handsfree

Even I roll my eyes at those ads where someone gets a new car with a big, red bow on a snowy holiday morning. But when you think about it, a car is actually a pretty awesome gift.

Cars are more than just basic transportation these days. Pick the right ride, such as our top Holiday Gift Pick and Editors' Choice 2012 Audi A7, and you'll also be giving the gift of entertainment, safety, utility, and style. And while a car really is too big to be gift wrapped or stuffed into a stocking, you may be able to squeeze the diminutive 2012 Fiat 500 C under a big enough tree.

We acknowledge that a new car isn't always the best gift idea--maybe the car lover in your life already has a perfectly good set of wheels. Never fear, we have plenty of smaller car tech gift ideas as well. From radar detectors for speed demons to Bluetooth hands-free kits for motor mouths, sports cameras for daredevils, and GPS navigators for the perpetually lost, there's something for every sort of automotive enthusiast in our Car Tech Holiday Gift Guide.

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I think that we can universally agree that fiddling with a smartphone while driving is a bad idea, but is fiddling with a phone attached to your steering wheel any safer? The makers of the Steer Safe universal hands-free kit would like you to think so, but I'm not sure that I agree.

The video and description that accompany the Steer Safe's KickStarter page say that the smartphone mounts to the user's steering wheel, putting the phone close by for easy hands-free calling, navigation, and whatever else you want to do while behind the wheel. It all … Read more

Parrot, makers of the previously reviewed and highly rated Minikit Slim Bluetooth speakerphone, has just announced the latest in its line of hands-free car kits, the Parrot Minikit Smart. However, the Smart has a trick up its sleeve. It's not just a speakerphone, it's also a universal phone cradle and a USB charger.

The Minikit Smart attaches to the vehicle's windshield with a suction cup and connects to any handset that supports Bluetooth wireless, acting as an external speaker and microphone for for hands-free calling. If it sounds anything like the Minikit Slim, we're sure that … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--By many estimates, texting while driving is unsafe, which explains why 30 states currently have laws on the books restricting the act. And yet data suggests that those laws do nothing to actually prevent users from testing while driving.

That's where Vlingo comes in. The service is aiming to keep users' hands on the wheel and eyes on the road with its new InCar feature for Android. The functionality, which will be available exclusively on Sprint handsets through the end of the year, adds a read-back feature for texts messages. So now you can not only speak texts … Read more

Looking for an easy way to add Bluetooth wireless to your vehicle? If your car stereo features an analog auxiliary input (you know, the one that looks like a headphone jack), Scosche's new motorMouth II stereo Bluetooth adapter could have you streaming audio and making hands-free calls within minutes.

Motorola kicks off National Safe Driving Month by launching the Smart Handsfree mobile app for Android that helps users to navigate the often confusing local hands-free driving laws.

Upon downloading and launching Smart Handsfree, the app will use the Android handset's location service to discern what state the user is in and display an overview of whether there exists a handheld or texting ban or if there are any special conditions for novice drivers. Having this sort of information at your fingertips is fairly useful. For example, while we knew that the state of California has bans on using … Read more

It's not a ripoff of GoldenEye in the James Bond series, but the Golden-i could have been something to emerge from the gadget labs of Q.

Spotted at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Golden-i wireless Bluetooth/Wi-Fi headset is meant for users who usually have both hands busy but still need computer access. The entire system, which projects a 15-inch virtual display, is also voice-controlled, so you simply say the corresponding text on the icons to activate a PC's data and applications.

The software, supplied by speech solutions provider Nuance, is intelligent enough … Read more

Shortly after we posted our Motorola Droid review, we received quite a few e-mails from CNET readers who were concerned about the phone's inability to support hands-free voice commands and dialing. Indeed, the readers were correct and Motorola's support forums continue to buzz with user complaints regarding the issue.

As part of our original Droid review we did not test whether the handset supported hands-free voice dialing. We apologize for that, but we've now updated the review to reflect our findings.

Below is the passage from the review:

Unfortunately, the Droid does not support Bluetooth voice dialing … Read more

Sensor activated soap pumps are a nice tool in the kitchen. When you're working with raw meat, you want to limit the chances for contaminating the various surfaces in your home. When you're managing multiple pots on the stove, it's nice to streamline one part of the cleaning process.

With simplehuman's newest sensor soap pump, just place your hand underneath the spout to dispense your soap. You can easily refill the pump via the wide opening pop-up lid, and you can adjust the dispensing volume to determine exactly how much soap comes out. If you have … Read more