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.

Parrot Unika integrates your Parrot MKi Car Kit with your Steering Wheel Controls

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.

Parrot Remote can be mounted on steering wheel

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.

Unika is compatible with Vauxhall, BMW, Ford & Honda Steering Wheel controls

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.

Review: Clip & Talk Bluetooth Car Kit – Solar Edition

Solar power has been making an appearance in more and more mobile phone accessories over the last year or so. Initially only available as stand alone Solar Powered Chargers, the technology has now found it’s way into mobile phone cases, Bluetooth Headsets and Bluetooth Car Kits.

Of all of the accessories available, Bluetooth Car Kits are the most logical accessory to make use of solar power – after all, they do spend most of their time either on your dashboard or sun visor.

Clip and Talk Bluetooth Car Kit - Solar Edition

Until recently there were only a couple of Solar Powered Bluetooth car kits available – the LG HFB-500 and the Drive Solar Pro. The latest car kit to join the range is the Clip & Talk Solar Edition. The Clip and Talk range has always been a popular kit that offers great value for money. Mobile Fun recently asked me to write a review for them so I thought I’d put the latest addition to the Clip and Talk family to the test to see how it performs. Read more »

iPhone Accessory Error Message – What does it mean?

Pop-Up Message

With so many iPhone accessories available , compatibility issues are bound to crop up from time to time. We carefully check every iPhone accessory that we sell to make sure that they work with the phone, but an warning message that is sometimes displayed on the handset when some accessories are connected can cause some confusion about whether the accessory will work or not.

If you see the warning message “This accessory is not made to work with iPhone” don’t panic. It doesn’t mean that your accessory won’t work, it just means that you might experience some interference if your phone connects to the internet, a call is made or a text message sent.

The reason that you see this message (normally when you connect to Speakers, Car Kits and other music devices) is that by default, the iPhone will enter ‘Accessory Mode’ when connected by the Dock Connector. This would then lock out all controls on the iPhone as it thinks that commands for music playback will come from the connected accessory.

As not all accessories have music controls, this would cause a problem, so to get round this potential problem accessory manufacturers have the option to tell the iPhone not to enter Accessory Mode but instead display the warning message.

If you see this message when you connect your accessory to your iPhone you will be given the choice to switch to ‘Airplane Mode’. When you see the warning message, you’ve got 3 options:

1. Press ‘YES‘ – This will then put the phone into Airplane Mode. This will temporarily disable telephone and internet capabilities while you’re connected to the accessory. As soon as you disconnect your iPhone from the accessory it will leave Airplane Mode and you’ll be able to make and receive calls again.
2. Press ‘NO‘ – You’ll be able to access all functions on your phone and the accessory will work as it’s supposed to. If your phone rings, the music will fade in/out before & after the call. With some accessories you may experience some interference just before you receive a call or text message.
3. Do Nothing – The warning message will disappear after about 30 seconds and your phone will function as if you’d selected ‘NO’

To try and help you get the best accessories for your iPhone Apple introduced a licensing system that makes it easier to see which accessories will work best with the iPhone. To check if an item is licensed by Apple, just look for the ‘Works with iPhone’ Logo.

Certified by Apple

Syncing your iPhone contacts to your Car Kit

Bluetooth Car Kits are getting smarter, and most of them now support synchronising the contacts stored on your phone to the car kit to enable faster dialling, caller display, and enabling voice control – even on phones like the iPhone 3G that doesn’t support voice dialling. As great as this is though, it’s not quite as straight forward as you’d think as there are two different ways that phones and car kits talk to each other. I’ll apologise now if this gets a little confusing, but I’ll try and keep it as simple as I can.

Although Bluetooth is a pretty generic technology, there are a number of different bluetooth profiles and each bluetooth device uses different ones. The two that are needed to synchronise your contacts between your car kit and your phone are either PBAP – Phone Book Access Profile or OPP – Object Push Profile, but in order for it to sync, both the phone and the car kit need to support the same profile.

