The typical tech people put into cars are music players, DVD decks, PNDs (personal navigation devices) and smartphones. And the most annoying thing is how to mount it.

You have seven basic options for mounting tech in a car:

1. Proprietary in-dash
2. Semi-proprietary in-dash
3. In-mirror
4. Gooseneck/Bracket
5. Suction mount to adhesive plate
6. Suction mount to glass
7. Friction mount (a.k.a. "bean bag" mount)

Here’s each one of these in detail.

Proprietary in-dash

This is any tech you buy that is specifically made for in-dash use and the most expensive of the bunch. Ordinarily you’re going to spend at least $400 (installation not included) for one of these setups. Better ones have a DVD player, GPS and options to pair to your phone via Bluetooth.

The major problem with tech of this type is that it suffers from the "last in line" curse. Any tech that is current now (such as on Blackberries and iPhones) won’t be available in the in-dash units until a year or two later. And by that time the tech is already obsolete.

Semi-proprietary in-dash

The difference between this and the fully proprietary in-dash setups is that certain pieces can be taken out and used elsewhere. The one seen above has a 4.3-inch TomTom GPS device that can be removed by a simple click-in/click-out (which means it can also be upgraded easily, avoiding some of the last-in-line curse). It also has a ton of other features. If I were searching for an in-dash solution, I would take this over the fully proprietary any day.

 In-mirror

A rear-view mirror that’s a touchscreen monitor? Believe it. The operating system is Windows CE and there are mounting brackets for Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Ford, Mazda and Chevrolet.

To note: These are not easy to acquire and are usually reserved for builders who buy 100 of them at a time. We’ll see tech like this become more readily available for consumers as time goes on, possibly in the form of a super-thin OLED screen that "sticks" to your mirror without having to swap it out.

 Gooseneck mount

Mounts of this type can either be held in place via a suction to the glass or drilled into the floor. You will either love or hate the gooseneck.

Suction mount to adhesive plate

This is the most convenient option for most people. Automotive GPS makers have got this down pat. For example, when you buy a Garmin GPS, it comes with a plate with adhesive that you can stick to the dashboard. Then you mount the GPS to it with its suction mount. Works well and is certainly better than putting it on the glass.

Suction mount to glass

Whether it’s a gooseneck or other type of mount, suction mounting to glass is an imperfect solution at best, mainly due to the fact it can "take a dive" without warning.

  Friction mount (the "bean bag")

This mount setup sits anywhere and has rubber padding under it to prevent sliding from all over the place.

Which is best for you?

For those who are cheap: Suction mount to glass. Readily available, easy install.

For those who have odd-shaped devices: Gooseneck with adjustable bracket. Ham radio guys have been doing this forever, because a mobile ICOM isn’t the same size as a Kenwood isn’t the same size as a Yaesu, etc.

BONUS TIP for hams: Consider using a gooseneck floor mount that attaches to the passenger seat bolt. No drilling necessary. Takes minutes to install. Cheap and rock-solid. Looks good, too.

For those that want the easiest to use: Use the friction mount. It can be moved from car to car easily and moved anywhere you like at whim. Bear in mind friction mounts come for a variety of different mobile devices including almost all cell phones.

For those that don’t like friction mounts: Use a suction mount to a plate. This is what I use personally because the bean bag liked to jump around when going over things like bumpy railroad tracks – even at slow speed.

For those that like to show off: Use the in-mirror (assuming you can even get one) or in-dash. But remember that this is a very permanent thing. All the rest can be moved from car to car, but not this method. Not easily, anyway. Once it’s in there, it’s really in there if you catch my meaning.

I really find it humorous when I read articles like this basically insinuating that Dell can’t build a decent small computer, and in this case a SmartPhone.

From the linked article above, the tail of it states this:

Still, would you buy a Dell smartphone? What kind of features should MePhone have in order to convince you to chose it over an iPhone, Blackberry or T-Mobile G1?

To answer up front: If I were in the market to buy one, yes I would whether it had more or less features than competitors. The reason? Good build quality.

Some people laugh out loud because they think "Dell" and "good build quality" shouldn’t be in the same sentence. Oh, how easily people forget the Dell Axim. Yes, I know that was a PDA but it goes to prove that Dell can build a decent small computer. Those who have used Axims understand that unit was solid, worked great and looked great all at the same time. And I knew a few people who beat the crap out of those things and they never skipped a beat.

