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

I’ve got the Neocell 4 and everything’s good, but one problem is with the iPhone dock that I installed into the Lexus. The problem is that the dock was for the Neocell 3GS but not the brand new Neocell 4. iPhone 3G / 3GS docks won’t work for iPhone 4′s because the design of the dock is just different. But iPhone 2G docks WILL work for iPhone 4′s.

So I found one of the Neocell 2G’s old docks and immediately put it to good use.

I did the same thing with the iPhone 2G dock that I did with the iPhone 3G / 3GS dock. I covered all connectors and spray painted it a tan color and also spray painted a protective paint coating on. Here’s the result. (It was raining when the pictures were taken, and these pictures were taken with an iPhone 3G.)

Looks pretty tight, right? But I didn’t stop there. This presented another problem. Before the Neocell 4, the dock could be used for my wife’s iPhone, my mother’s, my best friend’s, etc. When they road with me and wanted to charge their 3G or 3GS iPhone’s, no prob. I’d just take the Neocell 3GS off the dock and drop theirs in.

But now I can’t. Only iPhone 2G’s and iPhone 4′s can work in this dock. And ain’t no one I know has an iPhone 2G, and I’m the only one that has an iPhone 4 (I feel so special, haha) so that means this dock is exclusive to only me.

Man, I don’t want that. I want everyone to be able to dock into the Lexus. I knew people had successfully “modded” iPhone docks to work with other models of iPhones, but the result was HORRIFIC. I mean **** right fugly.

Man, I ain’t puttin some fugly thing into the Lexus.

I’m pretty skilled with a Dremel, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I had a Hong Kong knock off iPhone 3G / 3GS dock that didn’t work, so I decided to see if I could modify it clean enough to pass as a clean, non fugly dock. If I could on this dock, I’d try it on one of my OEM Apple 3G / 3GS iPhone docks. But…

The plastic couldn’t hold up. As you see, it didn’t turn out right. If the very front could stay in tact, this would have worked. I would have coated the “new inside” with it’s own wall-type structure, painted it and that would have worked as it would fit all generations of iPhone.

But it didn’t. The front chipped apart under the stress of having the inner curved parts surgically removed with my Dremel.

So I decided to on something better. I decided to install a second iPhone dock into the Lexus, and this one would be for 3G and 3GS iPhones.

I did the same thing as I did for the iPhone 2G / 4 dock, I masked off all protective areas (including speaker port holes) and painted it black and then sprayed on a protective coating. Check out the pics. (These pics were also taken while raining, but taken with the Neocell 4.)

As you can see, the dock blends in perfectly with the glove box (the little “white” you see on the dock is the reflection of light). The sync cable’s pretty noticeable, but if the white against black keeps annoying me, I’ll order a black sync cable. I’m leaving the cable lose and not hiding or installing it into the interior anywhere so that if someone, such as my wife, wants to use her iPhone while charging it, the cable be unplugged easily (and just as easily, plugged back in).

But that’s not the best feature of them all. Check out the video (recorded with the Neocell 4)…

As you can see, I installed it in such a way that the glove box can actually CLOSE while an iPhone’s sittin’ on the dock charging. I mean, that’s some groovy-*** **** there.

So yeah baby, I’m happy now to have two docks in the Lexus.

Peace, JbB

So yesterday I got the Neocell 4. Here’s the unboxing photos… (all of them were taken with an iPhone 2G by the way)

The box arrives from FexEx.

I ordered it from AT&T online on 08/25/2010 and it arrived on 08/27/2010.

Using my trusty transforming key knife to open it.

Whoh… there it is.

Come to papa…

Careful… careful…

Slowly I lift the lid…

‘Freak. There it is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

Damn, I’m lookin’ good.

Slowly lifting the protective screen…

Beautifully smooth glass there baby.

There’s the back with the screen protector on. Look at that big *** camera.

Taking the back off, love that reflective text.

There’s the accessories, neatly packaged in the box there.

Booting the Neocell 4 for the very first time.

There we go, now it needs activation. No prob.

The Neocell 4 sittin’ pretty in the Neocell 2G’s dock.

It’s a perfect fit.

There we go, now I’m restoring this “iPhone” with the Neocell 3GS’s data.

Not too much longer now.

Syncing the Neocell 3GS’s data to this “iPhone”…

The Neocell 4′s rebooting…

Now it’s virtually the “Neocell 4″.

Peace, JbB

If you read my post a month ago (New ATT Data Plans, What You Need To Know), I talked about the future of mobile Internet use for iPhone users. I recommended people switch to the 2 GB plan a month, saving $5 off their phone bill. I talked about my usage and where I suspected it would be once iOS 4.0 and its multitasking came out.

Well iOS 4.0 has been out for a while now, and Pandora’s been updated or multitasking. So now I have a better understanding of what my monthly usage is.

As you can see from the image below, I’m more than halfway through my billing cycle and I’ve used 493 MBs.

So how have I been using my mobile Internet plan so far this month? Well before I wasn’t able to run Pandora while driving because I had to use the Neocell as my GPS navigation (Got My Car Docked (iPhone Dock That Is)), and we all know Pandora couldn’t run in the background before iOS 4.0 (not counting Backgrounder). But now that Pandora can run in the background, I’ve been running Pandora behind Navigon when I drive. And I’ve ran Pandora a few times on the mobile Internet when hangin’ with friends via the Minimove (iPhone Remote Controllers Can Control Pandora), and a bit when goin’ shopping, using headphones or whatever. So I’d say I’ve used Pandora over my mobile Internet about 10 – 20 hours this month. (I know next month it’ll be more, because Navigon and Pandora were glitching a few times when Pandora’s update first came out and I wasn’t running Pandora at time.)

Other uses for the mobile internet has been emailing maybe 5 or 6 30 second videos, emailing maybe 20 pictures, downloading maybe 15 pictures via email, sending and receiving maybe 50 text emails, publishing three posts via WordPress, maybe 4 hours of web surfing and maybe 2 hours of web apps, such as eBay, Twitter, etc.

That’s a lot of use for only half a month. And thankfully, I’ve only used 1/4 of my Internet usage. But that doesn’t account for the total Internet usage on the Neocell in the past 15 days or so. Whenever I’m able to get on wifi, such as at home, I do it. So about 80% of my time using the Internet on the Neocell is done over wifi.

So don’t think to yourself “Wow, he uses his iPhone a lot and only uses that much of his mobile Internet? Then I’m good…” if you don’t connect (or have) wifi at your home or work.

Check out the second image below, the one that shows the usage of all data coming into and out of the Neocell. This is since I upgraded to iOS 4.0, so since my billing period started, the actual usage is pretty close (it would be just a little higher). I’ve used over the 2 GB limit. Now I’m good because 80% of that **** was over wifi. But if you aren’t using wifi and you use your iPhone a LOT, be careful. You could o over the limit.

But, I’m pleasantly surprised that things like Pandora and emailing don’t suck as much data as I thought. As long as people have wifi to connect to every now and then, I don’t see anyone really going over the 2 GB limit. (Tether is a completely different, sad story though).

Oh yeah, if you haven’t gotten it yet, go out and get the AT&T myWirelesa app to monitor your data usage.

Peace, JbB