Product Description

AMPLIFIED HANDS-FREE CALLING USING BLUETOOTHIN-CAR CHARGINGPOWERFUL SENSITIVE BUILT-IN GPS RECEIVER PROVIDES FAST & ACCURATE DIRECTIONS EVERY TIMEWORKS WITH MOST NAVIGATION OR LOCATION-BASED APPSCRADLE IS COMPATIBLE WITH MOST GPS NAVIGATION APPS WHILE OPTIMIZED FOR THE MAGELLAN ROADMATE APP FOR IPHONEIN-CAR CHARGINGNOISE-CANCELLING HANDS-FREE SPEAKERPHONEPOWERFUL AMPLIFIED SPEAKER USE THE VOLUME CONTROL FOR LOUD & CLEAR VOICE GUIDANCESECURE ADJUSTABLE VEHICLE MOUNTING QUICKLY SECURE THE CRADLE TO WINDSHIELD OR DASHBOARD & EASILY ADJUST FOR PORTRAIT OR LANDSCAPE VIEWINGFITS HARD SHELL CASES OR SILICONE SKINSCOMPATIBLE WITH IPHONE 4 & IPOD TOUCHUPC : 763357123760Shipping Dimensions : 2.80in X 5.60in X 6.10inEstimated Shipping Weight : 0.9

Product Details

• Brand: Magellan
• Model: AP0300SGXXX
• Released on: 2010-01-08
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 5.00" h x 8.00" w x 5.00" l,

Features

• Compatibility: iPod touch 2G, 3G; iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4
• Transform your iPhone or iPod touch into a complete in-car solution for GPS navigation
• Charge your device while mounted; built-in GPS receiver enhances performance
• Noise-cancelling, hands-free speakerphone with powerful amplified speaker
• Works with any navigation or location-based app, including Magellan's RoadMate app

Amazon.com Product Description
The Magellan Premium Car Kit transforms your iPhone into a complete in-car solution for GPS navigation. Simply place your iPhone in the cradle and connect the power. There's no need to remove your protective case--the cradle adjusts to your needs.

Transform your iPhone into a complete in-car solution for GPS navigation. Click to enlarge.

Secure, adjustable vehicle mounting.

Works with any navigation or location-based app.

Magellan Premium Car Kit for iPhone / iPod Touch

Requires purchase of a navigation app. Sold separately.

The Premium Car Kit lets you use great navigation apps like the Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone and iPod touch (2nd generation) and instantly enhances your navigation experience.

This powerful, built-in receiver boosts GPS reception, ensuring accurate directions. Simply place your iPhone or iPod touch into the cradle and connect the power. The cradle even works with most turn- by-turn routing applications available today, including the Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone (sold separately).

The Premium Car Kit connects via Bluetooth (iPhone only) to deliver a superior hands-free calling experience. The powerful, amplified speaker delivers crystal clear calls and turn-by-turn directions. No need to even remove your protective cover--the cradle adjusts to accommodate most cases or skins.

Navigate in confidence with the Magellan Premium Car Kit!

Features

• Built-in GPS receiver enhances performance
  A powerful, sensitive built-in GPS receiver provides faster and more accurate location information to your iPhone or iPod touch
  
  
• Turns your iPod touch into a GPS navigator
  The built-in GPS receiver adds GPS capability to your iPod touch (2nd generation)
  
  
• Fits hard shell cases or silicon skins
  Accommodates most cases or skins for maximum flexibility when inserting into the cradle
  
  
• Works with most navigation or location-based apps
  While optimized for the Magellan RoadMate app for iPhone, the cradle is compatible with most GPS navigation apps
  
  
• In-car charging
  The cradle automatically powers and charges when connected. No need to worry about running out of battery.
  
  
• Noise-canceling, hands-free speakerphone
  Full duplex speakerphone for crystal clear calls
  
  
• Powerful, amplified speaker
  Use the volume control for loud and clear voice guidance
  
  
• Secure, adjustable vehicle mounting
  Quickly secure the cradle to your windshield or dashboard and easily adjust for portrait or landscape viewing
  
  
• Audio line out for music playback on your car stereo
  Listen to your favorite tunes through your car's audio system

Car Kit Compatibility

• iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4
• iPod touch 2G, 3G
• Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and purchase of navigation app (sold separately).

What's in the Box
Premium GPS Car Kit, Vehicle Mount, Adhesive Disc, Vehicle Power Adapter, Getting Started Guide

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

143 of 150 people found the following review helpful.
Good build quality, stupid AUX port design
By iPhone user
Well I have been using this for a bit over a week now and here are my impressions:

Pros:
-Excellent build quality; very solid and holds my iPhone (in a Speck PixelSkin case) very sturdily.
-Good mounting of iPhone with swivelling dock connector and flexible/adjustable top clip.
-Fits iPhone perfectly with my Speck PixelSkin case. But be warned - it was adjusted to its highest point, so it wont fit a case larger than the PixelSkin.
-GPS fix more accurate than iPhone's internal GPS. This resulted in less jerky movements and less jumping around during GPS application usage.

