Looking for bluetooth-enabled speakersphone for car. Not as interested in earphones as I don’t like the idea of having a bluetooth radiation right by my ear just so I can hear the phone ring – if I don’t wear the headset I can’t hear it ring. So speakerphone is way to go. Even better if it attaches to steering wheel, like the one sold by Hammacher Schlemmer for $100, called “Steering Wheel Bluetooth Speakerphone”.
DinoDirect sells several, for way cheaper: two $50, called “Steering Wheel Bluetooth Hands Free Car Adaptor Kit BTCK019” and “Steering Wheel Bluetooth Hands Free Music Car Adapter Kit BCK-77”, they don’t have LCD display. A third one, “Car Steering Wheel MP3 FM Modulator Bluetooth Adapter”, is an addition $15 but has small LCD, builtin FM transmitter, and SK/MMC card reader (which might be able to play MP3).
The above devices mount directly onto steering wheel. An interesting alternative is Kensington LiquidAUX Bluetooth Car Kit K33428US, which has two parts: the bluetooth device plugs directly into the car power plug, and a small 2.4GHz wireless remote attaches to your steering wheel. Same idea is the Generic B-228N. This split has a great advantage of less interference with view of dashboard, though I imagine that properly angling the steering wheel would eliminate that problem (if it is one) for the DinoDirect BCK devices.
The Kensington is more expensive, but it does include an audio jack that you can plug into your car stereo. My car stereo doesn’t have an audio jack, but has a tape deck, for which I bought a tape adapter that allows me to connect audio devices into the car stereo, so I would just need a male-female adapter and I would get it all: control from steering wheel, speakerphone, no need to wear a bluetooth ear device, and sound in car stereo, which is important in noisy car environment. Unfortunately, it does not allow for voice dial so it is not truly hands-free, whereas the DinoDirect devices will do this.
So far, the DinoDirect BCK-55 if want dial pad, or HW-F11 otherwise, are my prefered solution. But I can’t find who manufactures those devices so where would I get the manual online if lost? or tech support?
Features:
- Built-in microphone, on steering wheel so closest to your mouth. Don’t want to have to pin microphone to my shirt: the less wires the better, less chance of snag etc and more convenient, can’t forget to unplug etc.
- Voice control through mobile (uses mobile phone’s voice dialing capabilities)
- Hand controls at steering wheel for when voice control not available (for instance, entering access code on dial pad). Ideal: includes digits (not just answer/hangup etc)
- Minimal interference with dashboard
- Easy to remove from steering wheel so don’t attract attention when parked in less secure areas
- Good strong speaker so can hear clearly, OR ability to put in car stereo. But if latter, should be optional, ie can listen to car radio, while calling via builtin speakerphone, and if too noisy, switch to car stereo. This could be achieved for devices that provide
- FM connection (simplest). Then you have to program a button on stereo so you can easily switch to that frequency when needed. Not as practical a solution if your stereo doesn’t have a “go to last channel” button because you will have to find your radio channel again after call done. Most stereos have programmable buttons but I often listen to channels that are not saved in memory.
- Audio output jack. This works well and probably better quality sound since wired transmission to car stereo. If no input jack for car stereo, but you have a tape deck, tape deck audio input adapter can be obtained for 20$. If no tape deck, your only option AFAIK is FM connection since there is no such thing as a CD audio input adapter.
- Good customer support
- Ideal: LCD showing caller ID from phone (needs to download contact list from phone); however, will not pay too much for that, as most use of the device, for me, is for outgoing calls, not receiving. But If LCD included, good backlighting important so can use when driving at night.
