Mobile phone accessories - seeking in-car mounting solutions

[garageboy]

Hi all.

I really am surprised my searching hasn't yet yielded an answer; it's hard to believe we haven't discussed this issue to death. I also searched Howard Forums, which has been a decent source of mobile phone information in the past. Not this time. So, if you will indulge me, I just got a Verizon Samsung GS4, which is causing me to hate Samsung more than ever before. Nevertheless, I am trying my best to get this phone to work as best as possible.

I haven't found a case I like yet, but E28-related, I am trying to find a competent air vent mobile phone holder for the GS4. I don't like to block the vents, but I don't want a window suction cup, and I know of no decent way to mount the phone in my E28 (or E39). I am definitely open to suggestions (goosenecks?) If anyone has gone through this process and figured out what works best, particularly for your E28, I would be grateful for your enlightenment. Feel free to share photos.

Now I gotta try to glue the cigarette lighter back together... or wire in a permanent fast charger somehow... One thing at a time.

Thanks very much,
.steve.
p.s. I held onto my Motorola E815 for 9 years because every smartphone I tried had an atrociously bad battery (I felt like a crackhead always looking for a charge), required 10 buttons as compared to one or two buttons on my flip phone to handle any function, consumed data at an alarming rate, and had the worst voice circuits. I'm old school and talk on the phone, mostly for my business, and cannot suffer with a phone that isn't a phone.

[cddallara]

Hmm. You'll probably have to fab something. Brodit/Proclip make stuff for the e34, but not sure for the e28.



It replaces the original side trim peice so no extra drilling.

[garageboy]

Thanks very much. Interesting pics. The Procilps are pricey. I will look them all up. Thanks!

Really? No other thoughts? What does everyone else do with their smartphones in their E28s? While I admit most of the time, it's in my pocket while I DRIVE... but there are many reasons/needs to mount/charge the thing...

[WilNJ]

They're a little less pricey if you get the universal set up but I've found them to be the only thing I would call custom fit, that was secure and that didn't require drilling.

I had a contraption similar to this one

http://www.amazon.com/Everydaysource-Un ... one+holder



and it was constantly loosening up and flopping around.

Alternatively you could use something like this



glued to the passenger side of the center console and use it with a generic suction cup mount.

[John in VA]

Edited for prickly OP.

[Karl Grau]

I rarely talk on the phone while driving so it usually sits on the passenger seat. If i'm using it for navigation, it fits very nicely in the ashtray.



Back in the dumb phone days in the 533, I had one of those articulating permanent mounts.

[garageboy]

People who don't talk on the phone need not reply.

I had the best phone Motorola ever made, the E815. I lived with it for 9 years! Nevertheless, over the years, I tried a number of smartphones, including the iPhone. For someone who speaks on the telephone and needs his clients to be able to hear him (and vice versa), I found all these smartphones to really suck. I always returned to my E815 with my Jawbone headset for hands-free calling. I think the mobile phone industry has gone totally to shit, based on the demographic that, for some reason, 16-year-olds are the only customers who matter to mobile phone companies. Everyone who "loves" their piece of shit Samsung (I fucking hate those cocksuckers; Samsung is one of the worst companies on the planet) Galaxy S4 doesn't talk on the phone. Sure, I have the Internet in my pocket, but as a phone, it's a useless piece of shit just like everyone I have ever dealt with at Verizon. This whole process has totally sucked and made me very discouraged. And I am locked in for the next two years and right now I want to take a flamethrower to Verizon.

So, if you have some information to add, to help, please do. If you do not, please don't.

[Mike W.]

I don't use the phone as much as you seem to, but I too think of them as a phone first and computer second. Not sure if it's an option for you, but by far and away the best cellphone as a phone I've had was a Blackberry. The iphone that replaced it is tolerable, but not good. But that BB was almost like using a regular phone!

If they haven't gone belly up by now.

[garageboy]

Well, I have had to deal with some of the same phone issues for my clients that have had every iPhone in existence as well as most Androids. But when it is my phone, I take it a bit more personally. So while I agree in some respects that the Blackberry is superior, I'm locked into this shitty Samsung with Verizon for 1 more year and 11 months. I might as well get used to it. Once I find an email program as versatile as Thunderbird, a contacts program that I can keep private, and voice commands that actually work, I'll probably just STFU...

