A Dock for your Desire…

The Desire is a great smartphone, but it needs great content on it in order for you to really enjoy it and get the most out of it. You can transfer all your photo’s, music and video’s to it using the cable that it came with the phone, but let’s face it, a USB cable doesn’t do much to show off your fancy new phone.

If you want everyone in the office to see your new toy as they walk past, or just be able to disconnect your phone quickly and easily without fiddling around with cables, you’re going to need a Desire Dock or Desire Desktop chargers.

There are a few available, so I thought I’d take a look at some of our most popular ones to see how they compare.

1. HTC Desire Desktop Charging Cradle

This is a quick and easy way to charge your phone while keeping it up to date with your latest music downloads, TV Shows and Photo’s. It connects to a spare USB port on your PC or laptop and can be used with a USB Mains adapter to turn it into a stand alone charging dock. It has a blue LED indicator that lights up when your phone is charging.

2. HTC Desire Dual Desktop Charging Cradle

This is essentially the same as the dock shown above, but with the addition of a built in battery charger. This makes it the perfect choice for anyone who has a spare battery for their Desire as it means you can charge both batteries at the same time, instead of having to charge one, remove it from the phone, replace it with the dead one and then start the charge cycle all over again.

3. Deluxe HTC Desire Desktop Charging Cradle

The Deluxe Charging Cradle is the most popular style of cradle . It looks excellent and has a hi-gloss finish. Behind the phone is a lift up cover that houses an additional battery charger so that you can charge a spare battery at the same time.

4. Smart Stand – HTC Desire

While the Smart Stand won’t charge or sync your Desire, it’s still a great way to watch videos or flick through your photo’s while you’re at your desk and is the only custom stand for the HTC Desire that will hold your phone in landscape mode. If you want to sync content to your phone, you’ll need to use a Micro USB cable. The Smart Stand has a sprung clip at the top that holds your phone securely in place and a weighted base that stops it from falling over.

5. Desk Genie Non-Slip Charging Desk Stand

The Desk Genie is a great all round Desk Stand, but has received a mixed response in the office when it comes to the Desire. The coating on the Desire doesn’t stick all that well to the Desk Genie, so unless you’ve got a case or cover fitted to your  Desire, you might struggle to keep it in place. On the bright side though,  the Desk Genie includes a charging cable for your phone and also doubles up as a memory card reader.

There are a number of other HTC Desire Desktop chargers available, but these are the the most popular ones at the moment. Head over to the main site to check out the full range of HTC Desire Docks.

More Desire Docks are due in the coming weeks and I’ll update this post as and when they become available.

Guide to iPhone Bike Mounts

The iPhone is great for internet, email and phone calls, and now thanks to a number of apps in the App Store, it’s also great when you’re out and about. Since Apple added GPS to the phone, the number of location based apps has grown quickly – especially those that track your location when you’re out walking or cycling.

If you enjoy venturing out on your bike and like to track where you’ve been, how fast you’re going or just find your way home again there are a number of Apps that will help you. One of the most popular amongst cyclists is MotionX GPS, a handy app that lets you track your route, record the distance travelled and monitor your speed. I’ll cover more of these apps in a future post.

If you’ve got one of these apps, you can leave it running in your pocket while you’re cycling, but this can often be uncomfortable and there’s always the risk that your phone could fall out.

The best way to use these kind of apps is to use an iPhone Bike Mount. These are secure cradles for your iPhone that clamp onto the handlebar of your bike, making it easier and safer to use.

I’ve had a number of enquiries recently as to which is the best iPhone Bike mount, so I’ve put this guide together that runs through some of the best iPhone Bike Mounts available.

Dahon BioLogic Bike Mount

The Dahon BioLogic Mount looks like it’s going to be an extremely popular option for bike enthusiasts. The mount incorporates a waterproof case that allows you to use your iPhone even in light showers. It has cut outs for your headphones and charger that have rubber covers to prevent liquid getting in.

You might think having access to the charger while it’s attached to your bike is a little unusual, but it’s actually a great feature as it means you can use external batteries or chargers such as the Freeloader Globetrotter to keep your iPhone charged – even when using GPS applications that really suck the power out of your phone. The BioLogic mount is bolted on to your handlebars and has a quick release button that makes removing the case from your phone quick and easy.

Ram Mounts for iPhone

Ram Mounts are one of the most talked about brands of iPhone Mount. Instead of using a bolt to clamp it to your handle bars, it uses zip-ties. The base of the holder has a rubber coating to prevent it from slipping and spinning round. It’s designed to hold your phone securely in portrait mode and has a sprung clip to keep your iPhone in place.

iPhone Bike Mount

The iPhone Bike Mount is a simple, no frills holder for your iPhone. It fastens securely to your handlebars without the need for any special tools. It has a tilting base plate that also rotates, allowing you to use your phone in either portrait or landscape mode, although the cradle is designed primarily for landscape use.

