A friend of mine owns two of them and they're neat and pretty useful but his wine don't think the same.
She thinks they're unaesthetic and don't like the idea having two pieces of metal covering the air-flow :)

I own a Panavise indash mount [www.panavise.com] instead of the ProClip because the ProClip only have one option of setup for my car and the location is not too good.

Luis Neng

Way too expensive. No deal.

viola

I got one of these to mount my iPod in my car (Saab) and use it every single day -it's never let me down.

Lula Mae Broadway

Follow up: If it's not obvious, I've actually a lot of research on this. I also want to use RAM Mounts because they're made in the US and the goose neck thing could hypothetically twist under your seat if you wanted to clean up your interior. I am a sucker for these types of hard installations.

cnordholm

I've been looking at RAM Mounts ([rammount.com]) - I don't know if they have the air vent mount but their products look *really* sturdy. I've been looking at their iPhone cradle with a passenger seat base bolt goose neck attachment for the car: [65.102.174.116] and [65.102.174.116] .

cnordholm

I was hit by a guy writing something down with a pencil and paper. Let's ban pencils and paper! Sheesh! Welcome to the century you left 7 years ago.

If you must mar your vehicle permenantly with velcro get 3m high temp velcro. If you call 3m they will direct you to a reseller. It's good to 250 degrees and is the only velcro that won't melt inside your car. Have fun getting it off when you sell your car (any velcro that is).

Finally, a great execution of a product that has been reproduced more times poorly than most. The thing I like is that you can simply buy a new mounting plate if you switch cars. Maybe they'll move their R&D one step further and design a laptop mounting device that doesn't look like a cluster ****. Or require mounting holes screwed thru the frame!

Great post, Adam! Keep it up. Are each of you assigned specific departments? Like are you the gadget guy? Haven't really paid attention to who posts what. Keep up the good work.

molife

Those are way over priced. $40 for just the holder.. then $30 for the mounting clip. no thanks.

radink

I like the proprietary gadget holders, but the mounting plate can be done with an angle bracket and some plasti-dip.

DeeJayQueue

ps. Gawker: You're welcome to use that picture ;)

thoughtfix

ProClip mounts are comparably expensive, but they're easy to install, they're top-quality and they have mounts designed specifically for practically every car/device combo out there. I've tested mine over very rough terrain (logging GPS tracks while racing on dirt) and it's been solid as a rock. Thumbs up.

rollog60

I went absolutely nuts with ProClip mounts in a recent article on [tabletblog.com]

REALLY nuts. Like - don't try to drive like this.

thoughtfix

hmmmm, helpful, dynamic GPS routing device or printed out instructions that only work about 70% of the time and don't help you if there is a roadblock. i wonder which is less distracting? or you could use a map, more dynamic, but less detailed and requires more cognitive power and less brainpower for driving.

look, if you want to be a luddite, just be honest about it and take the stance. "I hate gadgets." stop trying to make it sound logical.

daniel.j.doughty

I like to mount my cell phone and my GPS on my car dash. I do it in a decidedly low-tech manner -- I use Velcro.

I've found that it needs to be replaced once/twice a year, becuase the hot sun causes the glue on the dash to fall apart. Otherwise, I prefer this approach to the extra equipment approach, because its lower profile, and doesn't involve extra equipment.

Erudite

@Coming Into The Game, The Superstar Receiver, Of Your Upper...: I'm not at all a bad driver, I've never received a ticket and have never been in an accident. I have, however, been hit and run off the road many, many times while legally riding my bike by motorists who were speeding and/or not paying attention to the road because they were too busy playing with their gadgets in their car.

OriginalGabriel

I use a padded mount for my iPhone. It's called "the passenger seat." ;-)

Outtacontext

@OriginalGabriel: I appreciate the tips these guys are posting. I think you are frequently hit and run off the road because you may be a bad driver, so please don't blame it on interweb articles.

Coming Into The Game, The Superstar Receiver, Of Your Upper Deck Torontooo BJsss

You guys are on a roll today! First how to speed without getting a ticket and now how to mount distracting gadgets in your car?

Put the two together and we've got ourselves a lot of folks speeding around town while sending text messages, checking directions and looking for a song. No wonder I'm frequently hit by and run off the road by motorists.

OriginalGabriel

i have these for my ipaq/axim/n95/n73 the mounts all fit perfectly all four different vehicles without any fuss are removable without any nasty screw holes or messy adhesive. the only downfall is when you have someone else using them and they twist the mount instead of sliding it.
use [brodit.se] for the rest of the world. costs are generally under £25 and they almost always have a powered (active) mount as well as the simple (passive) mounts the active is generally £5-10 more which offsets the cost of a car charger anyway!
if i could vote then these would be 10/10!

neal whitehouse piper | whiper

I've got one of the ProClip vehicle mounts in my 2008 Altima. I use the "move clip" system to switch between the tilt/swivel iPod mount and the mount that came with my XM Radio receiver. It's a great solution because it's semi-permanent, meaning it's meant to stay there, but is also removable should I decide to trade in/sell the vehicle. No nasty screw holes, no scraping up the dash, etc.

