Comments on: IOGEAR Solar Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit: Hands-On In-Depth Review

By: Lance

Lance — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:58:22 +0000

My LG Vu Plus supports both voice dialing for outgoing calls and caller announcement for incoming calls (using the cell phone’s speaker). Would you know if the caller announcement can be heard on this speaker for an incoming call?

Thanks for a great review!

By: Sara Baker

Sara Baker — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:42:37 +0000

@Calla;

Was on a little vaca and I’ve used the unit more than any of the guys. I use an iphone, the one before 3GS. No voice-dialing over bluetooth support. At least not native through the bluetooth device you’re using.

I do know that the voice dialing over BT works with the droid devices the guys use. Another reeason to be jealous…

If you’re using iPhone 4, BT voice dial should work. There are reports of folks pairing and voice-dialing over BT headsets. IOGEAR’s unit work very much like a BT headset, so there should be issue.

Unfortunately, no one here has an iPhone 4G, at least not until after October, when my contract is up.

By: Calla

Calla — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:12:00 +0000

One question on outgoing calls. How are you finding the voice-dialing? Is it operating normally? Looked at manual online and it only talked about using phones voice tag or voice dialing features so wanted to hear your thoughts before purchasing.
I have iPhone 3GS and am currently using Parrot Minikit but it can’t sync with all my contacts (2800+) and seems to randomly select which contacts to sync, so I’m in need of an alternate solution.
Thanks for sharing all your thoughts!

By: Shawn Chen

Shawn Chen — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:28:52 +0000

Hmm…Sara asked me to look into this one. We’ll reach out to the folks at IOGEAR, but there’s bound to be a few bad units that needs returning out of the box.

I know we’ve been nothing but happy and Sara rarely lets us even borrow her “gifted” unit. Anyone else having problems out of the box?

By: Sara Baker

Sara Baker — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:26:04 +0000

@Michael Ton

I’ve had it on my windshield since day one and only took it down once to recharge it. Never had any issues with the heat and the unit is designed to take up to 185 degrees F.

Not sure, but doubt my little Scion gets up to that much. Dunno how long I’ve had my unit, been a while.

By: Michael T

Michael T — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:44:56 +0000

I just found one at Target for about 50. / I paired it with my Motorola Tracfone (flip-fone) and it worked flawlessly for about a day. Sounded good and everything. The last time I used it today it didn’t recognize my phone even though the code matched in the phone. I tried re-pairing it and still would not recognize the phone. I tried just turning it on and after a few seconds in went into pairing mode, like a loop. Called IOGEAR and they didn’t have many troubleshooting steps and told me to return it to the store as defective. Now I”m not sure I want to try another one. My sense is that if you’re keeping it on your windshield to charge it in the sun, it may be too hot for the internal electronics at the same time. Maybe it burned out the motherboard on this thing.

By: Shawn Chen

Shawn Chen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:05:21 +0000

@Evelyn

The IOGEAR unit reviewed here is a solar powered hands-free speakerphone. The product itself is a speakerphone that’s charged by it’s own solar panels. It’s totally self contained and solar panels don’t charge anything else except for itself. It is a bluetooth speakerphone that is paired up/connected with your existing cell phone through bluetooth protocols. Most, if not all phones on the market today support bluetooth for wireless connections to headsets, computers, are even phone-to-phone to share contacts or other data. So long as you’ve got a phone (whatever the carrier) and it’s got bluetooth on board, you’ll be able to use this unit.

The IOGEAR unit is not a car charger, rather it’s a speakerphone that you mount onto your car windshield or sun visor for handsfree calling on your cell phone. The unit is first charged via the included car adapter (for best results) and afterwards the charge is kept up by sunlight.

Simple concept, but I can see how folks might get confused. Also, keep in mind the title we used is the actual name of the product from IOGEAR.

Hope this helps to clarify! Thanks for commenting!

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:13:16 +0000

I’m not all that tech savy, so maybe I’m missing something – is the solar charging/speaker part of the mount functions, or are these capabilitiess of a specific phone? (i.e. can I use this mount with my existing phone for charging, etc.?) I couldn’t quite tell if you were reviewing a phone or a mounting kit (or both).

From the title & price, I would think this is solely for the mounting kit & car charger. If this is includes is for a phone too, what networks are available? (Or is it unlocked for use with any network?)