Arkon iPhone Bike Mount

We launched a wide range of Arkon mounts earlier this year and they’re all proving to be extremely popular. Their latest iPhone holder is this bike mount. It has a clamp that is bolted together for a secure fix and a fully adjustable cradle. It can be rotated and tilted to ensure good visibility and has 5 arms to hold your iPhone in place – 2 at the bottom, 2 at the sides and a spring clip at the top.

Krusell Bike Mount

The Krusell Bike Mount on it’s own isn’t enough to attach your iPhone to your bike. In order for it to work you’ll need to make sure that your phone is in a case such as the Krusell Classic or Krusell Orbit Flex. Both Cases offer great protection for your iPhone, but personally I’d opt for the Krusell Classic. It covers all of your phone, so will give it some protection against the elements, and the clear plastic window on the front doesn’t get in the way of using your phone.

The Krusell Bike Mount bolts on to the handle bars of your bike, then the Multidapt clip on the back of the case slides into the mount and is held in place. You can lock the orientation of the phone, but it’s a bit fiddly and involves pushing the clip further into the holder. Customer reviews are all good, but the general feeling is that it can be a bit fiddly to remove your phone from the holder.

Stabilo Bike Mount with Cradles

This is probably the most flexible bike mount that we offer, and by flexible I don’t mean bendy! It’s adjustable in a number of ways and has an extendible arm – although I’m not sure you’d ever need it. You can adjust the angle of the mount at the base and behind the cradle. It secures to your bike using a clamp and allen keys, so if it comes loose while you’re out and about you won’t be able to tighten it.

It doesn’t come with a phone cradle – you’ll need to buy these separately and you have a few to choose from. Personally I’d opt for the tall iPhone Cradle. This has a long support that will help keep your iPhone secure regardless of whether you’re using it in landscape or portrait mode. If you’re only planning on using it in portrait mode, then the shorter iPhone Cradle will do the job nicely.

GoRide Bike Mount for iPhone

The GoRide Bike Mount fixes to your bike in a similar way to the Ram Mount, but instead of having a rigid holder, it has a detachable case for your iPhone. This means that you can leave the case on your phone all the time, and quickly dock/remove it from the holder. Unlike the Ram Mount, this holder can be used in both portrait and landscape modes.

If you’ve seen any other types of iPhone Bike mount that you think do a great job, let us know using the comments form below.

How to protect the screen of your HTC Desire

The most important part of any phone is the screen, damage it or break it and it renders your phone pretty much useless – especially if it’s a touch screen handset like the HTC Desire.

There are a number of ways to protect your phone – Cases for the Desire will give your phone more bounce if you drop it and will help preserve the finish of the phone, but not all of them look after the screen as well as they could. For that reason a Screen Protector is an essential accessory for the HTC Desire, but not all Screen Protectors are the same. To give you an idea on the differences between them, and to help you decide on the right one, here’s a quick guide to HTC Desire Screen Protectors.

HTC Desire Screen Protector

These high quality screen protectors are made by HTC for the Desire, so as you’d expect they fit the phone perfectly. They are probably the best fit to the screen of your phone and don’t interfere with the operation of the capacitive touch screen. You get two included in the pack, although they last a long time and you may not need the second one for several months.

InvisibleSHIELD Screen Protector – HTC Desire

InvisibleSHIELD have often featured in my recommended accessories for phones as they offer exceptional protection for such a thin film. With the HTC Desire you’ve got two choices, you can either opt for a screen protector, or a fully body phone protector. As the names suggest, the screen protector just covers the screen, where as the full body protector covers the whole of the phone.

The film is less than 1mm thin and protects your phone against scratches and scrapes. It can be removed easily and leaves no sticky marks on your phone.

Martin Fields Screen Protector for the HTC Desire

Martin Fields are the market leaders in high quality screen protectors. They’re slightly thicker than those from HTC or MFX and do an excellent job of protecting your screen. They don’t interfere with the use of the screen and it doesn’t distort colours. Martin Fields Screen Protectors are available individually or in a twin pack.

MFX 12 in 1 Screen Protector Pack

Unlike the other protectors listed here, the MFX 12 in 1 pack isn’t designed specifically for the HTC Desire. Instead, it consists of 12 different sized sheets that you can cut to size and use on numerous devices – everything from Sat Navs to MP3 players to your mobile phone. The reason that I chose to include this in with the Desire ones, is that it has a couple of different protectors in there too – namely a mirrored screen protector and a privacy screen protector.

The Mirrored screen protector turns the screen of your phone into a mirror when the display is off, and the privacy screen protector restricts the viewing angle of the screen so that only those looking straight at the screen can see it – anyone trying to read the screen of your phone over your shoulder won’t be able to see anything.

If you want to see the what difference a screen protector will make to how clear your screen is to read, then take a look at my guide to choosing the best screen protector.

