Monday, May 27, 2002
Review of Arkon iPAQ Mount
Posted by marlof in "ARTICLE" @ 04:56 AM
http://www.arkon.com
Arkon is well known for their different types of in car mounts for mobile devices. They have brought out a mount specifically designed to cradle an iPAQ in your car. In this review I'll take a look at some of their offerings, including the multimedia mounts.
For the speedreaders I'll start with my conclusion: "The Arkon iPAQ mount comes highly recommended as a safe way to mount your iPAQ in your car. The vent mount attached without a problem to the vent in my car, my iPAQ fit perfectly in the cradle, and releasing the mount from the car went without a problem. Especially when using your iPAQ with a GPS unit on the road, or when playing MP3 or WMA music while driving, this is a very good addition to your iPAQ." But of course there's more to this review than just that.<!>
Device Requirements
The mount fits any iPAQ, from the older 3100/3600/3700 series to the newer 3800 series, as long as it is in a jacket. The basic jacket the iPAQ comes with is sufficient. Small jackets, like the Silver Slider II, or big ones, like the dual slot jacket, will both fit nicely.
In Brief
The Arkon PDA-mount for the iPAQ has a generic cradle for your iPAQ. You can choose from several different ways to attach the cradle to your car. You can attach it to your console, to the floorbolt of a frontseat, to your windshield, to a cupholder, or to a vent.
Figure 1: Arkon iPAQ mount attached to vent.
Where to Buy
You can buy the mounts through the Arkon website. The prices range from $44.95 to $59.95.
Vent mount
One of the two mounts I received can attach to a vent opening in your car. Lifting the top parts of the holder that go in the vent releases the mount from the vent, so you can take the mount with you, and place it in another car. If you're like me, and want to use your mounts in all cars in the family, that proofs to be quite handy.
Figure 2: Arkon iPAQ vent mount in detail.
Cupholder mount
Another way to attach the mount is to place it in a cupholder. Due to lack of cupholders in the car I tested this in, I can not show that to you, but here's a picture of what the mount and holder look like.
Figure 3: Arkon iPAQ on the cupholder mount.
What I especially liked about this setup, is that you could both rotate and tilt the mount so the iPAQ faces you in the best way.
Multimedia mount
I received two different products that gave you the opportunity to listen to sound from your iPAQ on your car radio, which I felt was a great thing to do. This can of course also be used to listen to the voice commands of your GPS system through your in car stereo.
Figure 4: Arkon iPAQ cradle without and with SoundFeeder Audio adapter.
The first, as shown in figure 4, is an attachment that goes right between the cradle and the holder. This adds some thickness to the whole thing, but that didn't bother me at all. The SoundFeeder has a power supply through a 12v adapter, and a cable that goes in the headphones slot of your iPAQ. You can set three different ranges of frequencies, and finetune in between those, to get a clear spot in between your radio stations. If you travel for a longer period of time, and the channels listings change, you'd have to finetune again. Therefore it's a pity that the finetune knob is on the backside of the adapter, making it too hard to readjust while driving.
Figure 5: The portable SoundFeeder.
A second solution would be the standalone Portable SoundFeeder. This one runs on AAA batteries, and does not attach to the mount. You can use it with any radio that has an FM antenna. As the readjustment buttons are on the front of the unit, they are easy to use. But then again, this unit does not attach to your mount, and I can imagine that in car usage is not the first target of this particular SoundFeeder.
Gotchas
As for the vent mount, the one I got to test extensively in this last period, I found only one downside to that:
• There is no rotation, so depending on the location of your vent, you might look at the mounted iPAQ from an angle.
There were also some gotcha's with the Multimedia addition to the mount:
• The SoundFeeder Audio Adapter takes the 12v slot in your car, so you'd need to add a splitter to charge your iPAQ at the same time.
• Finding and adjusting the channel the SoundFeeders broadcast to can be troublesome in modern digital radio's that automatically pick the strongest signal.
