Most newer cars these days are coming equipped with either standard or optional hands-free bluetooth integration capabilities. In addition to user demand for the convenience of hands-free communications while driving, state and local ordinances have spurred auto makers to begin offering more hands-free options than ever before.
However, if you have a vehicle that did not come equipped with bluetooth, all is not lost. You have a variety of products to choose from in the marketplace. The purpose of this article is to share one of the best available solutions for retrofitting a car with bluetooth capability that not only allows hands-free calling, but also control of an iPod or iTouch.
The unit I'm speaking of is the Parrot mk9200 music kit. Its called a "music kit" due to its ability to seamlessly switch between cell phone calls and control of an iPod or iTouch device via a convenient little scrollwheel remote.
The Parrot device is super compact and comes with a vibrant LCD screen that's a good bit smaller than a GPS (and much thinner) for viewing your playlist and caller photo as well as a tiny little remote that has player controls and a jogwheel.
For my purposes, I mounted the LCD screen over my car's factory head unit. It could easily be installed on top of the dash or around the center console. The screen pops off the small mounting device its attached to via a USB connection.
The tiny wire that's attached to the screen is designed to be routed behind the dash and on to the small little blue box which comprises the brains of the device and serves as a "breakout box" of sorts to connect your devices.
The parrot can control an iPod or iPod touch (with playlist preview and control via the tiny remote and the remote mounted LCD screen) as well as a USB device or harddrive, an SD card (via a slot on the back of the LCD screen) and finally, a standard AUX in jack.
So by installing this one device, I get access to a wealth of digital data and music via iPod, cell phone, mp3 player, and SD card. What's more, it ads an auxiliary input to my car.
I've been using the Parrot MK8200 for about 3 months now and I must say there's not much to complain about. It seamlessly switches between my iPod playlists and cell phone calls, displaying the photo of the person who is calling on the sharp little LCD screen in the process. I can also activate voice dialing just by clicking a button on the wireless remote and saying the name of the contact. I can also take calls with the click of a button on the remote.
When I'm ready for music, I just hit the play button on the remote and the iPod kicks in over my car's stereo speakers with crystal clear sound.
If there's one thing I can say bad about the Parrot device it is that it does not allow voice dialing by speaking out the number. You must know the contact's name in order to use voice dialing. I'm hoping that the folks at parrot enable this feature via a firmware update.
One of the nice little touches that I really like is that I can upload a wallpaper that displays on the parrot screen when I'm not playing music. I've uploaded a logo of my vehicle which gives the unit a factory installed look that gets lots of compliments.
I could not be more enthusiastic in my recommendation of the parrot mk8200 bluetooth kit.
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