More screen protectors should be arriving over the course of the next few weeks and I’ll add more to this post as and when they arrive. Once you’ve sorted the screen protector for your Desire you’ll want to sort yourself out with a HTC Desire case. Not sure what you want? Read our blog post on the top 10 Desire Cases.

Review: Ten of the Best HTC Desire Cases

The HTC Desire is an awesome phone. It’s fast, responsive, has a great screen and it looks gorgeous. It’s so good in fact that I’m tempted to switch to the Desire from my iPhone 3G.

The Desire looks great – our test handset was the black/grey version and has a soft touch finish, but I doubt it will stay looking this good for long. The finish looks like it will scratch quite easily, so you’re going to need a case for it. As the Desire is almost identical to the Nexus One, most Nexus One Cases will fit, but a couple of subtle changes to the keypad and bottom of the screen mean that not all of them will fit.

The HTC Desire Cases listed below have all been tried and tested with a working phone and we’ve found them to do a great job of protecting your phone.

1. Noreve Tradition A Leather Case for HTC Desire

A luxury phone deserves a luxury case, and you don’t get much more luxurious than a Noreve Case. What I love about them the most is the way that they hold your Desire securely without having to slide it into a stitched pocket that interferes with the light sensors and blocks the edges of the screen. The Noreve case looks excellent, is made from high quality leather and is surprisingly slim once it’s on your phone.

2. FlexiShield Skin For The HTC Desire

If you want to keep your Desire safe, without adding any extra bulk to your phone then this is the kind of case you need. Flexishield skins are thin, flexible gel cases that cover the back, side and corners of your phone and protect it against scratches and scrapes. They leave all the vital parts of your Desire (such as the camera, headphone port, charging port) fully accessible and can be removed quickly and easily if needed. They don’t cover the screen though, so you’ll need to invest in a HTC Desire Screen Protector.

3. HTC Desire Carry Pouch

If you prefer to put your phone away somewhere safe when it’s not in use, then a carry pouch will suit you down to the ground. This case is made specifically for the HTC Desire & Nexus one and holds your phone securely when it’s not in use. It has a soft lining that helps to keep your screen free from fingerprints and will protect your phone well in the event that you drop it. The case has a stitched in belt loop on the back that you can use to attach the case securely to your belt or bag.

It’s still early days for cases for the HTC Desire and more cases should be arriving daily. As they do I’ll update this page with any cases that I think work really well with the HTC Desire. Head over to the main Mobile Fun site to see the full range of HTC Desire Cases and HTC Desire Covers.

[UPDATE: 22/04/2010]
Since writing this post Mobile Fun have had a number of other cases arrive that all deserve a mention, so here are a few more recommended cases for the HTC Desire.

4. Flip Case – HTC Desire

Simple and effective, the flip case protects your Desire against knocks and scrapes. A built in belt clip lets you secure it to your bag or belt, and an open top means you can use your headphones while the case is closed.

5. HTC PO S491 Desire Standard Leather Pouch – White

Depending on which retailer you got your phone from, you may have got a case in the box with your phone. If you didn’t, or you’ve lost it, this is the original HTC Desire leather pouch that’s included as standard. It’s a simple slip pouch that protects your Desire against minor knocks and bumps.

6. HTC PO S491 Desire Standard Leather Pouch – Black

This case is the same as the one above, only in black leather rather than white. You can use your headphones with your phone in the case as the top is open.

7. Tuff-Luv Napa Leather Case For HTC Desire

Another Flip Case, but this time from Tuff-Luv. Unlike the flip case at the top of the list, your Desire isn’t held in place using a stitched pocket. Instead, two padded runners hold your phone securely, while leaving your screen and keypad fully accessible. The flip is hinged at the top of the phone and has a cut out that allows you to use the headphones while the phone is in the case.

8. HTC Desire Pull Case – PO S520

If you like the idea of a pouch for your Desire but don’t want to wrestle with your phone every time you want to take it out of the case, then this is what you need. It’s a slim case that has a built in strap that, when pulled, gently raises your phone out of the case making it much easier to get to your phone when it rings.

9. Sena Ultra Slim Pouch For HTC Desire

The Sena Ultra Slim Pouch is a form fitting case for your Desire. It doesn’t feature a pull tab like the HTC case, but is made from a soft leather that folds easily, allowing you to push the bottom of the case upwards to remove your phone.

10. PDair Vertical Leather Pouch Case For HTC Desire

PDair are one of the most popular brands of case Mobile Fun sell. They’re made from a high quality leather and are lightly padded to give your Desire as much protection as possible. Each PDair vertical pouch has finger cut outs on the sides for easy removal of your phone, and a sprung belt clip on the back.

Choosing the Right Cradle for your HTC Desire

Whether you’re sat at your desk or spend all day in the car, the easiest and most accessible place to keep your HTC Desire is in a Cradle. As well as holding your phone securely, most cradles can charge your phone and synchronise your contacts, photo’s music and videos.

