Auto-Mobile Once More
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After the window-smashing incident at the bingo hall (I’ll explain later) on Sunday, I dropped my trusty Honda CR-V (13 years old, only 130,000 km/81,000 miles on it) at the shop. A day and some hundreds of dollars later – window replacement was $330, but I also needed a fall/winter tune-up and an emissions test, the latter of which led to the discovery of an exhaust leak – I have my wheels back in perfect working order.
I’m still out a GPS, and I’m thinking of using my iPhone 4. Any suggestions for dashboard mounts and GPS software? Let me know in the comments!
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Another windshield? I remember when you replaced it last time, when the driving examiner refused to get in the car due to the crack in it. Given the number of km's you have on it, you sure go through windshields fast! :)
Navigon has the better maps over TOM TOM for Canada, and is decently easy to use.
As for mounts the question is if you have a case or not.
With case, Kensington has a decent mount for windshield or vent http://www.kensington.com/kensington/us/us/p/1600/K39255US/soundwave%E2%84%A2-sound-amplifying-car-mount.aspx
Without as case, Griffin, http://store.griffintechnology.com/iphone/tuneflex-aux-handsfree
My wife has an iPhone 4, and uses MotionX GPS. She absolutely loves it; it costs about $20 per year, as I recall.
I use Navigon on my 3GS docked with something like this:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Capdase-Car-Lighter-Cradle-Mount-Charger-iPhone-4-GPS-/130564714949?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item1e664371c5
What's nice is that it is less visible then something sticking from your windshield. My car radio has a audio in jack. If I want to listen to some music or GPS directions from the phone, just connect a male-male audio cable.
Ram mounts http://www.ram-mount.com/ are the best I've seen for motorcycles and boats, I'd figure they are among the best for cars as well.
If you haven't tried out WAZE, its pretty awesome (though I don't know how it is north of the Border...)
You can find their online portal at http://www.waze.com
Their app (creatively called... WAZE) is a free GPS navigator. The cool part about it is that it is modeled more like wikipedia. They use free maps to populate an area, and allow users to edit the map for accuracy, within 1 mile of any road you've actually driven on.
And it has a social aspect that allows you to get "points" for driving and working on the map. This is beneficial, because as more people use the app, it provides real-time traffic info. Say that there's an accident 5 miles ahead of you on the freeway, and two WAZE users are in stop and go traffic. It can deduce that your route has gotten slower, and automatically notify you of the slow traffic and route you around it.
In other words, the more people who use it, the better it gets.
Sorry, I forgot to mention, that it gives turn by turn directions vocally, and updates to your next leg of the trip auto-magically, so once you set your destination, you pretty much don't need to interact with it.