A few weeks ago, ProClip USA / Brodit introduced their latest product for the new HTC HD2: A Charging and Non-Charging holder for your HTC HD2, so you can use your new device safely in your car. Like many other accessories, I think this is a must-have for every HTC HD2 owner. I have been using the Proclip USA / Brodit products for many years now and if you don’t know the company here is some background on the company:

Brodit develops and manufactures products for installation of communication devices in vehicles. Brodit was founded in 1983 and is located in Karlsborg, Sweden.
The company has 80 employees, is market leader in Scandinavia and exports to 30 countries. Brodit was conceived back in June 1983 as its founder Ebbe Johansson was sitting in his taxi and had the vision of talking on the phone while driving without having to pull over. Some of you still remember the mobile phones from back then. They were not as neat and handy as they are today. They were more like suitcases weighing about 40 pounds with receivers as big as a brick! Ebbe saw the need for an easy way to have the receiver installed close to the driver’s seat in order to use it comfortably. As a result, the ProClip was born, which is still the market leader for mounting platforms for communication equipment in vehicles today.

Since then, many thousand different models and solutions have been developed for just about every vehicle in the world. Easy installation is one of the objectives, and another is not having to drill holes or in any other way damage the interior of the car! Brodit also produces holders for PDAs, mobile phones, GPS devices and multimedia monitors, but the ProClip is still Brodit´s main product.

What is in the package ?

When you order your ProClip USA / Brodit holder, you will receive the holder (Charging or non-Charging version), mounting screws and mounting instructions.

The mounting instructions are pretty straight forward:

• Loosen the screw in the center of the holder so you can remove the tilt swivel attaching plate on the back.
• Place the attaching plate on the desired position (Proclip solution preferred).
• Screw the attaching plate into place with the enclosed screws.
• Place the holder over the attaching plate so the tilt swivel fits. Screw the holder onto the attaching plate.
• The holder is in place. (It can also be used with HTC original portable Handsfree.)

When you have mounted the holder on the Proclip Mounting Platform, it looks like this:

Does it fit ?

There is a quick answer to this: YES, it fits very well. I have been using ProClip USA / Brodit products for more than 8 years now and up until this latest version of the HTC HD2 holder, I never experienced bad fitting or the need to apply excessive force to place the device in the holder. Also with this holder, I can mount the device with very little force and it slided perfectly in place. It is very important that the device fits exactly in the holder, otherwise the connector in the holder will damage the USB sync connector of your HTC HD2.

As you can see in the above picture, there is no space between the device and holder. This holder also gives you the possibility to use the original HTC headset that was delivered with your phone. This way you can enjoy your phone and drive safely at the same time. There is also enough room to connect an audiocable to connect your phone to your car stereo.

The HTC HD2 features also a new Micro-USB connector instead of the more common Mini-USB connector. This holder is one of the first that also features this new Micro-USB connector for HTC products.

The picture below shows the holder from the side. It clearly shows that there is enough room for the device and even when they develop an extended battery that would be more bulky than the original battery, even then should there be enough room for this.

Overall conclusion

This will be a short overall conclusion because there are (again) no negative comments for this holder. Build quality is still at the same high level as it has been for many years and it is a perfect fit for your device.

We want to thank ProClip USA for providing us with this test sample. Enjoy a 10% discount when shopping at ProClip USA this holiday season. Enter the following AC Number 1204122409 into the AC Number field when checking out and receive 10% off your entire product purchase. Offer is valid December 4, 2009 through December 24, 2009.

In the last couple of years many different frequencies have been added to the confusion of the worldwide GSM (2G/Edge) and High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) on cellular phones. Since we all love  to have the newest gadgets we would like to be one of the first. In the Windows Phone forums, where I moderate, many questions arise why my phone bought overseas is not connecting to the high speed data service in a specific country. Hopefully I will be able to guide you below to the answer and give you the specifics before you purchase your next Unlocked Phone to use at home or world wide.

Well, many mobile devices are specially engineered for the different markets around the world. For example the HTC Touch Pro and the HTC Fuze are exactly the same device, however the build in radio’s for the 3G / HSDPA data network are different. When you travel overseas you can loose this high speed data signal and fall back on the Edge/GSM/GPRS/ 2G network.  Many people like to purchase an unlocked phone overseas and bring it back to their home country and then they realize that the 3G / HSDPA radio’s build into the device are not supported.

Why high speed data?  The mobile phones these day are more like small personal computers. They are more and more being used now for streaming media content (Internet radio and TV), Internet browsing, etc. over the high speed data networks. You even see that other non-phone mobile devices will have 3G build in to give the device the opportunity to download information at high speeds when needed. For example the Kindle 2 and DX from Amazon and many Netbooks are sold now through the mobile phone service providers with the High Speed 3G / HSDPA data connection.

Many phones these days are called “World Phones”. These phone most likely will support the High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) world wide. However I would still look at the specifications of these phones before you purchase and balance them to the network frequencies in the area you live.

The GSM (2G/Edge) frequencies are often called Quad Band Phones. Most phones will work worldwide using these 4 frequencies for making calls and limited data connection. These frequencies are:

GSM, 2G, GPRS,Edge network frequencies (Quad Band)

• 850 MHz   (mostly North America)
• 900 MHz   (mostly Europe, Asia, Australia & Brazil)
• 1800MHz  (mostly Europe, Asia, Australia & Brazil)
• 1900 MHz  (mostly North America)

Below is a small table giving you the frequencies in High Speed Data Networks (3G,HSDPA,UMTS) with their known regions that these frequencies will work. Use this to make sure the phone you will purchase will work with the high speed data frequency connections you need. Please note that you need a data subscription with your mobile provider carrier before you can have data on your device.

