Macopinion

The Road Warrior Review - iPodding On The Road

More and more automobiles come with built-in iPod docks, but there are still millions of vehicles out there that don't have them. For example, my own truck and car were built, respectively, seven and eleven years before the first iPod was introduced, but there are also still plenty of new vehicles being sold without iPod support.


Fortunately, there are lots of third-party in-car solutions available that can help make iPodding on the road more convenient and enjoyable, including the troika of products from Proporta I'm checking out in this review.

First up is the new Proporta Magnetic Dashboard Mount which fastens to your vehicle's dashboard using tough 3M self-adhesive backing and magnetically positions your iPod (or other mobile device) where it's easy to reach and control without taking your eyes off the road.

Proporta Magnetic Dashboard Mount includes the car mount itself, two magnetic sticky pads and a lint-free cleaning cloth.

A small magnetic wafer-shaped pad is applied to the back of your 'Pod also using 3M self adhesive, which in turn allows it to securely attach itself to the mount, creating a safe but accessible car kit. The magnetic wafers are just the right size to fit my wife's second generation iPod nano, and they should work fine with third gen. nanos as well. With the nano's light weight, the magnetic fixture seems plenty secure, although I didn't have an iPhone or iPod touch to try it with.

I'm pretty certain the weight of my old first generation iPod would be too much for the magnet to hold securely, but that's academic anyway because this product, with its strong magnets, is not to be used with any device containing a hard disk, at peril of data loss or corruption due to the magnetic field. For devices with flash memory like the nanos, iPhone, and touch, this is not an issue.

Here is the Proporta Magnetic Dashboard Mount affixed to the dashboard of my truck where it's conveniently accessible from the driver's seat.

And here it is with the iPod in situ. In this shot I have a Proporta iPod FM Transmitter attached. To read my recent review of that product, click here.

The 3M sticky stuff seems to form a secure bond, and indeed the instructions warn to take care and attach the self-adhesive components in the right place, as changing its position after it's bonded would implicitly be an iffy proposition at best. The other downside of this is of course that it's not a practical proposition to used the Proporta Magnetic Dashboard Mount in more than one vehicle or transfer it to a different vehicle if you change cars. However, two magnetic sticky pad attachment wafers are provided, so you can use the mount in your car with more than one device.

The Proporta Magnetic Dashboard Mount sells for $25.95

For more information, visit:
http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=3626&t_mode=des

If you're on a road trip, your iPod's internal battery may not have enough playback life between charges to last for the whole journey. An ideal solution would be Proporta Car Power Supply with USB Socket.

With your iPod or other device safely attached to the car mount, you can charge it in place with the Car Power Supply.

You can charge any USB device (iPod/GPS/PDA/Smartphone/Game/etc.) from a standard car cigarette lighter outlet with this handy adaptor.

The Proporta Car Power Supply with USB Port is also compatible with the USB cable supplied with your iPod or other device. However, the review unit we received was the very similar Proporta Mini USB In Vehicle Charger, which instead of the Car Power Supply with USB Socket's female USB socket, has a stretch coil cord with a mini USB plug hard-wired to the unit. Aside from that, it appears to be identical to the USB socket unit.

Here it is plugged into the cigarette lighter socket in my truck. The red LED lights up to indicate that the charger is supplying power.

The problem was that the iPod has no female USB mini-socket. If you're main interest in this sort of charging device is to charge your iPod, then the model to get is definitely the Proporta Car Power Supply with USB Port, which sells for $8.95

For more information, visit:
http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=318&t_mode=des

However, the review Mini USB In Vehicle Charger worked just fine with the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger, another Proporta solution for for extending iPod portable runtime which is essentially a 3400 mAH lithium Ion (LiIon) rechargeable battery pack that charges from a USB port on any computer, from an optional AC power adapter, or from the Proporta Mini USB In Vehicle Charger via its Mini USB socket, and which delivers 5.5 volts through its USB output port to recharge and/or run an iPod or other USB device. Proporta claims that it will triple your iPod's battery runtime

I was able to plug the iPod into the Mobile Device Charger, and recharge that from the car battery via the Mini USB In Car Charger.

