TuneBase FM
I was looking the other day, for an active iPhone holder for use in the car. For my previous phone, I used a Brodit clip and active holder for my Orange SPV M5000 and so Brodit is where I started my search. However, an active iPhone holder came in at near on £50 – I figure I wasn’t exactly expecting – and as I’ve just paid my tax bill (and half of this years to boot) – I went looking for alternatives. However, it wasn’t long before I remembered the Belkin TuneBase FM that my brother-in-law uses for his iPod touch 2G… Looking around on some forums, I checked to see whether this could work with the iPhone 3G and having found one or two confirmations, I took the plunge and purchased it. A phone charger, a holder and the ability to listen to the iPhone on the car radio, all for £12 cheaper than the Brodit option. It arrived today and I set it up and took it outside for a very brief test-run.
Having extracted the unit from the box (not as easy as it sounds), there are different holders supplied for each different type of iPod on the market. Obviously none for the iPhone so I tried a combination of options to see what worked best. Unsurprisingly, the iPod touch 2G seemed the best and although not perfect, seemed to enable the phone to sit in a relatively solid way. Out to the car to see how it got along once plugged in. The device uses the cigarette lighter socket as an attachment point and the phone sits at the end of a firm but bendy arm, which can be adjusted to get the phone in a sensible position that doesn’t get in the way.
With the holder plugged in, inserting the iPhone brought up a message informing me that the device wasn’t made for iPhone – initially I was worried that this would halt all operations, but the phone charger signal was shown – one tick in the box then… I could charge my phone in the car. Another message when initially attaching the device appeared offering to turn on flight mode to reduce interference. I left all phone functionality on to see how it got on.
Operating the TuneBase FM was very simple and intuitive. Simply press the “Clearscan” button and it will search for a clear radio channel and indicate it on the display. Then tune in the car radio to this station. It’s easy to store the frequency as a pre-set for quick use next time. Once tuned in, everything seemed to be pretty much as promised. Tunes were playing clearly and the adio was as you would expect – far from an audiophile’s dream but way more than I need to appreciate tunes. My car has notoriously bad radio reception so this was another worry to put to one side – it’s also notoriously noisy in the cabin, so again, the highest of high fidelity just won’t be missed. I did hear some slight fuzz from the phone functions on occasion and it will be interesting to see whether this happens enough to be considered annoying.
Without the car moving, it’s impossible to say whether the holding mechanism, which are effectively rubber fins that jam up against the inner surface of the lighter socket and therefore resist a twisting motion, is strong enough to stand up to my cornering. It certainly feels at the moment to be up to the job but I can’t be too sure until I’ve taken it out for an extended run.