There are two types of cradle available for the Desire, Desk Cradles and Car Cradles. To give you a better idea on what’s available, here are some of our top selling HTC Desire Cradles. More are expected in the next few weeks and we’ll update this post with any new ones as and when they arrive.

HTC Desire Desk Cradles

Desk Cradles provide an easy and convenient way to charge and sync your phone.

HTC Desire Desktop Charging Cradle

This is a simple and effective desktop sync and charge cradle for the HTC Desire. Simply plug it into a spare USB port on your PC or Laptop and place your phone in it to start charging. The phone will sync with your contacts, photo’s and video’s as soon as it’s docked, or you can manually sync it using the HTC Sync application if you’re using Windows.

If you’re using a Mac and you want to sync your music from iTunes, you’ll need to install some extra software. Our blog post on syncing your phone with iTunes talks you through what you need to do.

HTC Desire Dual Desktop Charging Cradle

If you’re a power user and have to carry a spare battery around with you in order to make it through the day, then this is the cradle for you. Not only will it keep your HTC Desire charged while you’re at your desk, it will also charge a second battery. If you’re already using two batteries, I’m sure you agree that it’s really quite a challenge to keep both batteries charged and ready to use.

HTC Desire Car Cradles

Car Cradles for the HTC Desire don’t do quite as much as their desktop counterparts, but that doesn’t make them any less necessary. They’re the only way that you can safely and legally use your phone in the car and as the HTC Desire now has free turn-by-turn Sat Nav built in to it, you’re going to want to have your phone easily accessible.

HTC Desire Car Pack

The HTC Desire Car Pack is the most popular in car holder for the HTC Desire. It features a sturdy, adjustable arm with a moulded cradle that’s been created especially for the Desire. It rotates quickly and easily from portrait to landscape mode making it a great choice for all Sat Nav users.

If you’ve used Sat Nav on your Desire already you’ll have noticed that it’s quite a drain on the battery, so for that reason, the HTC Desire Car Pack also includes a HTC CC C200 Car Charger

Brodit Passive Holder With Tilt Swivel – HTC Desire

If you don’t want a holder that sticks to your windscreen or doesn’t obscure your view of the road, then you’d be better off with a Brodit Holder. These are strong ABS plastic holders that are moulded specifically for the HTC Desire. They have a tilting/rotating base that allows you to easily adjust the cradle to a suitable position while your driving, and switch between portrait and landscape mode.

Brodit Holders are designed to be screwed to your dashboard, but as most people are reluctant to do that, Brodit have also introduced ProClips. These are plastic brackets that clip on to your dashboard without damaging it and provide a firm base for you to screw the Brodit Holder on to. Brodit Active Holders are also available – these are exactly the same items, but have a car charger built in to them.

It’s still early days for HTC Desire Accessories and the range is still growing. Hopefully we’ll see a HTC branded desk cradle and car cradle make an appearance in the coming weeks, If we do, I’ll update this post with details.

Review: HTC HD2 Car Upgrade Kit CU-S400

The HD2 Car Upgrade Kit has got to be one of the most eagerly awaited accessories of 2010 so far and I managed to get my hands on one when they arrived into stock this morning. I had to be quick though as they sold out in record time. So, is it worth the hype? Read on to find out.

A HD2 Car Holder is a must have item – especially if you use your HD2 for Sat Nav. I’ve already covered some of the best ways to use the HD2 in your car in my post on Using your HTC HD2 in the car, but considering how long these took to arrive I couldn’t resist trying one out.

Features

There aren’t really that many features that you can build in to a car holder, but HTC have managed to squeeze in a couple of nice touches. The first is that the holder incorporates a detachable charging cable. This isn’t anything new, as there are a number of holders for phones that accomodate charging cables, but what’s special with this one is that you plug the charger into the base of the holder, rather than the phone. The charge is then carried through to a charging port built into the base of the cradle.

This is a welcome addition as it means you can rotate the holder without worrying about whether there’s enough spare cable to turn the phone fully or it constantly falling out of your phone.

Another unique feature of the Cu-S400 is that when you dock your phone in the cradle it automatically switches the phone to the Navipanel – a shortcut screen that’s designed to give you quick access to all the apps you’re likely to need when driving, and hiding those that you won’t, or that could be a distraction – My only slight issue here is that Navipanel is only in landscape mode, so you can’t use the phone in portrait mode unless you exit the Navipanel App.

Design

As with others that I’ve tested, there’s not that much to say about the CU-S400, after all a car holder is a car holder, but this is one of the most stylish I’ve seen. Unlike others, there is no bulky flexible arm or loose plastic cradle, It’s solid, sturdy and relatively easy to attach to your windscreen as it has a twist-to-lock base. The metal arm of the CU S400 adds a bit of style to an accessory that is traditionally pretty dull.

