Anyone seen or use this?
Looks interesting.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-doBe2jZ...&i=020NICE#Tab

 

I played with one of these the other day. It does what it says. Its very simple to setup and get working and gives you NAV, mp3s, and satellite radio lickety split. The built in FM modulator and suction cup base makes installation a breeze. However, I think its major plus is also its major weakness. There isn't alot to the interface. The sirius satellite radio didn't show station names at all, just channel numbers, this might of been something I was doing wrong, but I couldn't figure it out. You can play and go to next and previous songs pretty easily, but the playlist features aren't very intuitive. Navigation can also be slow at creating routes and searching for them and will restart every time you exit the nav module to go to another one. The GPS signal also seemed to go out when I was using it and the only way I knew was cause my location was definitly not right, it didn't display and error message or anything. The FM modulator was very good as FM Modulators go, probably one of the best I've seen, but was still obviously an FM modulator with bouts of static every once in a while.

The most annoying feature for me was that whenever you parked you had to take it down so it wouldn't get stolen as its painfully obvious you have an expensive easily removable NAV system with it hanging on the window, but this also means that you can use it in multiple vehicle pretty easily.

All in all, this is something I might recommend for my mom, but if your an audiofile, a tech savvy person, or want to keep the stock look, there are alot more comprehensive products available, although, you won't find many that offer as much in something this easy to install.

 

I thought it may be a good option to sit on the upper cubby (where OEM NAv would go), do you thing it would sit/rest on there?

 

Thanks for the review. I am currently shopping for a mobile gps and really uncertain what to run with. I'd really like a multifunction similar to this. But stowage is an issue. I am curious if it would fit a well. I travel a lot and like the multifunction stuff becasue it help lighten the laptop bag. I already carry a 10lb laptop with a 17" display and there isnt much more room for many items.

I will look to see if I can find the dimensions but if somone knows if it will or will not fit in the cubby I would appreciate if you could tell us.

I am goig to search the site but has anyone used the Bluetooth GPS with a PDA as a solution?

 

I have, though I did not have the PDA outputting to any sort of video screen, and I did not connect the PDA's audio out to anything.

It worked pretty darn well. My girlfriend got a bluetooth GPS receiver for me off of ebay which can run on 12VDC, 120VAC or it's internal battery (which is a nokia cellphone battery). I use iGuidance which comes with both a PDA version and a laptop/desktop version. This way when I get my carPC installed, iGuidance can run on it with my GPS receiver running on the car 12v and connecting via bluetooth to the carPC. If I'm going hiking/camping, I can take the GPS receiver out of the car, run it on the battery in the side pocket of my backpack and use it with my pocketPC.

 

I am thinking about using the sprint ppc-6700 and a bluetooth gps receiver. I am going to vist best buy and/or a srint stre to see if they can confirm or deny support for this. I have heard from many friends that their pocketpc phone has had some funtionailty turned off by the cellular provider.

 

Alright since Chuck won't boast about his products, I will say that I've got an awesome setup thanks to his hardware and software combo. The software is due out soon (I'm a beta tester thank god cause I couldn't wait to start using this thing). You can check out the demo at www.digitalwheelz.com.

Obviously it requires some type of in car PC to be installed, which is harder than just plugging this Clarion unit in - but the possibilities are amazing.

 

I like the carputer case. I am really more interested in a portable gps but if I could find the right components I would do a hybrid system where the portable GPS would also serve as the touch screen for the carputer.

I have been looking a a lot of diferent components wired and bluetooth to see what I cold come up with.

Ideally I would like to find a portable GPS that I can mount on top of the cubby, it cold tuck or not tuck not really important to me. I am new to the GPS stuff so I have a lot of window shoping to do. The big thing is finding a GPS that will operate as a monitor with touchscreen capability. All other features would be secondary.

Thanns for stopping in. I cerainly welcome any and all recommendations; I know how to search but nothing takes a current product knowledge.

Thanks,

Noah

 

FYI: This is on sale at Frys for 999.