Full-sized iPods have OEM battery capacities of around 850 mAH to 1,200mAh capacity so 3400 mAH is a lot more juice than your 'Pod's internal battery supports, the mobile device charger could more than quadruple your runtime between charges if you start with both batteries fully charged.

With its white livery and a form factor and footprint roughly the same as a traditional full-sized iPod, the Mobile Device Charger harmonizes nicely appearance-wise, and will fit in a soft iPod sleeve for carriage. It comes with high-quality in and output USB cables, also in white, and a selection of USB device adapters for iPods and other machines.

The Mobile Device Charger is simple to use. To charge, just connect it to any standard USB port. The charge indicator LED on top of the Unit will glow red while the battery is charging, then green when it is fully charged.

Then you just plug your iPod or other USB device into the output port for hours of power and/or a recharge of the music player's internal battery.

I also tried the Mobile Device Charger with a rechargeable Bluetooth mouse, with which it worked just fine. It even powered the cooling fans in my Targus ChillMat laptop cooler, which could be handy when the computer's USB ports are needed for other purposes. However, it didn't have enough juice to power my i-Rocks external USB hard drive enclosure, but that's not a criticism; that drive needs power from two USB ports on my 17-inch PowerBook to spin up, although it does work through a single port on other machines. I digress. And of course, this USB device is no help with my old FireWire-only antique iPod.

For its primary intended purpose - extending the battery-power runtime of iPods and other portable music players, mobile telephones, PDAs, SmartPhones, GPS navigation devices, and digital cameras, the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger works just fine.

To charge and/or run your mobile device, connect it to the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger using one of the supplied cables and the appropriate cable connector, press the button surrounding the charge indicator LED, which will glow green if the unit is charged and you're away to the races. When the Mobile Device Charger's internal battery is almost discharged, the LED indicator will begin to flash red, indicating that it needs to be recharged.

With a fully charged Proporta Mobile Device Charger, the company says you should be able to charge most mobile devices between three and five times from completely empty. HOwever, note that he Proporta USB Mobile Device charger is not compatible with the Microsoft Zune.

The included white cable with a standard USB on one end and a mini USB on the other is used to charge the battery of the unit. Simply plug the standard USB plug end into a computer's USB port or a USB AC adaptor and the mini USB into the battery pack and charging will commence. When the charging is complete the light will turn green.

The battery comes with four connectors (a Sony Ericsson, two Nokia, and an iPod connector head) as well as a USB to Mini USB cable to charge any Mini USB compatible devices. The connector heads are to be used with the retractable cable that is also supplied. If you have any other product that you wish to charge using the portable battery then you will need to have a USB cable which is compatible with your device (i.e. a USB connector on one end of the cable and a suitable connector to fit into your device on the other end).

Once the correct cable has been identified it needs to be inserted into the battery and into your device (device needs to be on when charging), you should then press the green button to turn the charger on. Your device should then begin to charge.

Features
• Charge anywhere, recharge anything - standard USB input and output
• Comes with USB to Mini USB cable, and a retractable cable which is compatible with the following inter-changeable connector heads: 2 x Nokia, 1 x Sony Ericsson, 1 x iPod
• Compact, slim and lightweight (measures just 100 x 62 x 15mm or 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches and weighs 120g or 4.2 oz)
• Impressive 3400 mAH storage (recharge your devices several times)
• Powerful 5v, 700mA output (enough for even the most power-hungry mobile devices)
• Environmentally friendly (rechargeable)
• LED charge and discharge indicator
• Microswitch on/off selection

The Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger sells for $ 44.95

For more information, visit:
http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05.php?t_id=2725&t_mode=des

Shipping worldwide for any of these products is $4.95, and there's the charming Proporta signature touch that orders ship with complementary packets of real British tea, such as English Breakfast Tea, Earl Grey, or Darjeeling by Taylor's of Harrowgate (Family Tea Merchants; est. 1886) that came with each order Excellent tea!

***



cmoore@macopinion.com


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