• OPP – Object Push Profile - This is an older Bluetooth Profile, so should be supported by most phones and car kits that support contact sync. If the car kit supports the OPP profile then it is capable of receiving information that is sent or ‘pushed’ to it. In order to send your contacts to a car kit that uses OPP you will need to initiate the transfer of your contacts from your phone, either one by one or all at once. The only downside to this is that not all phones support sending your entire phonebook in one go.
• PBAP – Phone Book Access Profile - This profile is one of the more recent Bluetooth Profiles, so not all phones or car kits support it. The advantage of the PBAP profile is that you don’t need to send your contacts to the car kit, the car kit will retrieve them from your phone automatically every time you connect.

Bluetooth support is limited on the iPhone and although it’s improving, it still doesn’t support all Bluetooth profiles – in particular the OPP profile. There is no way of sending any information from an iPhone over Bluetooth. This means that if you have a Bluetooth Car Kit that only supports OPP, you’ll only be able to use the car kit for calls, although features such as last number redial should still work fine. The iPhone does support the PBAP profile though – in fact it supports it brilliantly, so if you want to be able to sync your contacts make sure that the car kit you buy supports the PBAP profile, it should be listed in the technical spec of the user manual.

I’ve got the Parrot MKi9000 installed in my car and every time the car is started and my iPhone 3G connects, the kit checks my phone for any changes and and updates itself. Like I said before, the iPhone supports PBAP brilliantly, and when paired with a compatible car kit it gives you control over the information that is synchronised with the kit. You can chose which groups of contacts to sync – if any, as well as recent calls and favourites.

iPhone Car Kit Sync Options - iPhone OS 3.1

From personal experience I’ve found that the best car kits for syncing your contacts are those made by Parrot. As well as supporting the iPhone fully, they also feature Text to Speech technology that announces the callers name when you receive a call and some will allow you to use voice dialling – even on the iPhone. It does this by matching the wave print of what you say against the Text to Speech wave prints for the contacts stored in the car kit. Most voice dialling kits require you to train your voice to them or to record your own voice tags for the contacts, and this normally doesn’t work too well. The current Parrot car kits that do all this are listed below. If you want more information on any of the kits, just click on the image or read my post on Parrot Car Kits.

Parrot MKi9200 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MKi9100 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MKi9000 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot MK6000 Fully Fitted Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot Minikit Slim Portable Bluetooth Car Kit

Parrot Minikit Chic Portable Bluetooth Car Kit

The Best Cases for the HTC Hero

The HTC Hero is a difficult one when it comes to finding cases for it. Its funny ‘chin’ – the angled section of the phone under the screen – makes finding a case that fits it well extremely difficult, especially as all the case manufacturers took their time in releasing cases that are specifically shaped for the Hero.

It’s taken a while, but I’ve managed to track down 10 cases for the HTC Hero, so with more cases available and after hearing feedback on some of the cases I’ve put this list with cases that are made specifically for the HTC Hero. I’ll still keep my eyes open for any other cases that come along, and I’ll update this post as and when they become available so you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed or bookmark this post so that you don’t miss out on any new ones that become available.

HTC Hero

Now before I go on to the cases, there is one thing that I’ve noticed on the Hero that I feel I need to warn you about – particularly if you have a white one. The plastic that the housing is made from seems to discolour quite easily, the dye from clothing or some cases may transfer on to the phone, which will require quite a bit of effort to clean off and it means that if your phone isn’t protected, it might end up looking worn quite quickly on the corners and on the back cover.

Normally, I’d recommend an InvisibleSHIELD full body protector to stop this kind of discolouring of the case, but if you try to remove an InvisibleShield from the phone, it will peel the paint off too, so for that reason avoid InvisibleShield for the HTC Hero.

Noreve Tradition A Leather Case for HTC Hero

Noreve are a designer case that to be honest I’ve never heard of. They produce premium leather cases that give Piel Frama and PDair a run for their money. This case for the Hero fits the phone so well it’s surprising. When I first saw the ‘chin’ on the Hero I didn’t think that this style of case would work, but Noreve have proved me wrong. The case is the same shape as the phone and moulds around it beautifully. The whole case is hand crafted from top quality leather and leaves your camera, charging ports and volume keys accessible. The case has a detachable ratchet clip that locks eery 15 or so degrees on the back that can be removed easily to leave the back of the case perfectly flat.