• Finetuning the frequency while driving is not advisable.
Arkon is well known for their different types of in car mounts for mobile devices. They have brought out a mount specifically designed to cradle an iPAQ in your car. In this review I'll take a look at some of their offerings, including the multimedia mounts.
For the speedreaders I'll start with my conclusion: "The Arkon iPAQ mount comes highly recommended as a safe way to mount your iPAQ in your car. The vent mount attached without a problem to the vent in my car, my iPAQ fit perfectly in the cradle, and releasing the mount from the car went without a problem. Especially when using your iPAQ with a GPS unit on the road, or when playing MP3 or WMA music while driving, this is a very good addition to your iPAQ." But of course there's more to this review than just that.<!>
Device Requirements
The mount fits any iPAQ, from the older 3100/3600/3700 series to the newer 3800 series, as long as it is in a jacket. The basic jacket the iPAQ comes with is sufficient. Small jackets, like the Silver Slider II, or big ones, like the dual slot jacket, will both fit nicely.
In Brief
The Arkon PDA-mount for the iPAQ has a generic cradle for your iPAQ. You can choose from several different ways to attach the cradle to your car. You can attach it to your console, to the floorbolt of a frontseat, to your windshield, to a cupholder, or to a vent.
Figure 1: Arkon iPAQ mount attached to vent.
Where to Buy
You can buy the mounts through the Arkon website. The prices range from $44.95 to $59.95.
Vent mount
One of the two mounts I received can attach to a vent opening in your car. Lifting the top parts of the holder that go in the vent releases the mount from the vent, so you can take the mount with you, and place it in another car. If you're like me, and want to use your mounts in all cars in the family, that proofs to be quite handy.
Figure 2: Arkon iPAQ vent mount in detail.
Cupholder mount
Another way to attach the mount is to place it in a cupholder. Due to lack of cupholders in the car I tested this in, I can not show that to you, but here's a picture of what the mount and holder look like.
Figure 3: Arkon iPAQ on the cupholder mount.
What I especially liked about this setup, is that you could both rotate and tilt the mount so the iPAQ faces you in the best way.
Multimedia mount
I received two different products that gave you the opportunity to listen to sound from your iPAQ on your car radio, which I felt was a great thing to do. This can of course also be used to listen to the voice commands of your GPS system through your in car stereo.
Figure 4: Arkon iPAQ cradle without and with SoundFeeder Audio adapter.
The first, as shown in figure 4, is an attachment that goes right between the cradle and the holder. This adds some thickness to the whole thing, but that didn't bother me at all. The SoundFeeder has a power supply through a 12v adapter, and a cable that goes in the headphones slot of your iPAQ. You can set three different ranges of frequencies, and finetune in between those, to get a clear spot in between your radio stations. If you travel for a longer period of time, and the channels listings change, you'd have to finetune again. Therefore it's a pity that the finetune knob is on the backside of the adapter, making it too hard to readjust while driving.
Figure 5: The portable SoundFeeder.
A second solution would be the standalone Portable SoundFeeder. This one runs on AAA batteries, and does not attach to the mount. You can use it with any radio that has an FM antenna. As the readjustment buttons are on the front of the unit, they are easy to use. But then again, this unit does not attach to your mount, and I can imagine that in car usage is not the first target of this particular SoundFeeder.
Gotchas
As for the vent mount, the one I got to test extensively in this last period, I found only one downside to that:
• There is no rotation, so depending on the location of your vent, you might look at the mounted iPAQ from an angle.
There were also some gotcha's with the Multimedia addition to the mount:
• The SoundFeeder Audio Adapter takes the 12v slot in your car, so you'd need to add a splitter to charge your iPAQ at the same time.
• Finding and adjusting the channel the SoundFeeders broadcast to can be troublesome in modern digital radio's that automatically pick the strongest signal.
• Finetuning the frequency while driving is not advisable.
