Suggestion on Best 3G car charger .

bturner81 wrote:
For a car charger/FM transmitter, I suggest the Griffin iTrip AutoPilot. Don't confuse it with the Griffin AutoPilot (no "iTrip") which uses auxiliary for sound. It charges the iPhone and gives decent sound with little to no interference (for me at least. Your mileage may vary).

Actually, the AutoPilot model that uses the AUX cable (apparently) will work too--you'll get the "Airplane Mode" message but you can safely tap "No" and the AutoPilot will still charge the iPhone 3G. Although there is an AUX cable involved, it's actually integrated into the same cable that connects to the iPhone's dock connector port--meaning, no need to plug one end of the AUX cable into the iPhone's headphone jack (you still need to plug the other end into your vehicle's AUX jack but at least you now don't have to deal with two cables coming from your iPhone).

The Griffin PowerJolt will charge the iPhone 3G fine...however, it may have an issue keeping it fully charged if the iPhone 3G is being used heavily--i.e., you have a whole bunch of power-consuming tasks running on it at the same time (e.g.--3G on, BT on, music playing, Google Maps running in foreground, brightness set at 50% or brighter). IOW--under such "extreme" conditions, the iPhone 3G will drain faster than the PowerJolt can recharge it.

NUTTBALL763 wrote:
Using a CAR CHARGER is BAD for your phones battery life. A car charger should only be used in Emergency situations to charge it. I didn't know this either until I was told this by an Apple Employee. I did research on it, and found it to be true. There are many topics on it on the web. They say it shortens the life of the battery a lot. Read up on it.

If that's the case, then one might assume that any third-party (or Apple) navigation program would probably never see the light of day...especially if it's primarily to be used in an in-vehicle environment, since surely using such a nav app for any continuous period of time longer than say, 20 minutes (just throwing a number out there), will surely drain the battery even more quickly than if you didn't have it (or Google Maps) running in the foreground.

jolson247 wrote:
I agree as well. Definitely the PowerJolt by Griffin. I got mine at Target for $19.99 after looking at Best Buy and only finding ones for $35 and up. The PowerJolt is small and more than adequate. I kind of wish its USB connector wasn't unpluggable but I guess you could use other USB-Phone connectors with it if you wanted to.

Well in that case may I suggest you check out Walmart--they offer the version w/o the detachable USB for $15. I know 'cuz that's where I bought mine...