Window Mount for GPS driving Or Make your Own
 

I was looking around the 9000 Forum and seen one thread on the car system. I was wondering if anyone from Canada has found a good deal on a suction cup window mount that was designed for the 9000 (not one of those slide till it fits models) the nicest one I have found that looks good is an eXpansys one. They want way too much money for it eXpansys Car Mount Cradle + Holder for BlackBerry Bold 9000, #CM-BB90+1561/60/70/25 - eXpansys Canada It's exactly what I was looking for. It fits the bolds body perfect and suction cups to the window and charging.

Anyone using anything different that looks nice in the car, and a place where you bought it in Canada? Pictures of your install would be nice to see how it looks in the car. I was thinking the upper left corner of the window and hiding the charge cable behind the post cover and permanent attachment to 12 volts for charging instead of using the power port.

I'm in the US, and I use a proclips mount for the Bold which goes onto one of the ac vents for a Chevy Tahoe. I had the same set up for my Curve, so I only had to buy a new Bold-Sized component and swap it in for the Curve-sized one. Very happy with it so far.

Well after looking all yesterday I came up with my own prototype. I went to my local surplus store and bought the following:

1. Goose neck light $4.95
2. Sirius knock of window mount $7.95
3. 2 Earth magnets $3.00
4. 2 very thin washers $0.20

I used two washers in the back door cover because this way the device would not swivel as much as there is nothing to stop it from swinging back and forth when attached to the window mount. This way you have two separate contact points stops for the magnet to attach to and prevent swivel.

After about 2 hours and 3 Dremo blades I came up with this first prototype.

More pictures only 5 allowed per post

I'm going to post a video after I get YouTube to accept it. Damn thing will not upload I keep getting errors. Ive changed this post to AKA make your own

Does the Bold stay on the holder when going over bumps? Tried something similar with a different phone once and the phone just kept falling off, especially when going over speed humps.

With the earth magnets I used it stays put. I cant believe how simple the design is. I love it but need to make it a little better. Like I said though it's my first prototype.

Caspan,

What GPS software are you using in these pics? It looks NICE. (I'm using ATT Navigator AKA TeleNav and it's pretty good, but always looking for something better!)

Thanks!

Here's a nice one with built-in speakerphone:

AMZER :: Products :: Mobile Accessories :: Cases

My initial assumption is that having a magnet in such close proximity to the device wouldn't be a good thing. Am I suffering from a wive's tale here?

Otherwise, your prototype to me looks excellent. I envy your ingenuity and craftsmanship.

I'm almost 100% positive that is Garmin Mobile software. Which to me is the best solution out there and with it being $9.99 per month, it's almost a no brainer to go with that over AT&T's app. Not that the AT&T app is horrendous, I simply think the Garmin Mobile app is more elegant and offers more features (gas price listings, interface with Address Book, etc.).

Some people might opt for the "permanent" license of $99.00 (and some have used a coupon code to get it down to $79.99) however, until there is clarity around what they would do in the event that you have to replace your BBerry through no fault of your own (stolen, damaged, etc.), I'm opting for the month to month.

That's the same cost as the AT&T app.

Those features are there in TeleNav (AT&T Navigator) as well. Well sort of. The current version on AT&T doesn't have the gas price finder, but the version (only a different number) that I had on my Pearl does.

That said, I seem to be hijacking this thread so I'll stop, but I will consider giving this app a look again, because it looks very nice.

Thanks,

--mobrien118

Nice setup. I have AT&T Navigator and I always use the Gas Feature on it. Sometimes I have to share a location to my wife, she has AT&T Navigator as well, so she can find where I am. She just clicks on where I am and AT&T Navigator guides her to my location. It even works inside the mall. I love AT&T Navigator. Otherwise, I would switch to Garmin with the one time Device fee or $79.

For mounting, I use Proclip at proclipusa.com and it works great for me. I actually got the adjustable ipod 5th generation. So whenever my wife uses the car, she can put her curve in the holder rather than having two holders. The ipod 5th generation is adjustable incase you have a skin for your ipod. Now my Bold and Curve can share the same holder.

AT&T Navigator on the Bold does actually have the Gas by Price feature. The features have just been moved around a bit.

Click Drive To
Select Businesses
Select Type It
Click Category
Scroll to Gas by Price and select your desired grade

Also, I really appreciate that AT&T Navigator for the Bold has returned to using NAVTEQ maps over TeleAtlas, as evidenced by the "NAVTEQ on board" logo on the splash screen.

The AT&T COR stores offer a suction-cup phone mount for $30. It's actually pretty high quality and made in Germany, as opposed to the normal Chinese stuff. The mount is the type that expands to fit phones, but it's very easy to use. Since I have a silicone case on my Bold, I removed the foam padding from the sides of the mount, as it was creating too much friction trying to place the Bold in the mount.

Nope old wive's tale... kinda...... back in the day magnetic disks were effected by magnets. You get a magnet close enough to a disk and it was gone. Now a days flash memory is not effected by magnetics. Now I have heard rumors of old types of batterys beging drained by magnetic feild around them.

If you have a RIM hip case for your Bold or any BB device for that matter there actually is a sleeper magnet in all their cases as well as the magnet to keep the flap closed. When you put your device in these cases it turns the screen off and prevents accidental key presses. So I only had to worry if my setup would cause the device to sleep. So far it has not done it once as the area on my phone is right under the space bar and is far enough away to not trigger it.

This is the Garmin Mobile software. I was using a 7 day trial to test it out and I was quite impressed. The Blackberry maps and Google both do the same but just not as nice of an interface. and routing and navigation is a manual process for each step. I do find though that the BB maps have more details like roads and streets that I never see on the Garmin device. I don't know if their maps are out of date or they only show major streets. I live near Toronto Canada so I can't see why they would not have updated maps. I like BB for the maps but Garmin Mobile for the interface.