So as I've been "shopping", I'm thinking that I want to use some kind of mountable gooseneck. I think it should be something that mounts here off of this screw (photo for illustration purposes only; that car is spare):


I have seen some devices that pipe the sound through an FM receiver that is part of a cigarette lighter plug while they hold and charge the phone, and I really like the cleverness, but my cigarette lighter plug is flopping around right now in the E28 and I have never seen an E28 cigarette lighter stay glued in place for more than a year or so. I'm ordering this one, which, if it can't stay put in the E28, I can definitely use it in the E39. Unless someone has a definitive solution to the poor cigarette lighter design, I think a gooseneck idea is worthy of consideration. So far, all I am thinking of is this, but I need to do more homework...

I'm not really a fan of Amazon, but I use them when I have to. Are there better places to mail order from (better in terms of selection, product descriptions, etc.)? Does anyone know where to get a gooseneck that could mount off that screw? I think I could attach it to a separate holder if necessary. Thanks for the thoughts...

[Mark in Toronto]

Like Karl, I do not talk on the phone in the car very often. And, using the ash tray is the way to go.

For those who insist on installing a holder/mount for their device, I would suggest this:

[cek]

I rarely talk on the phone while driving so it usually sits on the passenger seat. If i'm using it for navigation, it fits very nicely in the ashtray.

That's an ashtray? I just assumed BMW was forward thinking and built smartphone holders into their cars! In fact with sport seats you get another one in between the thigh bolster and seat bottom of the passenger seat. So nice of BMW to think of putting a phone/wallet/glasses holder there.

See my threads on my cars. The Bluetooth setup I have in both works fantastically.

Oh, and Amazon rulz.

[cek]

Oh, another option: On my 911 I decided to try one of the inexpensive Bluetooth units you can buy now. I picked this up on Amazon for $39.99 figuring it would be worth a try.

Kinivo BTC450 Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit for Cars with Aux Input Jack (3.5 mm) - supports aptX

I used the included double-sided sticky to attach the control/mic unit to the steering column. It's relatively easy to reach while driving and is nice and out of the way.





The unit plugs into a cig lighter outlet. The wire to the control/mic unit is stuffed between the knee-kick panel and the dash and the 3.5mm cored to the aux input snakes through the lock hole the glove box.


For hand's free phone use and audio streamed from the phone it's excellent.

[cek]

And on power:

In both my cars I've run lines from both the switched and unswitched aux fuse box to the head unit area. And I've rewired the cig lighter to be switched...otherwise things like radar detectors and USB/ Bluetooth thingies will run the battery down if you forget to unplug them.


Finally, lets not forget about this, which is just about the fourth most fantastic thing I've done to my E28s: http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=116028

[WilNJ]

But that BB was almost like using a regular phone!

If they haven't gone belly up by now.

My understanding is that they're going to focus on their Enterprise business and look to add iOS and android support to it.

[Karl Grau]

People who don't talk on the phone need not reply.

I said I rarely talk on the phone. I've told you a billion times, don't exaggerate.

I had the best phone Motorola ever made, the E815.

Wrong, the Star Tac was the best phone Motorola ever made.

Everyone who "loves" their piece of shit Samsung (I fucking hate those cocksuckers; Samsung is one of the worst companies on the planet)

I agree. I have a Samsung tablet and it's constantly downloading Samsung bloatware that I don't want and will never use. Actually so does my Samsung TV.

So, if you have some information to add, to help, please do. If you do not, please don't.

Don't take that tone of voice with me young man!
And BTW, out all the solutions you're considering so far, only that gooseneck that bolts to the seat track will survive your first pothole. I may even buy one myself.

[WilNJ]

Wrong, the Star Tac was the best phone ever

FTFY

[Matt]

If your use is primarily talking (and not navigating or other stuff), I second the suggestion to see about retrofitting Bluetooth into the car. There are units that can help you dial from the phonebook, etc.

This way the phone can stay in your pocket all the time.

I love the factory BT system in my Audi. Although my E28 is very noisy at speed; I would investigate which aftermarket BT systems have the best noise cancelling support...

[garageboy]

Thanks for the BT suggestion.

In fact, I just ordered a Jawbone BT headset. I had the original Jawbone with my Moto E815 (yeah, the StarTac *was* the best phone until they came out with the E815) and it was heavenly. As you point out the E28 is kinda noisy, and yet when I was talking on my Jawbone, people would say, "Really, you're driving right now?" because the noise cancellation was so superb that the best phone combined with the best network with a stellar BT headset was the perfect combination. I always left the phone in my pocket, and I always carried around an extra battery.

