Man do I love mobile TV while driving. By mobile TV, I mean loading up Hulu Plus or Netflix on my iPhone. But before I talk about mobile TV, I should mention how I connect audio to my car.

Bluetooth streaming audio

I connect my iPhone to my car’s audio system via a Bluetooth adepter. I use a Scosche MotorMouth II, which does streaming Bluetooth audio to my stereo, as well as adding a handsfree car phone type system for calls and a push button for voice command of iOS.

The system works out pretty well, and I have it connected to power in the car so I never have to take it out to recharge. It just works. The procedure I have to do to use it is, assuming bluetooth is already on the Neocell and let’s say Pandora is already playing, is I start my car. The red light on the MotorMouth lights up, indicating it’s got power. I then push the button on it and that initiates the connection and then audio transfers to the sound system. And then that’s it. Once I turn the car off, since it’s battery powered, the MotorMouth stays connected and the Neocell continues to play audio (although nothing can be heard). I can either just walk away from my car and the iPhone will automatically disconnect from Bluetooth and pause audio, or I can switch the audio source on the iPhone from Bluetooth to speaker to hear music from the Neocell.

Why use Bluetooth streaming audio

I wrote before about how I connected an iPhone dock into my ride. I did this because it’s the most efficient way to physically connect an iPhone into your car. The dock’s line out was connected to my car’s auxiliary audio input of my stereo, as well as the sync cable to the dock connected to a USB-to-DC plug thing. You simply drop your iPhone into the dock and you instantly got sound to your car and power to your iPhone. Bada bing, bada boom.

I Installed Two iPhone Docks In My Ride

So why, then, go with Bluetooth streaming audio if you got’a great, easy solution like this? Well honestly, you don’t gotta’. The dock system rocks. Serious. But the reason why I did it is because, the way iOS docks are designed, when you take your iPhone off the dock, it pauses audio. This became a pain when I’d have Pandora playing in the background and my GPS app Navigon running in the foreground and I’d have to pull the Neocell out of the dock because I wanted to enter text with two hands instead of typing while it’s on the dock or whatever. This would cause the audio to pause. Once I connected it back to the dock, I’d have to resume the audio.

Another problem I found myself in a lot was picking up the Neocell out of the dock to do things like check an email message or reply to an IM from Beejive. Each time I’d do this, the audio would pause. It’s not even like it would stop going through the car’s audio but would keep playing through the Neocell’s speaker. No, it would just stop all together.

This also became a problem when I’ve be driving with someone and they wanted to check something on the Neocell, which of course they’d have to undock it. Whenever I’m driving, the Neocell preforms two extremely important rolls. One is audio entertainment (I NEVER listen to the radio and don’t own one single audio CD) and the other is GPS navigation through Navigon. Both can run and continue to work and do their function because they play their audio in the background, but when someone would pick up the Neocell out of the dock, the audio would no longer be goin’ through the car’s sound system.

Now you understand the beauty of Bluetooth streaming audio. The Neocell can freely be picked up out of the dock and the audio will still continue. This has come in handy so many times. I remember one time when my wife was with me and we needed to get in contact with someone who happened to be in Hawaii… we didn’t know their phone number or even email address, but we noticed them online on Facebook via Beejive so my girl IMed this person and was having an important conversation (she hadn’t gotten Beejive yet on her own iPhone). I had a lot of complicated driving to do and needed to hear the GPS, but this wasn’t a problem because the audio was still being streamed over, including Pandora even though the Neocell was in her hands and not physically connected to anything.

TV and movie audio streaming via Bluetooth

So this brings me back to the original point; how great it is watchin’ TV and movies while drivin’. For the record, when I mean “watching”, unless I’m in non-moving traffic, my eyes are on the road 90% of the time. Most people wouldn’t call that “watching” TV but more like “listening”, and this sorta’ true… but being able to glance at what’s on screen for a half second or so here and there really does give you the scope of what’s going on in the video. Some of you may not think that’s enough time to understand what’s happening, but it’s like people watching TV while surfing the web, you understand what’s goin’ on without havin’ to have your eyes glued to the video.

