On the Road with Just Mobile
Review By Tim Hillebrand | July 08, 2006
Category: miscellaneous (eg, anything else)
Each year, as I prepare for my summer sojourn cruising around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for a couple of months, I am always on the lookout for applications that will help me to remain productive, keep connected, and entertained while on the road. I struck a bonanza for the road warrior when I discovered Just Mobile. Actually, I discovered Just Mobile at the Consumer Electronics Show, but I thought it just made external MP3 speakers. I reviewed its speakers for the i-mate SP5 Smartphone a while back. But, I have just discovered a cornucopia full of other useful items that I’d like to share with you.
Touch screens, glasses, monitors, and electronic equipment in general get smudged with finger prints and worse. Getting out a bottle of Windex and a clean rag is a nuisance. Just Mobile has a super Micro Fiber Cloth that will clean a screen or your glasses in a jiffy. Every burglar should have one because it will remove fingerprints and dust from any surface without a trace and without scratching. This grease magnet is great for cleaning and polishing Smartphones, PDAs, CDs/DVDs, cameras, monitors and more. When it becomes soiled, just rinse it out, and it will be as good as new. It’s called a Moon Cloth, but I’m not certain. It comes in a slim plastic case that you can easily stow in your pocket or tote bag. It costs $18.55.
As an added protection to your PDA screen, Just Mobile produces a screen protector to accommodate just about any size screen. What I appreciate about these durable protectors is that they are removable, washable, and reusable. They are also Anti-UV, dust free, and scratch resistant. The cost is $18.55, a good investment in the protection of your valuable mobile device.
On my trip, I plan to break-in a Treo 700W and use it to test some navigation programs. Finding a reliable mount for GPS devices is a constant challenge. The mount I planned to use proved unusable with the 700W because its arms were not deep enough to hold it securely. The Just Mobile Universal car mount works perfectly, but its arms will open wide enough to embrace anything from a Blackberry to an iPod. The opening at the bottom leaves room to plug in a car adapter, but it doesn’t allow room for plugging into the audio jack. A suction cup securely fastens it to the windshield. It will swivel on the base and on the mount plate for complete adjustability. It has a curious feature with a removable photo holder where you can display a picture of your significant other or your favorite horse. It would be an even more perfect solution if it allowed room for an audio input, had a car charger attached and an internal speaker, but you can’t have everything I suppose. The car mount costs $32.55.
It seems that you can never find enough car charger sockets. I’m always having to juggle limited car charger sockets to keep all the animals in my arc fed. Just Mobile comes to the rescue again with a three-socket car charger. It comes with two small screws and a couple of Velcro strips as alternative mounting methods. I like the compact design and flattop of the charger plug. I wish it came with an extra fuse though. You can be sure that I will be putting this handy appurtenance to good use. The three-socket car charger is $14.55.
Unfortunately, the Treo 700W does not come with built-in Wi-Fi, but with a Just Mobile SDIO 801.11 b/g wireless LAN card I will be taking advantage of hotspots on the road. The card I have is an 801.11b card, but the 801.11g card should be available soon. This LAN card is designed to be battery friendly and supports both 64-bit and 128-bit encryption. I especially appreciate its compact size and low profile compared to some cards that protrude from your device like the Eiffel tower. It costs $89.
Listening to your favorite tunes is no problem in the car, but in the hotel room at the end of the day it’s nice to be able to relax and listen to music. The compact, light-weight Just Mobile Docking Station makes a perfect travel companion for this purpose. It is available for a variety of devices I plan to use mine with an i-mate SP5 Smartphone which doubles as an MP3 player on the road. It costs $99.00 Keep your eyes open for the new PK4 Audio System that will feature a sub-woofer with bass and clear sound.
I also plan to take an i-mate Jasjar, KJam, and SP 5 with me this summer to test various applications simultaneously. I have often lamented that none of the i-mate products come with a cradle, which is bothersome and inconvenient. Just Mobile has solved that problem too with cradles for virtually all the i-mate or HTC products. These USB cradles cost just $19.95 each.
Now you can see why I was happy to discover the rest of Just Mobile’s products; you will appreciate them too whether you are a road warrior or you do your battles at home or in the office. To visit the manufacturer’s Website, go to www.mobis.com.tw. But, you will not be able to purchase the products there. You can, however, purchase them online from www.expansys.com and www.mobileplanet.com.
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