Car Accessories

In these tough economic times, you don’t want to have to worry about your vehicle getting broken into – or worse – stolen! With GPS Snitch, you get silent real-time alerts through email and SMS so you can work with the authorities to help recover your car or belongings. Read on to see how GPS Snitch saved a NY man’s motorcycle not once, but twice, helping NYPD recover the bike in only 20 minutes.

October, 08 2008 - Laszlo Tenai was shocked to find out his 2006 Honda CBR 1000RR motorcycle had been stolen from in front of his Upper East Side apartment building for the second time in just eight months. But once again he was able to lead police to the stolen vehicle with the aid of his Blackline GPS Snitch. The Snitch combines cellular and GPS technologies to alert owners via text message when their vehicle has moved outside of a predefined perimeter. It can then be tracked online in real-time to pinpoint the exact location. Read more

TomTom just announced that their Fuel Price Service is now available. With the TomTom Fuel Price Service, if you are a TomTom owner (compatible devices listed below), you can load and access one year of daily fuel price updates to your device.

TomTom Fuel Price Service makes it easy to find (and drive to) gas stations with the lowest fuel prices. Once activated, you will be notified of the most up-to-date fuel information each time you log into TomTom HOME. You can choose to list gas stations by location or price, and can request the lowest gas prices on your route, nearby or within a certain mile radius. You can also choose which type of gas you would like tracked: regular, mid-grade, premium or diesel. Read more

The BlueAnt Supertooth 3 is an easy to use, portable speakerphone device with voice recognition technology. With no installation requirements, the Supertooth 3 can be operational within seconds. Voice prompts guide you in pairing the device and uploading your cell phone’s address book. Once uploaded, it will announce an incoming call through the car speakers and say who is calling. Simply say “accept” or “reject” to initiate or decline the call – a hands-free experience compared to other devices where you still have to push a button to accept the call. The Supertooth 3 can be mounted on the car’s sun-visor with a magnetic clip, can be paired with up to eight devices and supports voice dial activation, redial and call reject. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Hitting the road? Probably have your wireless phone, iPod or MP3 player, GPS devices, even a DVD player for the kids.

But one perennial problem persists: So many plugs, so few ports. Most cars have only one cigarette lighter / power port / DC plug (vans and SUVs might have several more). And splitters and adapters are so cumbersome.

So if you need to charge the phone, and the kids want to watch a flick, to achieve détente, you appease. Or as Bill Cosby once said, “Parents don’t want justice. Parents want quiet.” Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.homeofficehighway.com

When it comes wireless phones and my choice of hearing devices, this home office worker tends toward the dysfunctional. I’m a fan of Bluetooth and the wireless functionality and freedom it delivers.

But I like the clarity and simple effectiveness of wired headsets. Hence my confusion (my wife would argue that it doesn’t end there, but that’s another story).

Headsets are important — and sometimes legal must-haves — accessories for wireless phones. As you’re tooling around town or exploring the Final Frontier in an RV with better things to focus on than answering your wireless phone, they free your hands for note-taking or driving (helping avoid costly traffic tickets in those markets where hands-free cellular phone use is the law - see list below).

Yet sound quality, especially when driving, was lacking. Enter new Bluetooth products designed to enhance the speaker’s voice and eliminate background sounds, like wind, lawn equipment and crowd noise. Products like Jabra, Plantronics, and the novel Jawbone (which offers a pretty creative marketing ploy: Redeem your cell phone moving violation for a discount on a new Jawbone purchase). Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.homeofficehighway.com

Which road tracking and map tech to use was always a toss up in our car.

We’d traveled for years with traditional GPS devices, that British lass barking out orders and seemingly venting frustration whenever we’d ignore her suggested turns. She was good and reliable. As the kids always warned, “Trust the technology.”

Then along came the Verizon Wireless and its VZ Navigator Version 4 application. Our “traditional” retail GPS would just tell us, “Make left in 2 miles.” No street name audibly announced (though it’s there in print on the screen). I have to admit, though, the British voice was something last summer when we took an impromptu detour onto the Blue Ridge Parkway — and she couldn’t convince us to “Make the next available turn…” Frustrated, she was. Read more

By Jeff Zbar 
www.chiefhomeofficer.com

Headsets have long been important – and sometimes legally must-have – accessories for wireless phones. They free users’ hands for note-taking or driving (helping avoid costly traffic tickets in those markets where hands-free cellular phone use is the law). Yet sound quality, especially when driving, was lacking. Enter new Bluetooth products designed to enhance the speaker’s voice and eliminate background sounds, like wind, lawn equipment and crowd noise. Products like Jawbone and Plantronics Discovery, among others, use digital signal processing to adjust voice levels and improve sound at both ends of the call. Read more