Last week I reviewed the New Navigon Turn-by-Turn Navigation App for iPhone. During that review I didn’t have a mount for my iPhone in my car. I knew what kind of mount I would want and therefore I ordered it from Amazon.
Here’s a short video on how the Arkon IPM129-ST Removable Air Vent Mount works.
The Bottom Line
If you need to mount your iPhone in your car and you don’t have round vents (like on the Mustang), this mount works great. It ranges from $8-$12 on Amazon and you can order it here.
Any ideas for those of us with round vents?
Jim, this may work if the round vent is large enough. the clips can be closer together if need be.
Can you still have your a/c or heater on if the phone is clipped to the vent? I live in Texas and right now a/c is a must!
love the video review, sometimes it just easier to show it rather than type it
Holly,
AC shouldn’t be a problem. However, I would not want heat blowing on the back of my iPhone. In that case (which I do anyway), I would have heat coming from the bottom vents as I don’t like heat blowing in my face or I would simply turn off the one vent that the iPhone is attached to.
Somewhat OT: I’m very impressed with the animated intro to your video. What technology was used to produce this, and did you do yourself? (Big ol’ hat tip to whomever it was.)
Thanks Fred,
The intro was created using Adobe After Effects CS4 and Adobe Soundbooth CS4. I used a template for the basic structure and then customized it to my liking 🙂
Terry,
How easy is the vent mount to remove? In this area, thieves roam specifically looking for GPS units and tend to break in the window of any car they find with a mount, thinking that the GPS unit is in the glove compartment.
A few months ago, I had to replace a window simply because I had left an iPod window mount on the floor between my front seats.
Since the mount would need to come in with me every night, it would need to be quick to remove and durable enough to withstand the frequency of removal/reinsertion.
Yvonne,
It takes two seconds to remove. You just press both clips and pull.
Hi terry,
was just wondering if this could be used with a hardcase on the iPhone?? Would not want to take my phone out of its case everytime I wanted to mount the phone!!
It probably wouldn’t work too well with the iPhone in a case.
This won’t work with a hard case on the iphone 3gs. I just received my akron. My iphone with a switcheasy case won’t come close to fitting. Bummer. I’ll be returning the Akron to Amazon and continuing my search for a car mount that will also accommodate my great switcheasy shell.
I am using a Belkin iphone cigarette charger/iphone holder/fm transmitter. It will hold an iphone with a shell. It was something like $60-80 at Costco. I am very unimpressed with the fm transmitter and the snake-like column moves a little but it comes with the built in charging (plus a 2nd usb outlet) as well as a home charger with 2 usb outlets and an iphone to usb cable. So to me it is pretty good bang for the buck.
Check out the ProClip mounts. Pricey but worth every penny. This one supports an iPhone with a hard case. http://bit.ly/fGqVE
I was all psyched up but have a case/shell on my phone until I read down the comments….will check out ProClip…..doesn’t (most) everyone have a shell on their iphone? Hey Arkon, can you redesign with some type of minor adjustment to accommodate shell cases?
Looks like a neat product. My only concern: Given the location of the weight support tab, it seems like the mount is made for vents that are more horizontal than vertical. To me, it seems like, on a more vertical vent, the third leg would less necessary as the weight from the phone wouldn’t be parallel with the leg. Have you tried this mount on more vertical vents? Thanks for you help.