Removing your phone looks like it would be quite tricky, but it’s not – just pull the phone forwards and it will come out of the holder. You don’t need to worry about damaging the charging connector on as it’s on a flexible base that moves with the phone. The charger that’s included is the standard HTC CC C200 Car Charger, and is in two parts, a USB charger and Micro USB charging cable. Oddly, the cable has it’s own suction holder attached to it and I’ve not managed to figure out what it’s for.

In The Box

No surprises here really, included with the Car Upgrade Kit is the CU-S400 Holder, CC C200 Car Charger and a self adhesive disk for those of you who want to attach it to your dashboard rather than your windscreen.

Why Buy

The CU-S400 is by far the smartest looking car holder available for the HTC HD2, It’s a compact design that holds the oversized HD2 well and the fact that you don’t have to fiddle around connecting the charger every time you dock your phone makes it even better.

We Like: Perfect fit to the phone and it looks great

We Don’t like: Hefty price tag may put people off

My Rating: 8/10

Top 10 HTC Desire Accessories

The HTC Desire is a truly awesome phone. It’s fast, responsive, has a great screen and it looks gorgeous. It makes my iPhone 3G look and feel dated and is extremely tempting.

To really make the most of your HTC Desire you’ll want to invest in a few accessories, but with so many Desire Cases, Desire Covers, Bluetooth Headphones and Car Kits to choose from, finding the best ones isn’t always easy.

This post runs through ten of our most popular HTC Desire Accessories, most of them are available now with some due in the coming weeks. Demand for all HTC Desire accessories is extremely high at the moment, so if the accessory you want isn’t available at the moment, I’d strongly recommend placing your order anyway – this way you’ll get priority on the stock.

On to the accessories then.

1. HTC Desire Screen Protector SP P360 – Twin Pack

The last thing that you’re going to want to do to the fantastic screen on the Desire is scratch it. These screen protectors from HTC are a great way to keep your screen looking like new. They’re precision cut to size and are quick and easy to install.

2. DAGi Smartphone Slim Line Capacitive Stylus

Not everyone likes using their finger to control their phone – especially those of you who are used to using a stylus on a previous phone. As you may have already noticed, traditional stylus’s don’t work on the HTC Desire as it has a capacitive touch screen – however, there is a solution – the Dagi Capacitive Stylus.

There are 3 Dagi Capacitive Styluses to choose from as well as a HTC branded one for the HTC Desire. What makes these different to a regular stylus is that instead of having a point to press your screen, they have a flat circular disc at the end that works in a similar way to how your finger would.

3. Noreve Tradition A Leather Case for HTC Desire

The HTC Desire is one of the best looking smartphones available, so if you’re going to invest in a case it needs to be just as stylish. Noreve Flip Cases for the Desire hold your phone securely, but without having to slide the phone into a stitched pocket that interferes with the light sensors or blocks the edges of the screen. It uses a tension system to hold your phone securely in place leaving the screen and keypad fully accessible. The Noreve case looks excellent, is made from high quality leather and is surprisingly slim once it’s on your phone.

4. HTC Stereo Headset with Music Controls RC E150

Depending on where you purchased your phone, you may not get any headphones in the box with the HTC Desire. If you don’t then you’ll be needing these – they have a built in microphone so you can use them for handsfree calling as well as an in-line remote control that lets you answer and end calls as well as play, pause, skip and rewind your music.

5. Seidio Innocell Extended Life Battery – HTC Desire

If you need more power for your Desire, you can either carry around a spare battery and swap them over when one dies, or you can get a more powerful battery – and that’s exactly what this is. The standard Desire battery is 1400mAh where as the Seidio Extended Battery is 1600mAh. It may not seem like a big increase, but it’s enough to ensure that your phone makes it through the day on a single charge.

6. HTC Desire Desktop Charging Cradle

Straight forward and simple, just drop your Desire into the charging cradle and it will charge and sync with your PC. It connects to a spare USB port on any PC or laptop and will allow you to sync your phone with your computer while it charges.

7. SanDisk MicroSDHC Card

Despite the Desire being a great Multimedia handset, it only has a limited amount of internal storage. Some will come with a memory card to get you started, but in most cases these tend to be the smaller 2GB or 4GB cards. As a result, one of the first purchases you will need to make is a bigger memory card. This 16GB memory card can store upto 14000 high quality photos, 3000 songs and 18 hours of video. Using a SanDisk 16GB Memory Card with the Desire will allow you to store more music, games, photos and videos on your phone. Images and video taken using the camera will take up space, so more memory is a must. A 16GB memory card will let you store over 6000 high quality photos, 3000 songs or around 80 hours of standard definition video. A 16GB card is the largest memory card that is currently available, although a32GB Micro SD HC memory card is due for release in the next couple of weeks.

