If your car is a frequent business-trip companion, consider the Autonet Mobile router. Installed into the trunk, it creates a personal Wi-Fi, 3G hot spot anywhere.

Multiple devices can share the Internet without slowing its speed. You connect wirelessly to the Autonet access point in exactly the same way you would for a stationary access point. Speeds will depend on the data size as well as the strength of your cellular signal, but reports are its competitive with portable, handheld devices like an iPhone.

Autonet Mobile is about to become much more common: It’s now an add-on option for Cadillac, Chrysler, and VW. The monthly subscription fee is $29 a month.

Buy for $390 from Amazon

Here’s a different looking Bluetooth headset…the Jabra Stone. The earpiece is just a slim curve that escapes the bulky look of most headsets and even eliminates buttons, opting instead for touch-sensitive controls. It earns its name from a distinctive charging dock that exactly matches the earpiece’s shape and creates the effect of a smooth stone when the two are together.

Although simple in looks, the Stone has noise ‘Blackout Extreme’ cancellation technology that uses dual mics to reduce background noise. There’s an option of working in A2DP mode for music in addition to the usual hands-free mode.

Featuring a terrific new shape, the Stone curves around the back of your ear, the small size dictates a low battery life of just two hours per charge, but the charger itself can work without a power cord for as many as three charges.

Talk time: 8 hours. Standby time: 12 days. It won’t be available until December 1st, but you can get your Christmas orders in now.

Buy for $100 from Mobile City Online

With new studies showing those who text while driving are 23 times more likely to cause a crash than a non-texting driver and rumblings that a federal law banning the practice is imminent, the demand for Bluetooth in-car speakerphones will no doubt pick up. But there are two problems: (1) most of them sound like crap and (2) well, YOU sound like crap to the person you’re talking to.

Maybe, just maybe, Jabra’s new offering – the Cruiser – might be the answer to everything. It’s the first speakerphone to use ‘Dual Microphone’ technology that Jabra claims eliminates background noise and cancels out any echo (really?!). There’s also ‘Voice Announcements’ where the speakerphone will access the address book to speak the name of the caller, or read the number aloud if it’s not in your contacts.



The Jabra Cruiser can also play MP3s stored on a mobile through the speakerphone, and through the car stereo using its built-in FM transmitter. When a call comes in, it will auto fade then mute the music.

Jabra says battery life is about 14 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time.

Oh, read elsewhere it’s not available in the states and no one knows when? Stick with us folks. It’s available.

Buy for $100 from Amazon

Based on Google’s Android OS, it’s winning accolades for its simplicity and customization, to name a few. Respected Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg recently wrote that the Hero stands out because of its touch-screen keyboard (much like the iPhone), synchronization with Microsoft’s Exchange service, and its manufacturers “own signature software layer” called ‘Sense’ that sits atop Android giving the Hero additional and much-needed functionality.

Sense also offers something called Scenes, which is a collection of screens and apps that can change the phones look and feel. You can switch from a work-oriented scene with apps like a stock tracker and work e-mail on the weekdays to a music-oriented scene on the weekends with a music player, photo album and personal e-mail.

“I found the HTC Hero to be the best Android phone I’ve tested, and a worthy competitor to the iPhone, the BlackBerry and the Pre,” Mossberg wrote. His pluses: the growing library of Android apps (now over 8,000), a much higher resolution camera than the iPhone or Pre at five megapixels, and a “clear and strong” speaker phone. His minuses: Poor battery life at well below the promised five hours, and a sometimes unresponsive touch screen.

It will be available from Sprint in the U.S. on October 11 for $180 after a $100 rebate with a new two-year service agreement, but is also available in an international, unlocked version from Amazon at the links below.

Buy the international white version for $682 from Amazon

Buy the international black version for $660 from Amazon

The new Jawbone Prime features Personal NoiseAssassin 2.0 technology, for even better noise-reduction than its predecessors. Now you can carry on a conversation even with a fire truck wailing in the background.

And it’s dead sexy, so you won’t look like a cyborg or a blinking lighthouse.

Buy for $99.99 via Amazon
or $94.99 from NewEgg

Go read some of the in-depth reviews of this product. Depsite it’s high price, if you drive in areas with poor cell phone reception, this little baby is impressive.

Buy for $230 from Amazon

The YUBZ Talk Mobile retro-styled phone. Hook it up to your iPhone or whatever and while it may look clunky, the company says it “designed for comfort, not convenience…not everyone wants to wear a headset.” Good point.

The handset comes in lots of colors and comes with a wide range of adapters and connectors. So if you’re missing the old days and the felling of a handset on our shoulder, check it out.

