After being pulled over by the police for the 3rd time for HOLDING my iPhone, not using it I finally thought it was best to get a hands free kit. Now most of the very good kits are not cheap and the cheap kits are a load of crap. Or so I thought. A friend of mine pointed me towards the Allkit II, a hands free iPhone / MP3 player FM transmitter for cars. The original Allkit was bloody awful. Poor support for the phone causing it to fall out of the holder, very poor mono audio from music players and terrible interference from the engine. This is all history with the Allkit II mind you. The new design of the Allkit II features much better silicone side grips that really do keep your phone in place and being silicone they won't scratch it either. The adjustable feet at the base of the unit also make it possible to fit all manner of different MP3 players although the unit was designed with the iPhone and iPod Touch in mind. Now the most important feature in a kit like this is the sound quality. Well, believe me when I say it's excellent. I was very very surprised at just how clear the audio is. Good bass response and excellent treble. The audio comes through your car's stereo system via the FM tuner. No wires are needed. The iPhone simply connects to the charger / audio socket and that's it. The audio is then transmitted via the Allkit II's built in stereo FM transmitter to one of the selected pre-set stations or if you so please your own selected station. You then tune your car's stereo to the same frequency and there you have it, very impressive audio. The very cool part is that if someone calls you while you're listening to tunes from the phone they will automatically fade out and pause while you take the call. All voices come through the cars audio system. I've been using the Allkit II for a few weeks now and must say I'd be impressed if this was a 50 pound item but it's not, it's a 15 pound item!! The only criticism I have is that the gooseneck stand could have done with being a bit longer. That's it. Oh, and did I mention that the holder can be placed in horizontal mode as well for watching movies or using it as a navigation system? And let's not forget the USB charger on the right side of the unit. If you're looking for a good and affordable hands free car phone / audio system then I seriously recommend the Allkit II. What ever you do though, DON'T buy the Allkit I That is some serious shit. Yakumo
It works with ANY MP3 player or smart phone, not only Apple stuff. To use it with an Android or Blackberry you connect the Allkit II to the phone via a 3.5mm stereo jack and power via the USB. It's designed for iPhone and iPod Touch but will work with many different bits of kit. Don't know about the west but you can't buy car cassette players in Japan anymore.