Having the audio streaming through Bluetooth makes it that much nicer watching a TV show from Hulu Plus or a movie from Netflix. Sometimes I’d find myself looking at an episode of The Office and notice some smudges on the screen. No problem, simply take the iPhone off the dock, rub the screen on my shirt or whatever and place it back… all while keeping my eyes on the road and continuing to listen to the audio.

Another neat thing is that if I had one of my nieces or nephews with me and my girl and let’s say they wanted to play Angry Birds or something while we were on a long trip. Normally, I’d have to say no because GPS navigation is vital. But with Bluetooth streaming and the fact that Navigon can run in the background, no problem. They can use the Neocell in the back while it streams GPS navigation instructions to the car’s audio system.

Mobile TV feels like cheating during traffic

So check it, yesterday I was driving home on an hour long drive and, living in Tampa Bay, there’s a lot of bodies of water around and a lot of bridges to go over. While listening to Pandora in the background with Navigon running in the foreground, I noticed a traffic alert that mentioned a traffic accident on a bridge up ahead. This bridge happened to be the only way into Tampa and this bridge is like 5 miles long. Sure enough, it ended up being bumper to bumper traffic, with traffic moving at like 0-5 miles per hour. Navigon didn’t recalculate a new route due to the traffic because it would be a 20 to 30 minute detour.

I had ice cold AC on me and Pandora pumpin’ through the system. But all this stop and go traffic, defending your lane from *** holes trying to jump in front of you… not fun. So I decided to treat myself and rather than wait until I got home to watch the latest episode of Parks and Recreation, I’d watch it now. So I paused Pandora, loaded up Hulu Plus, accessed my queue and pressed play. Instantly, I was watching TV and loungin’ back into my leather seat, sippin’ on a delicious Pepsi fountain drink in my cup holder and enjoying my car’s automatic climate control system keep me perfectly cool as I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the middle of a bridge over Tampa Bay.

Honestly, it felt like cheating. Instantly, I was much calmer and more relaxed. “Oh look, this **** head just cut in front of me. Who cares, I got… Hahaha… Crazy good TV goin’ on.” Every once and a while, I’d look around at other people and I’d see the frustration. I surveyed like 10 cars around me and they all were miserable, from the ones driving nasty beater cars to the ones in brand new Mercedes… and yet here i was, havin’ a ball. I realized I’d been in traffic going 0 to 5 miles per hour for the last 15 minutes and it felt like 3 minutes had gone by. It totally felt like I was cheating. Traffic isn’t supposed to be enjoyable.

See, the beauty of this that I didn’t plan on any of this happening. The content I was watching didn’t exist on my phone. I was pulling it from the cloud. People don’t utilize the current potential of technology in the palm of their hand, ya know?

Gansta’ leanin’ video

Here’s one thing that some may see as a glaring flaw though… all video that’s played, well… it plays sideways. Yeah. Since the Neocell is docked in portrait orientation, it plays all video sideways. Honestly, this isn’t a problem for me. It’s hard to explain, but all content just looks normal sideways as it does normal. You immediately adjust to it.

Who needs digital TV and DVD’s

Over on theNeocell.com’s sister web site, AintAGeek.com, I wrote a post about why I pay for and use Internet TV.

Living With Internet TV

That, including the fact that I can wach TV and movies while driving, will keep a crap load’a video content always ready for me at the tips of my fingers. The only thing I gotta’ concern myself with is how much bandwidth I use a month for my iPhone. But honestly, whatever I do use, it’s SO worth it compared to the value I’m gettin’. Rock on.