8. HTC CC C200 Micro USB Car Charger

The HTC Desire is a power hungry beast and you’ll soon notice that as you start emailing, going online or watching videos or using your phone for sat nav, your battery will start to drain quite quickly. For this reason a car charger is a worthwhile investment. As with all current HTC phones, the Desire uses the standard MicroUSB charging connection. This genuine HTC Desire charger will work in both 12v and 24v vehicles (Cars, Lorries and Trucks) and can be used to charge any device that has a micro USB charging port.

9. Jabra Cruiser Bluetooth Speakerphone

If you want to listen to music from your Desire in your car but don’t have a 3.5mm line in port on your stereo, don’t panic there is another way to do it – and what’s more, you won’t need to have wires trailing everywhere to do it – all you need is the Jabra Cruiser.

The Jabra Cruiser is a small, slim portable car kit that combines an FM transmitter with a Bluetooth Car Kit. The Jabra Cruiser simply clips to the sun visor of your car and pairs to your Desire, using Bluetooth. The Cruiser supports both the A2DP and AVRCP profiles which means that you can stream your music to it over Bluetooth and control your music using the controls on the Cruiser instead of your phone. The Jabra Cruiser lets you choose whether to play your music back through the built in speaker or through your car stereo using it’s built in FM Transmitter. It ’s currently the only car kit to have dual microphones for improved noise reduction. If you spend a lot of time in the car taking calls and are bored of listening to the radio then the Jabra Cruiser is a must have item. If you don’t want/need the music controls then take a look at the Jabra SP700. It does the same job, just doesn’t have music controls or noise cancellation.

10. Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth Car Kit

Of all the car kits available, the best kit you can get for calling, music playback and sat nav 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 MKi9100 is your best bet for the Desire, mainly because the 3.7? screen on the phone means that you a full colour screen isn’t essential, but it’s nice to be able to see who’s calling and what you’re listening to even if the phone is still in your pocket.

You can play music from your phone through the MKi9100 either by connecting the 3.5mm headphone jack or you can stream your music to it using Bluetooth. The Mki9100 will synchronise with your phone book, and supports voice dialling. There is also a small remote that you can attach to your dash or steering wheel to control your music (Play/Pause, track skip & volume). 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.

If you’ve not seen the accessory here that’s right for you, take a look at our full range of HTC Desire Accessories or let us know what you’re looking for using the comments below.

[u] Top Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for iPhone & iPod touch

Yesterday saw the release of a major software update for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The update brought over 100 new features, but one of the best new features is that the iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod Touch now support Stereo Bluetooth. Stereo Bluetooth lets you enjoy your music in stereo and without wires connecting to your phone. As Stereo Bluetooth has been around for years there are plenty of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets to choose from.

Thereare a couple of points that you’ll need to remember though, the iPhone and iPod Touch support the A2DP profile only. If you have an iPhone this means you can answer & end calls, play / pause your music, but not control it fully. If you have an iPod Touch 2G then you will be able to play / pause your music and adjust the volume, but you won’t be able to use these headsets with any of your VOIP apps (such as Skype) on your iPod.

In order for you to be able to control your music fully, the iPhone or iPod Touch would need to support the AVRCP profile – hopefully we’ll see this in a future software update from Apple. Stereo Bluetooth is not available on the first generation iPhone or iPod Touch.

UPDATE: It appears that volume control when using a Bluetooth Headset is a bit of a mystery – it works on some headsets, but not on others. We’ve tested the headsets shown here and listed whether or not the volume levels can be adjusted.

UPDATE: April 9th 2010 iPhone OS 4.0 was previewed yesterday by Apple and early development previews show that Apple have now included support for volume adjustment, but music controls still don’t work as the AVRCP profile still seems to be excluded. It’s a step in the right direction, but still not ideal. Hopefully this will change between now and the official release of iPhone OS 4.0 in June. Look out for an updated post nearer the time.

Right, on to the headsets! With so many to choose from, it can get a bit overwhelming, so I’ve been through our current range of Bluetooth Headphones and compiled a list of my top 5 Bluetooth Headphones for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S and iPod Touch 2G.

Sony Ericsson IS-800 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

These are without doubt my favourite Bluetooth Headphones, hence they’re at number 1 in my list. It’s incredibly small, and although it still has a wire, the IS-800 is pretty much the only headset that doesn’t feature a fairly bulky control unit. Instead this has a small, simple in-line control that allows you to answer and end calls. Battery life is impressive at upto 270 hours – especially considering how small this headset is. The IS-800 doesn’t support AVCRP, which in this case is a good thing as it means you’re not going to be paying for features that you can’t use. Volume levels are currently fixed when using this headset, but hopefully a fix from Apple is on the way.