Were Axims the most feature-rich? No. But they worked and were "rugged" as far as PDAs were concerned. If Dell can build a phone up to that spec, it’s totally okay to not be as feature-rich as long as the price point is agreeable with the masses.

And obviously any phone that’s not tethered to a specific wireless provider (*cough* iPhone *cough*) is always better.

With last week’s announcement of the Iphone 2.0 (due to be released on July 11th), I was yet again pondering the thought of switching to the Iphone. The Iphone is very revolutionary for the smartphone market. The interface is amazing. The fact that almost anyone can actually use the features of the Iphone is amazing. Anybody with a Windows Mobile phone can attest to the difficulty you will have accomplishing seemingly normal things.

But, all in all, what is the real cost of switching to the Iphone?

Continued

One of the “in” things to do online these days is lifestreaming. Lifestreaming is where you have an online record of your daily activities. You might use Twitter to share random thoughts throughout the day. You might snap photos or take videos and put them online. You’ll write blog posts. You’ll update your statuses in social networks like Facebook.

In a way, I do this. I blog regularly both here at PCMech and on DavidRisley.com. I am a regular user of Twitter and have been known to send in “tweets” even while using my cell phone when I am not in the office. I use FriendFeed and love the site because it aggregates all of these various activities into a single feed. Continued

There are more than a few people out there that put their entire lives (more or less) into their mobile device, i.e. a smartphone. Mobile users are all about accessibility, as in “I want to do everything on my smartphone that I can do on my computer.” And when they say everything, they mean everything.

The Big Three in this field are Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

Let’s take a look at each.

Google

Site: http://www.google.com/mobile/

This is what you can currently do on mobile with Google:

• Search (duh)
• Maps
• Gmail
• SMS
• YouTube
• GOOG-411
• Calendar
• News
• Picasa (photo sharing)
• Blogger
• Reader
• Docs
• Sync (sync to a Blackberry)
• Notebook

Microsoft

Site: http://mobile.msn.com

This is what you get with MSN mobile:

• Mobile Web (MSN homepage)
• Search
• Hotmail
• MSNBC (news)
• Weather
• MSN Money (stock quotes and so on)
• FOX Sports
• Entertainment (movie showtimes, current gossip, etc.)
• Local (maps, listings)
• Spaces (blogging)
• Messenger (instant messaging)

Yahoo

Site: http://mobile.yahoo.com

This is what you get with Yahoo mobile:

• Go (meant to be used as a starting point)
• oneSearch (search)
• oneConnect (connects different and multiple messenger accounts, instant messaging)
• onePlace (sort of like a bookmark/favorite type of thing)
• Widget Gallery (allows for custom programmed stuff such as MySpace, eBay and so on)
• Mobile Homepage
• Mail
• Messenger
• Local (maps)
• Flickr
• News
• Weather
• Finance
• Sports
• Entertainment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As of right now, the brand that has the best mobility is Yahoo. It has widget support. It can connect to multiple instant messaging accounts. It has Flickr which is what most people use for photo sharing.

Yahoo Mobile promotes “digital life” better than anyone else at the moment because it shares out what counts. The goal of mobility is to stay connected when you’re on the go. Yahoo is doing that better than everyone else.

I have to emphasize the “right now” aspect of this. Mobile computing is literally advancing almost every 3 to 6 months. In other words, a very rapid pace. The only thing that is slowing everyone down is not the development but the hardware. Smartphones still use relatively slow processors and have a limited amount of memory to work with. The reason? There’s only one – to extend battery life.

Not to worry – processor manufacturers are hard at work developing chips that will consume less power and be faster for tomorrow’s smartphones. Watch for it.

If you are the type of person who sends text messages a lot on your smartphone device using Windows Mobile, this is good news for you.

Windows Mobile 6.1 has been reported to (after a long wait) have native SMS threading. What this essentially means is that text messages can be sent/received in an instant-messenger style way, making it much easier to follow of text conversations. Before this point it was a bit difficult to keep track of what was going on without this threading, but now the native support exists and that’s genuinely a step in the right direction.

[Source: Mobile Computer]