Noreve Leather Flip Case for HTC Hero

Read more »

Top 10 HTC Hero Accessories

The HTC Hero is the most highly anticipated Android handset to be released. Not only because it’s only the third handset to be released running the new operating system from Google, but because this one is available without network or Google branding. Instead, HTC have put their own interface on top of the Android operating system to make it easier to use and improve how the menu system looks.

There’s no doubt that the Hero is going to be an incredibly popular handset this summer, and if you’ve invested in one, you’re going to want to keep it looking at its best and working to it’s full potential. To do that you’re going to need a few accessories, but with so many accessories for the HTC Hero available, choosing the right ones for your phone can be a bit of a minefield.

To help you decide on the accessories that you need, I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 Accessories for the HTC Hero .

1. HTC Hero C300 Leather Carry Case

The Hero is a smart looking phone that needs a smart looking case. The C300 has been designed to fit most HTC smart phones. It has cut outs for your charger and handsfree/headphones, as well as a hole in the bottom to make it easier to push your phone out. It’s made from a high quality leather with grey stitching and a soft suede lining that helps to keep your screen fingerprint free. The front of the case has been toughened to give your screen extra protection against crush and impact damage. On the back, the case has a couple of mounting options. The first is a sprung belt clip that allows you to attach it and remove it from your belt quickly and easily, the other is two stitched belt loops that allow you to keep the case on your belt permanently with no chance of it falling off.

HTC Hero C300 Case

Read more »

Increase the battery life of your Nokia 5800

Want to use less energy and get more battery life out of your Nokia 5800 Xpress Music? Here are my top tips on how to reduce your mobile phones carbon footprint and get more from each charge.

Nokia 5800 Battery

Turn your phone off
It may sound silly, but how many times do you turn your 5800 off when you go to bed at night? Chances are you’ve not had many phone calls in the middle of the night, so by turning your phone off when you go to bed, and back on again in the morning, you’re saving 8 hours a day of battery life and could extend your battery life by a few days.

Turn off Bluetooth
Bluetooth only needs to be turned on when you need it – by leaving it turned on all day your 5800 is constantly looking for other Bluetooth devices and draining your battery.

Turn off GPRS, 3G & WiFi
If you never use the internet on your Nokia 5800 you won’t notice any difference by turning GPRS and 3G off – other than having to charge your phone less! If you do use Internet on your phone through either 3G or WiFi, turn them on as and when you need them, other wise they’ll be consuming power searching for networks when there is no need.

Adjust the display
Nokia normally set the screen on the 5800 to its brightest setting to make the display seem clearer. This only drains power, so adjust the settings and dim the screen to a level that you can still see, but is no brighter than it needs to be. Change the screen saver settings too, set it to come on sooner – reducing the time the screen is lit up for.

Leave it alone
We’re all guilty of it, we get bored, nervous, need to look busy, so we pick up our phones and start fiddling with them. We’re not doing anything on them, only draining the battery. Put it down and find something else to play with!

Carry a Spare Battery
If you still aren’t getting the battery life you need from your 5800 after trying all the steps above, then it’s probably time to get yourself a spare battery. Keeping a spare, charged battery with you means you can just swap them over when one runs out. For easy charging, I’d recommend getting a separate desktop battery charger too so that you can charge them both at the same time.

Buy an Extended Battery
If you don’t want the hassle of carrying around a second battery and having to switch between them, then you’ll be better off getting an extended battery for your 5800.  They tend to be slightly bigger than a standard battery, and normally come with a replacement back cover for your phone.  The Nokia 5800 2200mAh extended battery holds more than twice the amount of charge of a standard battery and will give you over 5 days of use before you’ll need to recharge it, but it will make your phone considerably larger.