Peace, JbB

So now that I’ve got the Neocell 3GS and I’m able to run jailbroken applications with ease, such as Backgrounder., you’d think I’d now use SBSettings since I have twice the CPU power and twice the memory for my iPhone 3GS 32GB, right? Wrong. Here’s why…

SBSettings is a great little jailbroken app, for those of you who don’t know, that allows you to swipe across the top of your phone to turn off and on very important things, such as your wifi, bluetooth, adjust your brightness, ect. But the problem is that SBSettings has to run in the background 24/7 of your iPhone, whether your using it at the moment or not. As I’ve said before, SBSettings will slow your system down. But this was for 2G and 3G iPhones, which for any’a y’all that didn’t know, are the same exact speed (everything, but internet of course). I’m a public advocate, I guess you could say, for keeping your jailbroken speed as close to non-jailbroken devices. So I tell any and everyone I know not to use SBSettings because of the impact it has on your speed.

But now a select few, including myself, have iPhone 3GS’s. Twice the memory, twice the processor power, yada yada yada… Does this mean “Yay, me gets SBSettings now…” and everything’s fine and dandy? Freak no. It’ll just slow down some of the speed advantage you have of your 3GS. Now, unless you wanted to buy a 3GS just to run apps like these, regardless if your 3GS is slower than other 3GS’s… fine. But I know the majority of you out there rockin’ a 3GS got it for the speed, among other things. SBSettings will, of course, eat into your speed.

And here’s another reason not to get SBSettings, or Bossprefs for that matter… being able to turn wifi on or off don’t work. Nope… didn’t work for the Neocell 2G, and it doesn’t work for the Neocell 3GS. I mean, for me, that’s the whole point of using SBSettings or Bossprefs is to turn bluetooth and wifi off. If I can’t turn off wifi from either app and have to go into the settings section of the Neocell to turn wifi off, I might as well turn bluetooth on or off while I’m there. I mean that’s the point of the apps, so for me, functionality of the apps is straight up broke.

So should you use SBSettings? It’s your choice… but if it ain’t good enough for the Neocell 3GS, how are you dissin’ your own 3GS and saying it’s good enough for you? (And if you’ve got a 2G or 3G iPhone, it’s not even a choice because you will become sluggish). Don’t make your 3GS be like the crappy stick figure below…

Peace, J

Of any phones I’ve seen, iPhones have got to be one of the best at switching call audio from Bluetooth. Most phones I’ve worked with have all been so complex to work with in switching audio from a Bluetooth device, such as a GPS, to the cell phone’s speaker. In fact, a lot of phones can’t even switch audio, they’ll try to just disconnect. When this happens, the Bluetooth device can actually try to reconnect back to your phone when your trying to talk on the phone.

But with iPhones, it’s so easy and fun. Take my Lexus for example. When I hop in my ride, I turn Bluetooth on the NeoCell. Once I start the car up, the GPS connects to the NeoCell. I can then dial and take calls from the GPS touch screen while my phone’s in my pocket. Once I’m on a call, I can choose (on the iPhone’s screen) whether to switch audio from the car to the phone’s speakers.

What’s great about this is that I can switch the audio right back to the car no problem. This is the only phone I’ve worked with that’s been so great to use like this for Bluetooth.

Peace, J

Well, the info has been released on what most of the major things will be comin’ out for the new iPhone 3.0 OS (set to come out this summer). There were hopes that Apple would introduce “teathered” Internet, as I mentioned the post before.

Well the bad news, for people like me, is that’s not gonna’ happen. Yeah, sorta’ sucks that I won’t be able to use the NeoCell to share its Edge Internet with my TomTom GPS so that I can get traffic updates. I’d go with a traffic antenna for my GPS, but, just like the NeoCell, I’ve hacked it too, turnin’ my model of GPS into the latest model (savin’ hundreds), so a traffic antenna may not work. That’s why I’m pushin’ to get the NeoCell to feed the Lexus data rather than an antenna.

Peace, J

It’s one in the morn, and this is the first time I’ve found out that Apple is going to announce details about a new OS update for iPhones, 3.0 later today.

So I’m readin’ that they may release the ability to use a Bluetooth connection to teather Internet.

I would love this because I would be able to use the NeoCell’s mobile internet to get live traffic updates to my gps via Bluetooth, which I haven’t been able to since getting an iPhone.

Lookin’ forward to seein’ all the things they announce.

Peace, J