Bill Clark

For the folks saying this is high priced, yes it is compared to other solutions which you have to mount on your windshield or vent-mount. I've tried both and I have to say the Proclip system is much better. It's very durable and easy to install. Once installed you don't have to worry about anything. I use it daily and I don't have any complaints about it. I had a holder for a Dell Axim and recently got a PDA phone.. all I needed to purchase was the holder -- the mount didn't have to be replaced.

I think it's worth it if you use it every day and value your device not getting dropped while driving. :)

ecltech

A couple of people have mentioned the high price of these things. I'd like to comment on the cost of well thought out useful things.

I will pay a bit more for something that serves a great purpose in my life, works well, is easy to install, and doesn't mar the thing I'm attaching it to. And, even more bonus points if it looks nice and is well-designed.

I'm not sure I *need* one of these things (in part, because I use my car so infrequently). But if I did I might be persuaded to make a ProClip purchase.

Outtacontext

I ended up getting a Gomadic 4-in-1 car mount for my Axim:

[www.amazon.com]

Amazon sells individual mounting style versions for $20 bucks less but I didn't know what would work best in my Corolla so I got the full pack - plus if I replace vehicle I can use whichever one works in that.

For the record I ended up using the suction cup one because none of the others would fit in a good place. I really disliked the vent mounting one because it damaged the plastic of the vent and made the vent point down.

For those wishing to mount an Axim the only drawback I've noticed is the clip on the left side pushes on the record button thus occasionally recording a new note.

Fierock

I looked around for a mount that would properly hold my iPod, in my car, with minimal or no destruction to the vehicle's interior, and that would not take up a cupholder. I chose the ProClip system since it's easy to find a fit for your vehicle, you can find the holder for the specific device, it looks good, come with all the tools you need, and installs in under five minutes. I looked at the models on eBay, and concluded that I would either need to drill holes, end up with adhesive (that will eventually fail or stop working), use a suction cup (which not only eventually falls off, but advertises "STEAL ME"), or make my own, which I didn't have the time to do.

I really didn't mind paying a little extra money for something so well-designed and thought out. My iPod now sits happily on shuffle, and it's always in the same location so it's very easy to pick the next track if I don't like the current one, and it also neatly tucks the power cord away.

I highly recommend this system to anyone who wants a mounting system in their automobile.

enjar

I buy generic ones off of ebay. I'd list the username but I fear that lifehacker will just think I'm spamming so I won't. Anyway, you can find them for around $6 including the shipping on ebay from several sellers and they typically come with both the air vent clip as well as a suction cup for the windshield, the clip is more secure.

I actually bought around 6 of these things because I like them so much but before you think I'm crazy gadget girl who can't drive, none of them are in my car.

I have a glass desk and so I suctioned three onto the desk so I can have my palm, my ipod and my cell phone screens easily visible while I'm working and they act as sort of the location where I dock each of these items as well. It's nice because of the added height makes them more in line with the computer monitor than desk docks would be (and cheaper than oem desk docks.)

My boyfriend took two for his car though and he uses one for his cell phone because he has a bluetooth headset. This is much safer than him trying to fish the phone from his pocket while driving. And the second is a secure mount for his ipaq which he has piped into his car stereo for the music and podcasts he stores on it. Again, better than it flying all over the car.

And where's that last one I have? I'm my spare parts box in case I see some need... I had originally bought one and after I was extremely happy with it attached to my desk I bought more and figured with the cost of combined shipping I might as well get what I thought would be a few extra.

If I had bluetooth on my cell phone I would have one in my car and I'm considering pulling out my car's stereo console so I can listen to podcasts in the car - if that happens then I'll probably order more.

And why not for about $6 each?

Ebay search phrases that should get you several sellers selling these:
Cell Phone Car Holder
Gooseneck car mount
Car mount holder for ipod
Universal Car mount / vent holder

FascinationDesign

The picture to this post scares me to death. There is no way that you can drive, check your palm, answer your phone, get directions, adjust your radio, and set your iPod to your favorite song. Somewhere along the way you have to look at the road, pay attention to it, and not hit other vehicles. I just don't see how or why people need to be so connected while driving. Even if you are in the car for long periods of time, use that 'alone' time for personal evaluation, goal setting, or those great GTD weekly meetings we should all have with ourselves.

kbowen327

Velcro rolls all the way. Now I can place either the MP3 player or the GPS right in my line of sight. (Note: my car is worth less than my computer.)

AlexJAnder