Gizmodo: car accessories

I Would Not Be Ashamed to Have Belkin's Micro Auto Charger in My Car

Adrian Covert — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Most USB car chargers look like a perfect nightmare of bad design and nerdery. Belkin has acknowledged this and offered up the respectable Micro Auto Charger (also realizing 4-port USB car chargers are overkill).

The Micro Auto Charger has a 1-amp USB port that promises to charge gadgets super quick. Other than that, there's not much else to say about the thing, except that it charges pretty much anything you can shake a USB cable at. Belkin also released the dual-port Dual Auto Charger, which adds an extra 500 mA USB port, but it's fat and ugly and has one port too many.

You can get the Micro Auto Charger for $15 alone, or if you want an iPod/iPhone cable packaged in, it's $20. The Dual Auto Charger comes complete with iPod/iPhone cable for $30.

Charge Your iPod and iPhone in Your Car with Belkin's New Micro Auto Charger and Dual Auto Charger

* Keep your iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry®, or other USB charging device, charged while in the car
* Micro Auto Charger's design adds no extra bulk as it sits nearly flush with your dashboard

(Compton, CA) – April 20, 2009 – Belkin's new Micro Auto Charger and Dual Auto Charger charge your iPod or iPhone battery in your car, making it convenient to power up a dead phone or iPod.

Micro Auto Charger is packaged in a compact design and adds no extra bulk to your dashboard. Sitting nearly flush with your dashboard, the Micro Auto Charger still allows room on its lip for you to easily detach it from your dashboard. It also charges at 1 amp-ideal for iPhone devices and certain GPS systems in that it will charge at the device's fullest power.

With its two USB ports, the Dual Auto Charger lets you charge your iPod through one port while charging your cell phone in the other, simultaneously. One quick-charge port powers at 1 amp for your iPhone, and the second port charges at 500 milliamps, which will support iPod devices and cell phones such as BlackBerry phones.

AVAILABILITY

* Dual Auto Charger – Currently available
* Micro Auto Charger – Available in early May 2009

Micro Auto Charger with Charge Sync Cable for iPod and iPhone (F8Z446) - $19.99

* Quick-charge port for fastest possible charge
* Sits nearly flush with car dashboard
* Charge Sync Cable for iPhone and iPod, 3 ft.

Micro Auto Charger (F8Z445) - $14.99

* Quick-charge port for fastest possible charge
* Sits nearly flush with car dashboard

Dual Auto Charger (F8Z280) - $29.99

* Charge-and-sync cable for iPhone and iPod, 3 ft.
* Works with Motorola®, BlackBerry, and any mobile phone using a mini-USB connection
* Features 2 USB ports (one port at 1A and one port at 500mA)
* Quick-charge port for fastest possible charge

Drivemocion LED Sign for Cars Now Does Animated Emoticons

Kit Eaton — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:10:00 EDT

Chinese company Au-my has updated its Drivemocion LED car sign with a new animated version. Now you can display your anger yet more graphically, or even give flirtatious winks at other drivers. But is it a recipe for increased road friendliness, or worse road rage? Just don't distract the following car so much they crash into your trunk: there's no emoticon in the five available strong enough to answer that. Available for $60. [Drivemocion]

Brando Gives You Three For One; USB, Too

Charlie White — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:50:27 EDT

Plug this Brando 3-in-1 car adapter into that cigarette lighter, and it turns one accessory power outlet into three. Its added bonus is that USB port, letting you charge up yet another of your digital paraphernalia as you hit the road. Could be a boon for those adventurous souls planning extended road trips this summer.

And if you must, go ahead and fire up that cigarette lighter in one of its receptacles—it's okay, you'll still have two left. Yours for $20. If you don't need all three of those outlets, Brando also has a 2-in-1 car adapter, too. – Charlie White

Product Page [Brando]

Multi-Port Power Inverter Still Lets You Fire One Up

Charlie White — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:59:52 EDT

Plug this Multi-Port Power Inverter into your car's cigarette lighter, and all of a sudden you have a couple of USB ports and an AC socket at your fingertips. We took a look last week at a similar inverter for the car, but it only had one USB port, plus it takes up that cigarette lighter, so you can't light up a blunt while you're charging up your cellphone, and shaving, and running that MP3 player all at the same time while driving. Major drawback.