Sony Ericsson DS200 Stereo Bluetooth Headset
The DS-200 is designed to hang around your neck in a similar way to the Jabra BT3030. It comes with ‘in ear’ style headphones that can be replaced with any standard headphones with a 3.5mm jack plug. Battery life is great with upto 300 hours stand by and 6 hours of music play back, and an LCD Display will let you know when you’re running low. This headset allows you to control the volume levels by pressing and holding the play button.

Jabra BT3030 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

The Jabra BT3030 is probably more suited to the iPod Touch than the iPhone. The reason I say that is because the BT3030 is a Multipoint Headset – this allows you to connect to two devices at once, so you can connect it to your mobile phone and your iPod Touch to listen to your music, and when a call comes in, it will pause the music and answer the call from your mobile. It hangs around your neck on a chain or can clip to your belt or pocket, and can be used with any 3.5mm headphones. Volume control on the BT3030 is not a problem, press the ‘+’ or ‘-’ keys to adjust the volume.

Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

These are probably the most normal looking headphones of the bunch. They’re solid, comfortable and well built and have the best battery life out of all the headphones listed here with up to 19 hours of music playback, 18 hours of talk time and 2 weeks standby. Sound quality is excellent and set up is incredibly easy. Volume is controlled using a slider on the base of one of the ear cans and worked as you’d expect.

Nokia BH-501 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

The baby brother to the BH-604. A smaller more compact design that goes around your head rather than over it, and folds away neatly when not in use. The controls for music and calls are mounted on the outside of the earpiece and are easy to use. One of the more comfortable headsets thanks to the large, padded earphones. We weren’t able to test the volume control on the BH-501, but as all Nokia Headsets work in the same way, we would expect the volume controls to work perfectly fine on this headset.

This isn’t the full range of Stereo Bluetooth Headsets for the iPhone and iPod Touch, so if you’ve not seen one here that does what you want, take a look at all Stereo Bluetooth Headsets.

If you’ve got any questions or queries about Stereo Bluetooth on the iPhone get in touch with us using the comments form below!

How to fully integrate your Parrot car kit into your car

The Parrot MKi range of Car Kits are still the best car kits on the market. They’re fully compatible with just about every handset out there and no other Bluetooth Car Kit can come close to them on the number of features. With them being this great, you’d think that it’s not possible to make them much better, but Parrot have raised the bar again and introduced the Parrot Unika to further enhance the MKi Car Kits and allow you to fully control them using the controls already fitted to your steering wheel.

As standard the MKi car kits include a wireless remote control that will let you answer and end calls, activate voice dialling, control music playback and adjust the volume of calls and music which is great, but finding somewhere to mount the remote in car can be a little bit tricky.

The MKi Car kits come with a couple of mounting options for the remote control – an adjustable strap that lets you attach it to your steering wheel or an adhesive plate that you can stick to the dash of your car. Both of these mounting options are good, but you can’t beat the stereo controls built into the steering wheel of your car. I’ve had the MKi9000 in my car for about a year now and I still try to adjust the volume with the stereo controls instead of the Parrot Remote.

Since the launch of the MKi series last year, the technical team at Parrot have been working hard to fully integrate the kits into cars and have just released the Unika – an additional control box that allows you to connect the Mki & RKi Car Kits to the stereo controls on your steering wheel, completely eliminating the need to use the remote control.

The Unika can be fitted to most vehicles, and if you’ve already got an MKi car kit fitted you can retro-fit one to your car without too much hassle. If you’re technically minded you should be able to fit it yourself, although you will probably need to remove some parts of your dashboard, I’ve just changed my car and didn’t fancy pulling it apart, so I got AutoTec to fit mine for me. The cost for the Mki9000 car kit, Parrot Adapter Cable, Parrot Unika and fitting worked out at 279. The kit and accessories on their own add up to about 210, so fitting was only about 70 quid which I think is more than reasonable.

Once installed, the Unika will use the the buttons on your steering wheel to control the kit instead of the remote control. The buttons that you use for each function will vary depending on your vehicle, and you don’t need to have any phone buttons on the steering wheel as the Unika will ‘re-map’ the functions of the steering wheel controls when connected to your phone or iPod. When you’re phones’ not connected you’ll be able to use the controls to operate your radio or CD player as normal.

You can check to see if your car is compatible and find out which buttons perform which function in your car on the Parrot Unika Support Site.

At the time of writing this post, these were the prices for the kit and accessories:

• Parrot Unika- 89.99
• Parrot MKi9000 – 89.99
• Parrot MKi9100 – 122.35
• Parrot MKi9200 – 159.95
• Parrot Accessory Harness ~ 30 (varies depending on car)

I’ve had mine in for a couple of days now, and I’m still getting familiar with the controls, so I’ll update this post in a couple of days time to give you an idea on how well it works.

A guide to choosing the best Screen Protector

Screen protectors are fast becoming one of the most popular accessories for mobile phones – mainly because of the number of handsets with large, high quality displays. A screen protector will stop your screen from getting scratched or damaged and will help keep your handset looking like new.