Buy for $30 from Amazon

The s4i is the first third-party headset to work with Apple’s VoiceOver feature that lets you control the iPhone through a gesture-based screen reader as well as the third-gen iPod shuffle, second-gen iPod touch, fourth-gen iPod nano and the 120GB iPod classic.

In addition, they now come with an in-line microphone and remote control for iPhones and iPod touch users to call or record audio. As with the original S4 models, the S4i set has the unusual oval ear tips that we’ve found to be more comfortable than circular tips found on other earphones.

But what might be most interesting is their new ’360-degree design’ that suppose to cancel out background noise. If it works as advertised, 99 bucks is worth it.

Buy for $99.00 from Amazon

Verizon today announced that it’s bringing 4G wireless networking to between 25 and 30 U.S. markets next year. Why do you care? Because Verizon claims peak download speeds of 50-60Mbps in its trials… which is about 10x faster than most cable modems (and about 50x faster than 3G).

If you can’t wait for that and happen to live in Baltimore, Sprint already offers 4G broadband in that city, with plans to roll it out in many more over the next 12 months.

The only issue with Sprint is that their 4G network is relying on WiMax, not LTE (like Verizon). What’s this alphabet soup mean? It means that Sprint’s 4G speeds top out at 2-4Mbps, not quite as fast as Verizon will be able to provide, but still a decent boost over 3G.

Of course, I’ll believe Verizon’s 50Mbps 4G speeds when I see it and it doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars a month (Sprint’s 4G plan is around $80/mo.).

We found this story about how the 3GJuice founder got his start pretty awesome (who knew LinkedIn had any real benefits?)

Featured on Gizmodo, and in the NYTimes, the 3GJUICE can take your iPhone 3G from 0% charge to 100% charge in just 2.5 hours, and even better, you can use your phone while it’s charging. And you will need this if you get an iPhone 3G. The battery sucks that bad.

Get it from Amazon for around $60.

Enter the ZBoost Cellphone Signal Extender.

With a ZBoost, you can take your one bar of cell phone reception and boost it up to normal levels so that you can actually use that cool Apple iPhone you bought with crappy AT&T cell coverage in your area.

There are three models. One that works with AT&T, Verizon and Alltel. One that works with T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Cricket, Suncom, and Sprint. And a dual-band version that works with all phones except Nextel. Why would anyone be a Nextel customer anyways?

Go to ThinkGeek, pick the model that works best for you, order it, spend five minutes installing it, and sit back and bask in the glory of your geekness. Then invite all the girls over that you had over that one time that couldn’t get good cell reception either, and have a party.

Price: $250 – $350 from ThinkGeek.com (search for “Cellphone Signal Extender”)

Do you ever wish you could charge your iPod or cell-phone without having to find a power outlet?

You need a Helius Solar-Power Backpack from V-Dimension.

It’s got a little solar-cell on the outside of the pack and comes with adapters for iPod and iPhone, Mini-USB (for Blackberry/Motorola Razr V3), Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Motorola phones. It also has an ear-bud hole, so you can listen to your music while the iPod or iPhone are charging in the pack.

Approximate charging times for various devices in full-sun are:

• Internal Battery Pack: 7 Hrs
• iPhone: 7 Hrs
• iPod: 3.5 Hrs
• Cell Phone: 3.5 Hrs
• GPS: 3.5 Hrs

It won’t charge your laptop (just can’t provide enough electricity) but as we all start using our iPhones for more and more of what we do online, that’ll be much less of an issue.

Bottom line: it looks great, carries your stuff well, and will keep your iPod and iPhone charged when you can’t find an outlet.

Price: $125 on Amazon.com

Not that we care, mind you; we’ll take the phone over a Big Bite Hot Dog any day of the year.

Unlike the first iPhone, the 3G version has everything you could possibly want in a phone. That means it has 3G high-speed connectivity (vastly faster than the EDGE connection of the original iPhone) and GPS, the two most glaring omissions of iPhone 1.0.

It can also run what will soon be thousands of applications (see our iTunes 7.7 post) and is available in almost every country that capitalism thinks matters (i.e. those with people who can actually afford an iPhone).

Our only problem? As original iPhone owners, we’re not sure the $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB) is really worth the cost of upgrading. Those handset prices are reasonable, but the iPhone 3G has different service plans. You’ll pay $10 more 3G data ($30 vs. $20 for EDGE) and no text messages are included (it’s $5 for the 200 messages the original iPhone included free, or $20 for unlimited). Add up those two extra costs, plus tax, and you come out to about $20 a month extra… or $480 over the two-year contract.

Of course, if you didn’t jump on the iPhone bandwagon in the last year, the decision is simple, even if finding one is less so: they’re only available in retail stores at launch, but will soon be sold through the Apple Store online, no doubt.