The kicker? You can get this one for five cents less—it's $39.95. Someday, all cars will have these ports as standard built-in equipment, plus a universal dock for your iPod. – Charlie White

Product Page [Herrington, via Coolest Gadgets]

Keep Those Eyes on the Road with Globaltop Heads-Up Display

Charlie White — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:45:00 EST

If you're a jet pilot or you've driven a Corvette, you know what a great idea it is to have a heads-up display. It projects that vital info right in front of you, looking like it's hovering just in front of the car. That lets you keep your eyes on the road, where they belong, especially at high speed.

That's what the Globaltop Heads-Up Display does, giving you a speedometer as well as GPS directions and your cellphone info via Bluetooth in a display that hangs out there in front of you. You can also set it to nag you if you speed. Uh, no thanks. No pricing was announced, but you can be sure it'll cost less than a Corvette, or especially an F16. – Charlie White

Globaltop Heads-Up Display [Devicepedia]

Drivemocion: LED Display for your Car

www.gizmodo.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:31:04 EST

Just when you thought you couldn't annoy more people with your incessant use of emoticons in email, text messages and IM's along comes the Drivemocion. LED messages are all over the place, in jackets, badges and belts so why not in your car? This battery powered, suction cup mounted rear window display comes with a wireless controller for you to use inside and allows you to chose from the 2, 3 and 5 messages versions featuring Smiley face and Sad face in addition to up to three pre-programmed messages. But since "Thanks" and "Backoff" are way too tame and "Idiot" is only at the tip of the iceberg of this product's potential, we know you're holding out for the one where you can program your own epic and witty messages. Cause nothing says classy like an LED message that reads "Last time some guy got that far up my ass he bought me dinner first" –Dana Bushman

Drivemocion [AU-MY via I4U News]

PhantomPark: Take That Sports Car Underground

Charlie White — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:09:17 EDT

Got three cars but just a two-car garage? PhantomPark is a solution to that problem with an elevator that takes that sporty trophy of your midlife crisis underground. Its elevator can lift two 5000-pound vehicles at once, and the top of the elevator functions as the garage floor for that second vehicle.

Just don't push that button at an inopportune time. The video mentions the safety of the system, but to us it looks like an accident waiting to happen. Even so, it could be a secure way to secretly store an extraordinarily valuable vehicle. – Charlie White

PhantomPark Underground Parking Can Turn Your Garage Into The Batcave [Jalopnik]

Pimpstar LED Rims: The Video

Travis Hudson — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:52:50 EST

If you recall, earlier this week we mentioned the Pimpstar LED Rims that can display any image on your rims, wirelessly. Well, the video of these rims in action has finally graced YouTube and word around da' hood is that they will cost $12,000.

Pimpstar LED Rims

Pimpstar LED Car Rims

rhbaby — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 08:56:00 EST

These Pimpstar rims are programmable using a Wi-Fi equipped laptop and can display images as you roll down the street. The LEDs are full color so there is no limit to what you can display on them, and the software allows you to rotate through a series of six different images per wheel. The wheels are carwash-safe and run from the car's power to spare you the embarrassment of running out of battery in the middle of your flashing light display. The wireless technology begs to be hacked and since these are destined to go on the uber-SUVs, we recommend replacing "Low Ridah" with images that say "Losah."

LED Rims [RideRoom]
Pimstar Wheel Rims [Custom Wheels]

Moodoofree Plus Kit Helps You Park

Charlie White — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:41:00 EST

Not quite the same as the Siemens ParkMate we showed you earlier that will park your car for you, the Moodoofree Plus Kit is a Bluetooth-enabled rearview mirror replacement that has a set of parking sensors attached to your car s bumper that show your distance from an obstacle or another vehicle. It even tells you in which direction that obstacle lies. This is a versatile device that's trying very hard to be helpful as it gives you caller ID information from your cellphone, and also functions as a speakerphone.

The Mirror Has Eyes: The Modoofree Car Kit, With Parking Sensors [Jalopnik]

Youve Been Slimed. Now Get Back on the Road

Charlie White — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 14:16:05 EST

The company that should consider a new name for itself, Slime, is offering Mini Smart Spair, a palm-sized microcompressor that can pump up your tire after you've sealed it with Slime, a special substance that the company says is made of environmentally friendly fibers, binders, polymers and proprietary congealing agents that inter-twine and clot to seal punctures up to 1/4 of an inch.

The micro-compressor plugs into your 12-volt car battery. Once you perform that roadside repair, then you can make your way to a place where you can fix that tire properly. The kit includes eight ounces of the legendary Slime, ready to seal up anything that might spring a leak.

Smart Tire Repair [Red Ferret]