There are a number of different options available to protect your screen, from a simple MFX screen protector, to privacy screen protectors right through to the top quality Martin Fields Screen Protectors. On paper they all seem to do the same job, but there are subtle differences between them so I’ve put this post together to highlight the key differences between them and make choosing the best screen protector for your phone simple and straight forward.

For this test, I’ve used the same image displayed on an iPhone with the screen brightness set to maximum I’ve then applied a screen protector to half of the screen and taken a photo. The photos have not been edited in anyway other than cropping and no filters have been applied – what you see below is as close to the real thing as possible. You might notice a few air bubbles in the photos, these will normally disappear after a day or two so don’t pay too much attention to these. The first image here shows how the picture is displayed on the phone with no screen protector fitted.

Martin Fields Screen Protector:

Martin Fields Screen Protectors are without doubt the best quality screen protector you can get. They’re crystal clear and will make your phone look like new. They don’t reduce the clarity of your screen and colours look exactly the way they’re supposed to. If your screen protector gets dirty, they can be removed easily from the phone, cleaned and refitted.

MFX Screen Protector:

The MFX screen protectors are available for most phones currently on the market and are quick and easy to fit. As you can see from the image below, there is little to no distortion of the images and colours appear as they should. MFX Screen Protectors will work with both touch screen handsets and standard phones and are precision cut to size. If you’ve got a lot of devices that you want to protect, a 12 in 1 Universal Screen Protector Pack is also available. This includes 12 screen protectors of varying sizes that can be cut to fit devices such as cameras, sat nav units, phones & games consoles.

MFX Mirrored Screen Protector:

Mirrored Screen protectors have two purposes, first and foremost they protect your screen from getting scratched and secondly they can turn your phone into a mirror. Just like the MFX ones, these are precision cut to the size of your phone and are extremely easy to fit. When your phone is in use and the screen is lit up you can see the phone normally. When it’s not in use the reflective coating on the screen protector turns your screen into a mirror.

The only slight downside is that they do alter the colours on your phone’s screen slightly. You can still see clearly enough for calling, texting and emailing, but they can make looking at photos and videos more difficult and as a result, these type of screen protectors are probably suited to non touchscreen handsets or those of you that use your phone more for texting and calling. They do attract finger prints quite easily too, so a Mobile Phone cleaning cloth is a must have item if you use a mirrored screen protector.

MFX Privacy Screen Protector:

The last ones in the MFX family are the Privacy screen protectors. These are a great way of making sure that no one else is looking at what’s on your phone or reading your emails over your shoulder. They’re quite a bit thicker than a standard screen protector and provide extra protection against knocks and scrapes, but more importantly are made so that you can only see through them from certain angles.

Once fitted to your phone you’ll only be able to see the screen of your phone when you’re looking straight at it. If you try and see the screen from the side you’ll just see a black plastic sheet. Although they have a dark tint to them, you shouldn’t have any problems looking at photos or playing videos on your phone. If you find that it darkens the screen too much, just increase the brightness settings on your phone. The Privacy Screen Protectors are precision cut to size and available for most of the latest handsets, as they’re a bit thicker removing air bubbles.

The Privacy Screen protectors will work fine with Resistive touch screen handsets, but aren’t currently available for capacative touch screens such as the iPhone, HTC Hero or LG Arena.

InvisibleShield Screen Protector:

The last of the screen protectors then is the InvisibleSHIELD. Technically, this isn’t a screen protector as InvisibleSHIELDs normally cover your whole phone, not just the screen. They’re also made completely differently to the rest – rather than being a solid plastic sheet that sits on your screen, these are made from a soft flexible plastic film that sticks to your handset using a liquid spray adhesive. You spray the invisibleshield with the liquid and then place it on your phone. It dries in seconds and when you remove it from your phone it leaves no residue behind. Of all of the screen protectors here, these are probably the most secure fit to your phone and there is no chance of you catching a corner and it coming off. The downside though is that they do require a little more time and patience to fit, but the end result is well worth it.

On my test, the screen image didn’t come out too great, but I’ve had one on my phone for over 12 months and honestly can say that the screen is clear and images aren’t distorted, although they do tend to attract smudges and require wiping clean now and again.

Summary:

If you’re looking purely to protect your screen, then you won’t go wrong with either a Martin Fields Screen Protector or an InvisibleSHIELD. There’s not much between them, although the faster fitting time will probably make the Martin Fields a better option. Of all of them, I’ve scored the Mirrored one the lowest, but that’s mainly down to how much it changes colours on the screen. In terms of fitting and protection it scores the same as the other MFX Screen Protectors.

My Ratings:

Martin Fields – 10/10
MFX Screen Protector – 9/10
InvisibleShield - 9/10
MFX Privacy – 8/10
MFX Mirrored – 7/10