Driving while using your phone is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous ways to cause an accident. So automakers have put a huge emphasis on preventing such unfortunate situations, as car models are now leaving the lot with Bluetooth built-in to let folks use their phone hands-free. Unfortunately, for the millions of people who own an iPhone, there’s no intuitive way to connect your device.
Thankfully, the folks over in Plano, Texas thought this inconvenience through with the creation of its Mobile Home product. It’s very simple how the Bluetooth device hooks up to your car system, as it only needs to detect and pair with your iPhone. Once both devices are paired, Siri becomes a hands-free tool to use at your disposal. Moreover, the iPhone sees it as a Bluetooth keyboard, which means you can’t use the on-screen one when it’s connected.
What is this Mobile Home, you ask? Well, it’s a small rectangular black box with a button that mimics the iPhone’s Home button. And of course, much like how it looks, it acts just the same as the one built into your iPhone device.
To be clear, this is only works for a factory or aftermarket car stereo, or a hands-free system like I stated earlier. Mobile Home comes with a CR2450 battery and two different optional mounting methods for your car, including a metal visor clip and the company’s VELCRO brand “Sticky Back” fasteners. Truthfully, I didn’t bother using the Sticky Back fasteners as I found the metal visor clip to be more than adequate during my usage.
When you clip Mobile Home on your visor, it instantly makes your phone more accessible without taking your eyes off the road. Similar to the functionality of the iPhone, all users have to do is long press the Mobile Home to bring up Siri, double-click to activate lock screen audio controls, and single-click to wake the display.
Conclusion
My only real complaint with the Mobile Home Bluetooth system is that it relies on Siri alone as a voice controlled, personal assistant. Anyone who owns an iPhone or iPad knows how inept Siri can be when performing simple searches and commands.
Had the maker of Mobile Home, Beanco Technology, made the Bluetooth device use other personal assistant services such as Google Now (Voice Search) — it would have been awesome. Besides that, what potential customers stand to get is a product that lacks appeal but makes up for it with solid performance all for just $59. Again, Mobile Home isn’t at all flashy, but it does what its supposed to do.