > > up as a star on my map, and can access if via the faves.
> >
> > hmm.. I was thinking that there are big databases of POIs around.
> >
> Not sure, is there any you have in mind you can point me at I can test,
> not seen anything obvious for those in the actual software but can
> relook.
Well, I bought it so I will investigate the options!
--
Woody
zoara
> zoara <me...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> > "Woody" <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
> > > "ray" <data...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > > news:1j9uqjs.19pxl1k1hsc9qtN%data...@hotmail.com...
> >
> > > > Unless you know otherwise, there is no way to download and store
> > > > maps for use offline.
> > >
> > > Well, I know otherwise, which is why I was asking if there was an
> > > app
> > > that
> > > did it on the iPhone!
> > > As I said, there is maemo mapper that does it, and I have seen a
> > > few
> > > other
> > > utilities that do it (and I once did it manually as I was after a
> > > big
> > > map!)
> >
> > There's a jailbreak app that does it - X-road or something.
> >
> Interesting. Thanks to you both, I will investigate.
It's called xGPS.
Woody
> Well, I bought it so I will investigate the options!
And it seems pretty good. The maps are clear, the voice is a bit quiet,
but to be fair, the music is loud, and coming to exeter today it picked
the route I would have (not that I need a gps fir that, just wanted to
see how it did).
For £26, although it us very expensive for a iPhone software, it is
cheap for a gps. The US one at £11 is even better.
The maps do seem a bit dated though. It didn't seem to know of the
princesshay shopping centre, that has been here for a good few years
--
Woody
ray
That looks interesting, and I see they are planning to go legit with a
new version on the App Store to compete with TomTom and CoPilot.
Jaimie Vandenbergh
wrote:
>Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle, it
>> is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
>
>Hi Woody,
>
>What cradle charger/FM transmitter do you have, out of interest? is the
>audio quality reasonable - is there much interference? I want to get
>something like that for my iPhone as our car radio is basic and doesn't
>have an audio input, but I'd like an all-in-one device like that for
>playback via radio and charging on the move.
I'm using one of these -
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11281
It doesn't fall over or out, gives audio almost comparable to an aux
cable, but on the down side completely bollixes GPS reception.
Cheers - Jaimie
--
"Some people think that noise abatement should be a higher priority
for ATC. I say safety is noise abatement. You have no idea how much
noise it makes to have a 737 fall out of the sky after an accident."
-- anonymous air traffic controller
Jon B
> On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:56:33 +0000, djma...@mac.com (Debbie Wilson)
> wrote:
>
> >Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle, it
> >> is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
> >
> >Hi Woody,
> >
> >What cradle charger/FM transmitter do you have, out of interest? is the
> >audio quality reasonable - is there much interference? I want to get
> >something like that for my iPhone as our car radio is basic and doesn't
> >have an audio input, but I'd like an all-in-one device like that for
> >playback via radio and charging on the move.
>
> I'm using one of these -
> http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11281
>
> It doesn't fall over or out, gives audio almost comparable to an aux
> cable, but on the down side completely bollixes GPS reception.
>
That's probably because most cig lighters are quite low in the car
bringing the phone down from the windscreen area where it will get a
better lock on the satellites. I'm guessing the ability to stay where
put will also depend on how good said, I know some just can't take the
weight, and on mine it'd be completely in the way of the gear leaver.
Jaimie Vandenbergh
wrote:
>Jaimie Vandenbergh <jai...@sometimes.sessile.org> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:56:33 +0000, djma...@mac.com (Debbie Wilson)
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Woody <use...@alienrat.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> >> I do have a charger for the car. Actually, I do have a charging cradle, it
>> >> is actually a FM transmitter thing, but it will work too
>> >
>> >Hi Woody,
>> >
>> >What cradle charger/FM transmitter do you have, out of interest? is the
>> >audio quality reasonable - is there much interference? I want to get
>> >something like that for my iPhone as our car radio is basic and doesn't
>> >have an audio input, but I'd like an all-in-one device like that for
>> >playback via radio and charging on the move.
>>
>> I'm using one of these -
>> http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11281
>>
>> It doesn't fall over or out, gives audio almost comparable to an aux
>> cable, but on the down side completely bollixes GPS reception.
>>
>That's probably because most cig lighters are quite low in the car
>bringing the phone down from the windscreen area where it will get a
>better lock on the satellites.
It's not that, it's the FM transmitter part of the device swamping
everything else. If I pull it out of the lighter socket a quarter
inch, enough to power it down, GPS locks back on within moments.
My previous similar device had an on/off switch for the FM part, but
had a diabolically bad amp in it so it sounded crap. GPS worked fine
with the FM off, and rather poorly with it on.
>I'm guessing the ability to stay where
>put will also depend on how good said, I know some just can't take the
>weight, and on mine it'd be completely in the way of the gear leaver.
The one at the link above has a rubber collar that stops it rotating
in the socket (or popping out), and also a reasonably flexible neck.
Cheers - Jaimie
--
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English
is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion,
English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious
and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." -- James Nicoll, rasfw
Jon B
My cig lighter is between the handbrake and the gear lever and slightly
to the right. On the lower spec models it's behind the gear lever out
the way, but mines got an extra bunch of dials for oil pressure, ampage
& oil temps where the cig lighter/ashtray would be. It's obviously in a
compromised position, but I'm happy with that as I'd rather have the
dials than the ashtray.