Portable Power
If you don’t want to add any bulk to your phone or keep switching batteries, then your best bet will be to get yourself a portable charger. Nokia do a few portable chargers/power packs that you can charge up at home/work and then use to charge your 5800 while you’re out and about:

Nokia Extra Power Chargers

Nokia DC-1 Power Pack
The DC-1 will let you charge your phone up to 3 times before it runs out of power.  It has 2 power outlets and can charge 2 phones at the same time. It’s larger than the others, so is best for carrying around in a bag rather than your pocket.

Nokia DC-8 Extra Power
The DC-8 is more portable and runs off standard AA batteries which makes it easy to recharge if you’re out and about – just grab some more batteries and off you go.

Nokia DC-11 Extra Power
The DC-11 is similar to the DC-1, but has a Micro USB and 2mm Nokia charger connections and can charge 2 phones at the same time. It’s the same sort of size as the Nokia 5800, so again, it’s probably better to carry it around in a bag rather than your pocket.

A guide to FlexiShield Skins

FlexiShield Skins are a relatively new type of protective case for mobile phones, but what exactly are they?  Are they silicone cases, crystal cases or something else completely?  To answer this, I’ve put this quick guide together to explain what they are, how they work and why you’d want one.

Flexishield Skin vs Silicone Case

Although FlexiShield Skins and Silicone Cases are quite similar, there are a number of differences between them. Firstly, FlexiShield Skins are made from a tough, flexible gel, rather than the softer, more flexible Silicone used in Silcone Cases. Both of these skins are very different to Crystal Cases, which normally break when your phone is dropped FlexiShield Skins and Silicone cases will absorb impact without damaging the case or your phone. It’s worth noting here, that crystal cases are designed to break on impact – it’s not a design fault – after all, what would you prefer to break;  a £5 case or your phone?

Both cases are roughly 1mm thick, but each case will deal with damage differently. Silicone cases will  protect your phone against scratches while your phone is in your pocket, minor liquid spills and small distance drops, where as the FlexiShield Skins are tougher and provide better protection to against impact damage.

HTC Hero in a Silicone Case on the left and a FlexiShield Skin on the right

As you will probably notice from the picture above, Silicone Cases cover more than just the back and sides of the phone – most will normally offer some kind of protection for your phone’s keypad, although they can become loose over time and need replacing where as FlexiShield Skins will only protect the back cover, corners and edges of your phone but have a much tighter fit and won’t loosen over time.

If you want to look after the screen on your phone you’ll need to purchase a screen protector separately as neither Silicone Cases or FlexiShield Skins will cover your screen.

The Best iPhone Car Holders

Keeping your phone safe and accessible in the car often means getting a car holder for it.  Windscreen mounts for mobile  phones are probably the most popular way of securing your phone in the car.  They are affordable, easy to install and can be removed quickly so as not to draw any attention to your car. With Sat Nav for the iPhone now available too, mounting your iPhone on your windscreen lets you keep your eyes on the road while following the on screen directions.

Windscreen holders aren’t the only option though.  You can also get a range of fixed mobile phone holders that can be securely attached to your car, without causing any damage to your dashboard.  To give you an idea on what car holders work the best with the iPhone and iPhone 3G, I’ve been through our most popular car holders to see how they measure up.

iPhone Car Holder by Brodit

If you need something a little more heavy duty, or a semi permanent solution, then a Brodit Holder will be your best option. Brodit produce a range of holders, each made from a tough ABS plastic and then coated with a soft touch fabric to prevent your iPhone from getting scratched. There are 3 different types of Brodit Holder available:

• Brodit Passive iPhone 3G Holder
• Brodit Active iPhone 3G Holder
• Brodit Passive iPhone 3G Holder with Dock Connector

All 3 do a great job of holding your iPhone securely in the car, the only difference between them is how they can charge your phone. Brodit Passive Holders only hold your phone, if you wanted to charge your phone, you’d need to buy a separate car charger. Brodit Active Holders have a car charger wired into them, so as soon as you slide your phone in, it starts charging. The Brodit Holder with Pass through is slightly different, it doesn’t have a car charger attached, but it does have a Dock Connection on the bottom. This allows you to connect a car charger, FM Transmitter, Parrot MKi Car Kit or any other accessory that uses the Dock Connector to the phone while it’s in the holder and means you won’t have to fiddle around plugging them in each time you get in the car.

