i don't know if this belongs here or in the garage. i'm interested on where, what brand, etc. to buy an automotive type laptop mount. i've purchased an RV that i'm picking up in a few weeks, and i would like to have one in it for the purposes of gps and as the "all in one" media center (connected to an external lcd and am/fm reciever for sound/video).

also, what option is going to be best for running the gps? having other internet capabilities (email, etc.) would be nice also, so possibly switching over to a mobile broadband service would be the best? i also have a data plan on my phone, so possibly that would be an option.

3/9/2007 10:18:00 PM

i didn't expect much on the mounts, but i figured someone would at least have an opinion/advice on the second part?

3/11/2007 11:50:54 PM

answered the mount part in the garage.

as far as GPS goes, go pick up Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007, it comes with a GOOD usb gps unit. I fucking love Streets and Trips.

For the other internet stuff, you have two options. You can either use your phone as a modem via USB (most newer phones support this), or you can get a high speed data card from your carrier (Sprint, verizon and cingular all have em Im pretty sure).

3/12/2007 1:06:20 AM

where's the best place to buy streets and trips? just the local best buy/circuit city or something? i do have a leftover christmas gift card to circuit city.

as for the internet, using my phone as a modem is going to be pretty slow isn't it? the upside is i wouldn't be spending any extra money to use it other then purchasing the cord (i assume).

3/12/2007 1:16:49 AM

depends whether you have dial up access. I used to do the cell phone thing and just found a prepaid dial up service online.

http://www.budgetdialup.com

made long train trips much more bearable

[Edited on March 12, 2007 at 1:46 AM. Reason : .]

3/12/2007 1:44:14 AM

^^just check pricegrabber or pricewatch.com and find who has it the cheapest, but its probably going to be 80-100 bucks everywhere, so if you have a gift card, might as well get it from CC if they stock it.

right on with the phone thing, dialup with your minutes = no extra $$, otherwise its a separate data plan

3/12/2007 5:25:01 PM

On my phone with cingular I got the unlimited media works package which basically is unlimited internet access on your phone.. connected it via the above mentioned cable that came with the phone and now use internet on my laptop anywhere I have phone service. It's usually pretty high speed (look up the speeds on cingular's 3G gprs shit) and a lot better than the dialup option listed above. I've had a lot of people suggest doing the dialup route but I'm not sure why since it's slow as hell compared to what I'm doing and my way is only $19 a month for unlimited use.

3/13/2007 11:24:38 AM