Cons:
-GPS signal dropped out far more often than my standalone TomTom PND. This is unacceptable in a product meant to improve GPS reception that actually uses the same GPS chip as the TomTom PND I am comparing it with.
-With kit mounted on windscreen the iPhone overheated and stopped working (displayed a temperature warning message and forced itself into sleep mode) once. Mind you this was after three hours of driving, directly towards the Australian summer sun on a 35C/95F day. This is not a shortcoming of this Magellan kit, but rather an issue with mounting iPhones in car windscreens in general.
-When switching the car ignition from 'accessories' to 'run' and then to 'on', the Magellan kit naturally loses power momentarily. However when it powers back on, it often would not sync with the iPhone's Bluetooth as the power cycle was too fast. I would need to manually power cycle the Magellan kit (ie. remove power plug, then reconnect) allowing enough time for the iPhone to lose Bluetooth sync before re-establishing the power.

MAJOR MAJOR CON:
-When you plug a 3.5mm audio cable into the AUX connector on the Magellan kit (for attaching to a car stereo, or external powered speakers, etc.), the music and application sounds CONTINUE COMING OUT OF THE BUILT-IN SPEAKER!!! This is a ridiculous design, as it means to listen to music through your car stereo without the crappy built-in speaker ruining the music for you, you need to turn down the volume on the Magellan Kit (as this only controls the volume of the built-in speaker). But then if you receive a call, the call audio (via Bluetooth) cannot be heard (as you have turned the volume down on the built-in speaker, which is where the call audio is sent), so you have to manually turn the volume up on the Magellan kit again (using a fiddly little dial that is difficult and dangerous to find while trying to concentrate on driving). You have to do this EVERY TIME a call arrives... STUPID!

Why oh why was the kit designed like this? We will never know. However Magellan have responded to my question about it and have indicated that they will release some sort of firmware/software/application fix for this speaker problem in the near future.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Charging issue and horrible GPS reception
By Striders
I am one of the early adopter, having bought this kit early when it was first available. I travel by car quite a lot as part of my job and I had the chance to test this kit extensively.

As the title stated, here are the major problems:

1). CHARGING
When I plug my iPhone 3GS, about 3 out of 5 I'll get a message on the iPhone saying that "This accessory is not for iPhone". I have tried every possible way to ensure that I am plugging the iPhone properly, which it does because the shape of the kit prevent the iPhone to be plugged in other ways, yet I still get that dreaded message and the iPhone DOES NOT CHARGE. it seems that the connector is not designed well and it does not recognize the iPhone most of the time.

UPDATE: Here's another thing I found about the charging issue: the car kit is SUPPOSED to CHARGE your iPhone while you are using the naVigation apps (TomTom, Navigon, Magellan Roadmate) at close to high brightness (due to sunlight). But when you do this, the car kit WILL NOT CHARGE your iPhone. I have tested this with 2 iPhone 3GS and none of them charge when I use any GPS application. Since the Iphone is running continuously, this car kit adapter cannot keep up with the power need.

2). GPS
The GPS inside the kit, when it work, it worked great. But most of the time, it DOES NOT WORK. Many times, my Magellan GPS or Navigon app will suddenly lose signal. I thought it was the application itself, but when I mounted my iPhone to a normal car kit with no GPS, I never lose GPS signal unless I am inside a tunnel or under heavy foliage cover

I tried my best to test this car kit, even beyond the 30 days return policy. Alas, this kit just perform badly.

Do not buy this kit!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent as a bracket/mount; speakerphone, GPS only OK
By John Rawlins
Hi,
I've been using this mount for months now and overall I'm pleased with it. The best thing about it is it holds the phone really well. It was secure using my 3Gs and now with my iPhone 4. The telescoping top bracket allows it to accommodate a wide variety of cases too (Note: I did have trouble with the Apple Bumper case as mentioned below). The thirty pin dock connector at the bottom also pivots. This makes it much easier to get the iPhone in and out of the mount.

Here are some other notes:

Positives:
- Holds the phone very securely
- Easily switches very smoothly from portrait to landscape
- Charges the phone (though not very quickly if it all when using the GPS)
- Provides an audio output jack so you can leave the cable connected when you remove the phone

Negatives:
- The speakerphone quality is only marginal. I wasn't expecting it to be great and it's not.
- The GPS reception is disappointing. Considering they market the built in GPS heavily you would expect it to pickup a really strong signal. My standalone Garmin Nuvi walks all over it when it comes to reception
- The volume dial is very poorly placed. It's on the side behind the phone. I always struggle with adjusting it while I'm driving.
- The bracket blocks the camera. I thought it would be cool if I could snap pictures/take video while driving but that's not going to happen.
- It would not charge using the Apple Bumper Case on my iPhone 4. It does charge with my other cases including the Otterbox Commuter. The bumper case is just a little too thick at the bottom. To be fair a lot of my other iPhone accessories (cables, speakers, etc.) don't work with the bumper case either
- It costs too darn much for what you get. The value proposition would be much better if it cost $50 or even $75 instead of $100+

If you're looking for a speaker phone you can do much better. For me it works well using my iPhone 4, Otterbox Commuter case, and TomTom's navigation software.
Best regards,
John