Although I'm a fan of GPS devices in general and couldn't live without GPS navigation, I have resisted buying a car kit. I've resisted these gadgets for one reason and one reason only, I believe they are generally overpriced ($129.99). Don't get me wrong, I believe they are working great and definitely improve GPS reception for navigation apps on the iPhone, it's just that at the current price it's hard to justify a car kit that basically goes for the same price as a full blown (low end) GPS unit. With that said, I'm not opposed to reviewing one if a company is generous enough to send me one and Magellan is just that kind of company 
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a video worth?…
More details
Now that you've seen both the Magellan Car Kit and Magellan Roadmate 2010 iPhone/iPod touch App in action, let me give you a few more details and things that I experienced that weren't covered in the video.
Did you test the kit with any other apps? Yes, I used the kit with my iPhone 3GS and tested it with Navigon, NDrive and TomTom. All 3 apps performed great in the car kit with the enhanced GPS signal.
What else does the Magellan App offer? Aside from the basics such as Text to Speech, Lane Assist, Address Book lookup and POIs, the Magellan app also offers a "Find your car" features that remembers where you parked, In-App Music Control, Pedestrian Mode, and Quick Spell Address Entry
What about the speaker phone? I did try the speaker phone with my iPhone and I was pleasantly surprised that speaker phone integration is via bluetooth. As soon as I went to Bluetooth Settings on my iPhone, the Magellan Car Kit showed up and paired perfectly. As far as the call quality goes, it's "OK". My caller said that there was some "white noise". I could here them over the speaker just fine. My only complaint is that the Control button is on the back of the mount instead of the side. It just means that you have to reach that much further to press the button to accept/reject calls. The button does a nice job of activating the iPhone's Voice Control.
Get a Friction Mount (bean bag)
Although the Magellan Car Kit has a great suction cup, I still prefer using a Friction Mount. Here's the link to a generic one that will allow you to just use your existing suction cup on any dashboard.
The Bottom Line
If you can get past the price, then this Car Kit is definitely a great thing to have. After I got home from the first road test the first thing I thought was "I'm selling my Garmin!" The more I think about it, I'm always going to have my iPhone with me when I travel. The Navigation apps have definitely matured enough for me to use when I rent cars and since I'd be carrying my IPhone AND the Garmin and the mount, I might as well just carry the iPhone and Magellan car kit. If you're an iPod touch (2nd or 3rd generation) user then the Car Kit makes even more sense as it lets you do something that you otherwise couldn't do with your iPod touch. Also when you factor in that it's a handsfree bluetooth speaker phone, it makes it more valuable as well.
As far as the Magellan app goes it's definitely a contender for a great full featured Navigation app. I certainly rank it up there with Navigon and TomTom. One more thing: Save $20 when you buy the Magellan App and Car Kit. Although I'm not sure how they are implementing this, according to the Magellan page on the App Store you get $20 off of the Car Kit. I noticed that the price for the app at the time of this review was $79.99. So maybe that's the $20 savings, but if that's the case anyone can get that price. So this will require further investigation/clarification to see if you get it for $79.99 and then $20 off the Car Kit too.
You can order the Magellan Premium Car Kit here for $129.99.
Magellan
Magellan has produced a great GPS navigation App and Car Kit. The Car Kit works with the iPod touch and other GPS Navigation apps as well.
- MiTAC Digital Corporation
- Get on App Store
- $79.99
All info was collected on 25th January, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
Terry,
Thanks for the review. My question is how loud is the speakerphone? I have tried several bluetooth car kits and they all have a speaker that at maximum volume are all but usleses. The visor kits might work better but getting power to them is a problem.
Thanks again.
Thanks, I would say loud enough. I did have it turned all the way up and volume would be what I would call “normal” at that level. Certainly not super loud, but loud enough to easily hear my call with the radio off.
Oh, I wish you wouldn't publish reviews like this! After reading it, I purchased the app via the iTunes store. Magellan says they will email a coupon for $20 on the car kit within 7 days, but you have to buy the car kit from the Magellan store. I feel certain shipping will be charged. The car kit is $129 on Amazon with free shipping, so the actual benefit of the coupon is going to be $20 less the shipping cost. Too bad they won't give a $20 coupon that can be used on Amazon.
Thanks for the in-depth review of this app, Terry.
Great tnikhing! That really breaks the mold!
Just noticed that the iTunes product description says purchase the app "before 1/25/2010" and "register by 1/25/2010" in order to to get the $20 coupon. Since I purchased today (1/25/2010), I may not even receive the coupon. Oh well, Amazon is looking better and better for the car kit.
I'm sure the Car Kit works fine. Although, this Magellan GPS app. does have turn by turn announcements but does not have the same street naming announcements as my old Magellan RoadMate 760 has. Very disappointing!
Nice review Terry but I have a few questions.
How is the integration between navigation, music playing (when plugged in to the stereo using the phono jack) and phone function?
When a call comes in does the music mute? What happens to navigation assuming it is the foreground app before the call comes in? If it quits does it resume gracefully or do you have to start from scratch, in other words, re-enter the destination?
Does the 'Find your car' feature rely on a functioning GPS? In other words does it still work with an iPod Touch if you leave the car kit in the car?
Gino, thanks…
When a call comes in it’s like any other app. You can either accept it or reject it. If you accept it the Magellan (and all other Navigation apps) quits and now you’re in the Phone app. However, since the Phone app CAN run in the background, you can immediately relaunch the Magellan app and it picks up where you left off.
Haven’t tried the Find my Car feature yet, but I’m guessing (I did say guessing) that it is GPS based. Since the iPod touch doesn’t have either 3G or GPS, it probably wouldn’t work with it anyway as there would be no way for the iPod to know where you were without Wi-Fi.
Great review Terry, and really helpful, but I've got a question in continuation to Ginos. If I'm not using the device for navigation purposes but just using it to hold my iPod while listening to music, how do I connect to the car stereo system. I use the touch and not the iPhone, so the headphone jack is on the bottom. I don't see how I can connect while the iPod is mounted in the cradle. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Sam.
The mount has its own audio out port.
will the apps work on a iPad.