This cocksucker piece of shit Samsung "smart" phone drains the battery SO fast that I need to have a charger of some type with me at all times, like some kind of electricity crackhead, lest I go into withdrawal when my battery gauge plummets from just looking at it. As such, I need a holder/charger in my cars.

I know two separate people that got the BT kit for their E39s and found it to be buggy and inconsistent (the factory part). So I was reluctant to pull the trigger on that. Whatever solution(s) I come up with, I do need one for both the E28 and E39.

[KillerPM]

Couple of points to be made in this topic:

1 - You bought a smart phone. The battery life sucks on all of them.
2 - Reception wise, my GS4 is pretty good. iPhones are fine too. The GS5s I have been deploying are fine too. They all seem to get the same reception that my older phones got (when you consider what bands are being used). My phone provider just turned on a 700Mhz band and I get good data penetration pretty much everywhere I go. Voice doesn't work on 700 in North America, its LTE only (* see below). Voice goes over 4G, which brings me to this point:

The signal strength indicators on all modern phones are pretty much useless when it comes to voice. Most new phones and build up urban cell networks are now running LTE. The cell companies have been slow enabling voice on the LTE bands. I guess Verizon has finally made the plunge BUT only if you have a new iPhone 6 (http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/enable-volte-iphone-6/) and they only turned it on last week.

So what can you do about it, well I would try turning off LTE and 4G. See how well the GS4 works on the 3G band alone. Yah your data will be slow (you can turn LTE back on when you need it) but I bet your voice calling will be more reliable.

[Jeremy]

If you're on Verizon in the US, turning off LTE might not help. Verizon voice doesn't go over any data network at the moment, so you need a 1x signal to place and receive calls. Turning off the 4G (LTE) radio just makes the phone fall back to 3G (EV-DO) for data, but doesn't change the 1x signal. It might help your battery life though.

AT&Ts GSM network is actually a bit better about that sort of thing, and they're doing VoLTE already even if their coverage isn't very complete. AT&T and Verizon both recently announced plans to allow voice over WiFi, which is, y'know, kinda great for them. You pay somebody else to carry your voice call but still pay for your minutes from your cell carrier. I'm surprised they didn't implement it sooner to be honest. It could benefit me though since I never seem to have strong signal inside my home.

[KillerPM]

If you're on Verizon in the US, turning off LTE might not help. Verizon voice doesn't go over any data network at the moment, so you need a 1x signal to place and receive calls. Turning off the 4G (LTE) radio just makes the phone fall back to 3G (EV-DO) for data, but doesn't change the 1x signal. It might help your battery life though.

AT&Ts GSM network is actually a bit better about that sort of thing, and they're doing VoLTE already even if their coverage isn't very complete. AT&T and Verizon both recently announced plans to allow voice over WiFi, which is, y'know, kinda great for them. You pay somebody else to carry your voice call but still pay for your minutes from your cell carrier. I'm surprised they didn't implement it sooner to be honest. It could benefit me though since I never seem to have strong signal inside my home.

Wow.. Up here we have been pumping voice over 3G and 4G bands ever since they turned them on (since the technology between the two is similar). If that is the case, maybe Verizon is the problem...

[Karl Grau]

OP, maybe going back to the Motorola E815 dumb phone is the way to go and get one these for the computing end. Sure you'd have to take it easy in the turns but all in all, probably the best solution for your needs.

[garageboy]

Took you ALL WEEK to find that, huh?

[Foonfer]

It's been almost 9 years since Steve's last response on this post. Not a month later than that, I became an E28 owner for the first time.

Now I want to bring this thread back and ask again - What's the current state of the art for mounting smartphones on E28s? Mostly for Google Maps / Waze navigating but could also be for the talking on the occasional phone call.

[garageboy]

Well, I never went back to the E815.... After the Samsung that was the worst phone I ever had, I got a Motorola smartphone. I had that one for more than 6 years -- went through multiple batteries -- waited for Verizon to offer another decent Motorola phone. They never did. This past Christmas, I gave up waiting and took the Motorola smartphone they did offer. I do not like it.

And now Signal has dumped me. I'm an hour into "Exporting SMS messages" -- I have 77529, apparently.

The phone? It just sits on the seat... or on the console piece under the handbrake when there's a passenger. I have an iPhone 13 for work (just replaced the perfectly working 6s). The android and the iphone just sit there. I grab them when I need them. Tethered to electricity or not. E28 and E39. Same thing. I haven't found a good mount that I like that isn't already an afterthought... I have more important things to worry about... That said, I'm still very interested if there IS a good solution.