Brodit iPhone Holders - Passive, Active & Pass Through

All three are on a ‘Tilt Swivel’ base that allows you to rotate the phone through 360 degrees, as well as angle it away from sunlight or reflections and should ideally be screwed to a flat surface in your car. If you don’t want to screw into your dashboard (and I know I certainly wouldn’t) then a ProClip from Brodit is your answer. Brodit ProClips are strong plastic mounts that clip onto your dashboard without causing any damage and provide a great base for attaching car holders onto. Proclips are vehicle specific and are normally available for different parts of your dashboard.

Brodit Passive Holder for iPhone 3GS Mounted on ProClip

Griffin WindowSeat

Griffin are well known for making iPod and iPhone accessories. The Griffin WindowSeat for iPhone 3G has a high-grip silicone suction pad that easily and quickly attaches to your windscreen or other smooth surface and stays put. It leaves your charging port and headphone socket accessible, and comes with an audio cable so you can connect your phone to your car stereo (As long as your stereo has a 3.5mm aux-in port). If you use Sat Nav on your iPhone, you can rotate the holder through 360 degrees without having to remove your phone.

Griffin WindowSeat for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS

Drive Safe

The DriveSafe Pack for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS include a car charger as well as a holder for your iPhone.  The holder has an adjustable arm that can be bent into shape and rotated to suit your needs.  The car charger will ensure that you don’t run out of power on your journey.

DriveSafe Car Pack for iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G Cradle with Changeable Mounts

This is the most customisable type of iPhone Car Holder.  First you pick a cradle, then you choose a mount.  As all of the mounting ports use the same clip system, you can choose a mount that will best suit your vehicle. The iPhone cradles all do the same thing, the main difference between them is that the PDA Cradle for iPhone 3G has a longer support on one side to keep your phone more stable when being used in landscape mode.  Some of the available mounts available are listed below

• Air Vent
• Windscreen Mount (Fixed)
• Suction Mount (Rotating)
• Cigarette Socket
• Bicycle Mount

From experience though, I’ve always found Air Vent holders a little loose, especially on heavier handsets like the iPhone, so I’d opt for a Rotating Windscreen Holder as it’s a lot more secure. The Rotating Holder has a solid arm that can be rotated in three directions to help you get the best viewing angle and allows you to turn your phone into landscape mode without having to remove it from the holder.

Mounting Port Cradles

Deluxe Holster

The Deluxe Holster for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS is really a two in one holder.  It’s made up of  two parts, the first is a polycarbonate case that protects the back of your phone and can be attached to a belt, the other is a suction mount that attaches to your windscreen and can hold your phone without you having to remove it from the case.  The Deluxe Holster also comes with a car charger.

Deluxe iPhone 3G Holder

If you’ve seen a different holder that works well with your iPhone then let me know using the comments form below.

Nokia Speakerphone HF-310 Review

Nokia have always produced fantastic fitted car kits but their plug & play car kits have been good, but not really anything to shout about. The Nokia HF-310 and Nokia HF-510 have just been announced as replacements for the HF-200 and HF-300, but are they any better? What have they got that makes them different to the ones they’re replacing? I wasn’t too sure either, as at first glance a bluetooth car kit is just a bluetooth car kit, right?

I grabbed a Nokia HF-310 and tried it out to see how the new Nokia car kit shapes up.

In the Box

With most ‘plug and play’ Bluetooth car kits, you normally get the loud speaker, visor clip and a charger of some description, you get the same with the Nokia HF-310, but you also get a couple of extra items – a windscreen suction holder and a suction pad that you can use anywhere in the car. The HF-310 uses the same Nokia DC-4 that most of the current Nokia handsets use, so you won’t need to buy a seperate charger for your phone.

Nokia HF-310 Box Contents

Read more »