What is the best Bluetooth kit for iPhone?

Most of the newer cars these days come equipped with standard or optional hands-free bluetooth integration capabilities. In addition to user demand for the convenience of hands-free communications while driving, state and local ordinances have prompted automakers to begin offering more hands-free options than ever before.

However, if you have a vehicle that did not come equipped with bluetooth, all is not lost. You have a variety of products to choose from on the market. The purpose of this article is to share one of the best solutions available for modernizing a bluetooth-enabled car that not only allows hands-free calling, but also control of an iPod or iTouch.

The unit I’m talking about is the Parrot mk9200 music kit. It’s called a “music kit” because of its ability to seamlessly switch between cell phone calls and control an iPod or iTouch device via a convenient little remote control with a scroll wheel.

The Parrot device is super compact and comes with a vibrant LCD screen that is slightly smaller than a GPS (and much thinner) for viewing your playlist and the caller’s photo, as well as a small remote control that it has player controls and a scroll wheel.

For my purposes, I mounted the LCD over my car’s factory head unit. It can be easily installed on top of the dash or around the center console. The display comes out of the small mounting device to which it is connected via a USB connection.

The tiny cable that is connected to the display is designed to be routed behind the dash and in the little blue box that includes the brain of the device and serves as a kind of “junction box” to connect your devices.

The parrot can control an iPod or iPod touch (with playlist preview and control via the small remote and remote-mounted LCD screen), as well as a USB device or hard drive, an SD card ( through a slot on the back of the LCD screen) and finally a standard AUX input.

So by installing this device I get access to a lot of digital data and music via iPod, cell phone, mp3 player and SD card. Also, add an auxiliary input to my car.

I have been using the Parrot MK8200 for about 3 months now and I must say that there is not much to complain about. It seamlessly switches between my iPod playlists and cell phone calls, displaying the photo of the person calling on the crisp little LCD screen in the process. I can also activate voice dialing just by clicking a button on the wireless remote and saying the contact’s name. I can also receive calls with the click of a button on the remote.

When I’m ready to listen to music, I press the play button on the remote and the iPod plays through my car stereo speakers with crystal clear sound.

If there is something I can say wrong about the Parrot device, it is that it does not allow voice dialing by saying the number. You must know the name of the contact in order to use voice dialing. Hope the folks at parrot enable this feature via firmware update.

One of the little details that I really like is that I can upload a wallpaper that is displayed on the parrot screen when I’m not playing music. I have uploaded a logo for my vehicle which gives the unit a factory installed look that receives a lot of praise.

I couldn’t be more enthusiastic in my recommendation of the parrot mk8200 bluetooth kit.