Plantronics’ Discovery 640E Ultimate Bluetooth Headset originally sold for around $100, but can be found these days for half that, making it a contender for performance and value.

Customer reviews are generally very positive for the Discovery 640E, although there are some complaints that the charger is a bit of a nuisance to use. Short of that, the headset delivers some solid features:

• up to 5 hours of talk time
• up to an additional 10 hours of talk time using the tiny portable AAA battery-powered charger
• up to 70 hours of standby time
• carrying pocket delivers svelte protection and vibrates when there’s a call
• soft gel ear tips (3 sizes)
• optional ear stabilizer
• controls: volume, mute, last number redial, voice activated dialing

All in all, the Discovery 640E is a very compelling package, especially since you can pick it up for $45.02 shipped from Provantage or $54.99 shipped from Amazon.

We like the GearJuice Rescue Charger because it weighs less than an ounce, and costs less than 15 bucks, meaning you can stash one in all your glove boxes and bags.

But we don’t like that it only provides about 15 minutes of talk time, according to IOGEAR, meaning it’s probably a bit less than that in real-world use and even less if you have a smartphone that’s getting data at the same time.

Still, it’s better than being forced to buy a car charger at retail ($30 at Radio Shack vs. $3 on eBay) when you’re in a bind and need to make a call.

If you want to try turning the world upside down, pair a GearJuice Rescue Charger with a USBCell battery… great success!!

Price: $12.24 from Buy.com (even though IOGEAR lists the price as $11.99 on its site, Buy.com is the cheapest place to get it).

The new Jawbone weighs in about 50 percent smaller before, and also looks like it’s more comfortable than its predecessor with its leather wrapped ear loop. A new slim loop also lets the Jawbone work better with glasses on.

Functionally, it’s pretty similar to before:

• weighs 10 grams
• up to 4 hours of talk time
• up to 8 days standby time
• charges to 80% in 35 minutes (100% in under an hour)
• new magnetic charging cable
• 3 ear-loop sizes for each ear
• black, silver, or rose gold colors
• MSRP $129.99

Currently, the new Jawbone is available exclusively from AT&T for full price, but expect prices to drop in the future as more resellers get it (we’ll keep you posted).

Or pick up a first-gen Jawbone (which also sold for $129.99 originally) for just $77.14 (black) or $74.49 (red) from Amazon.

update:The New Jawbone 2 is now available from Amazon.com for between $115 and $130 (depending on when you buy it).

Driinn cleverly solves the problem of how to keep clutter to a minimum when you’re charging your phone, iPod, or other small device from a wall outlet.

Of course, it also creates the problem of where to store Driinn when you no longer have the wall charger plugged in, since that’s sort of required for it to work.

But we’ll forget about that and marvel at the simplicity that is Driinn, while we also try to figure out if the product was named by a rogue IKEA designer.

Driinn is available direct online in multiple colors for €5, which means it increases in price every day if you’re paying in dollars, so pick one up from a third-party through Amazon:

Yellow ($5.55), Pink ($7.65), Red ($6.50), Black ($6.99), or Lime ($7.75). (Prices exclude shipping.)

Enter Motorola’s H12 Bluetooth headset, the company’s finest offering in a sea of mediocre ones. The H12 features two microphones that work in tandem to create the magic behind what’s called CrsytalTalk, a fancy name for background noise cancelling.

It also ships with three ear cushions that together comprise TrueComfort, another catchy moniker that basically means the thing isn’t a pain to put on or wear, even with glasses.

The H12 also features the look, fit, and finish of a quality product, and ships with a desktop charger and carrying case. Talk time is rated at up to 5.5 hours and standby time is pegged at 8 days.

The retail price on the H12 is close to $200, but as usual Amazon delivers one of the best deals on the Web at just $77.56.

If you do, then these portable speaks from DLO might just be what you’re looking for, if you like to go places and want or need to take some speakers with you to listen to your tunes or movies without using a pair of earphones.

The removable, rotating stand holds the iPhone upright or horizontally for the ideal portable movie-viewing experience

The speakers are powered by four AAA batteries, or an included AC adapter, so you can pretty much carry these babies anywhere, and the sound that comes out of them sounds like its coming from an extra-wide stage thanks to the engineering DLO put into them. The bass vents built into the speakers also provide for surprisingly deep base for such a compact and portable iPhone speaker system.

And these speakers won’t give you any of that ugly mobile phone interference you hear when you place your iPhone close to an older speaker system because they were designed with the iPhone in mind and digital interference free amplifier.

Probably the coolest feature of these speakers is how portable they are.

When you’re done using them, just pack the base and cables inside the speakers and roll them up into a nice little six inch diameter ball for easy packing:

Pick them up from Amazon.com for a cool $38 as of the time of this writing.