3G,HSDPA,UMTS high speed network frequencies and their regions.

• 850 MHz      (United States AT&T)
• 900 MHz
• 1700 MHz    (United States T-Mobile)
• 1900 MHz    (United States AT&T)
• 2100 MHz    (Europe)

There are many other resources online to see which frequencies you have in your area. These tools will allow you to make an educated decision which unlocked phone and where you would like to purchase it from and if it will provide the services you want to have in your part of the world.

• GSM Arena – Listings of frequencies per country
• Wikipedia – Listings of frequencies per world region
• AT&T – 3G coverage map
• T-Mobile  USA - 3G coverage map
• GSM World- Different world and world region frequency coverage maps

A couple days ago we announced the availability of the Navigon North America Navigation software for the iPhone.

We have gotten a review copy for evaluation and below is my review of this easy to use Navigon North America Navigation for the iPhone.

Download and Installation

Be prepared for big download. When purchasing I suggest doing this in the iTunes store on your desktop or laptop with high speed internet connection. The app is going to to be 1.3 GB. The download itself will take some time as well. If you are like me and want to try new things right away this is a disappointment. However the file has this size because it has all the map data for North America, which includes the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For a succesfull installation I have to give a couple small tips.

Due to the large file to install on your iPhone it would be best to check first if you have the 1.3 GB space left over on your device. You can do this easily by connecting you iPhone to the iTunes on your computer. Once connected, click on the name of your device on the left hand side of the iTunes window. Now on the bottom of the screen you can see how much storage memory you have left over on your device.

The second thing you want to do first before going ahead and un-check the synchronization of Navigon and make sure that all your new podcast are downloaded to your computer and then are synchronized with your iPhone.  After you have done these 2 things your iPhone is just connected to your iTunes on your desktop and at the next synchronization it only needs to install the Navigon Software. So go ahead and check the box next to the Navigon application in the application tab under your phone name while your iPhone is connected to iTunes. Now click on “Sync” on the right bottom of the iTunes screen. Again due to the large file this will take some time before it is finished installing.

User interface and options

When starting the application it takes a couple of seconds to start up.

The first screen that shows up on your iPhone is a standard warning about using the navigation software.

After the above screen the Main Menu shows up. The Main Menu has 4 tabs.

From the Main Menu you can enter an address directly. Through this process it will let  you select the State first which is indicated with a country flagg right next to it. This is a great added feature so you don’t have to scroll through many same named cities or towns with different state codes behind them.

From the Main Menu you can also navigate to a POI (Point of Interest). This means if you need to find a bank, school, restaurant or anything else, you can use this function to find these POI in a city or nearby you current position

Another quick “Main Menu” item is to” Take me Home”. The first time you select this you are able to enter in your own home address and from that point on the “Take me Home” button will automatically calculate the route back to your home.

The last button in the “Main Menu” will show you the map. You can use your fingers to scroll through the map and to point a location you would like to navigate to.

The” Favorites” tab lets you quicky select your destinations you have marked as favorites.

Your “Recents” tab lets you select quickly the destinations you have entered last.

And your “Contacts” tab will look at your iPhone contacts and use the addresses enterered already within your Cotact fields.

Now that we are on our way you can use your Navigon navigation software in portrait mode or landscape.

If you have a red bar on the top of the screen it means that your internal GPS has no fix with the satellites. However with your iPhone in to a car mount in the windshield of your car you get a great fix and the time response in movement is as with any of the current stand alone Personal Navigation Devices. (PND). I prefer to use the ProClip USA mounting system for my on the dash mountings of my devices.

Within this current screen you can tap on the top bar of your screen and the info listed will rotate from:

1. Destination Time
2. Destination Milage /KM
3. Speedometer

Tapping on the bottom bar will rotate the info between:

1. Street name next turn
2. Street name current position

Tapping on the left box with the next turn notification will repeat the voice instructions for this information.

The “Options button”  on the right top will give the following options:

By tapping the middle of the screen while driving will give you a quick 2d view of your current location. However going back to to navigation screen with view into your driving direction (3D or 2D) you have to tap the “Done” button instead of tapping the screen again.

When you take a wrong turn the Navigon software will quickly recalculate a new route for you.

You can also adjust your settings to give you “Caution” warning when you are driving a certain speed over the speed limit. Could be handy for those unaware heavy foot people.

Experiences

Take a quick look at my live experiences with software below

This weekend I drove for about 8 hours in total using this Navigon navigation software for the iPhone and I have to say that this version can easily replace my Personal Navigation Device. However a limitation to the iPhone is multitasking. Once you leave the navigation software for some music or quick weather information. You have to restart the navigation system. It won’t keep running in the background.

Hopefully the future will allow you to pick up traffic information,weather information and search for new live POI’s within the software. Who ever has the iPhone has the data connection. Why not use the data connection to enrich the use of the Navigation Software?

Conclusion

The Navigon Navigation Software is the first proffesional navigation software for the iPhone comparable to the stand alone devices. The functions are slightly different from the stand alone devices, but this is the bestversion now available to have on your iPhone.

The Navigon MobileNavigator North America is on sale now for $69.99 in the App store until August 15. After that the price will go up to $99.99.