Tablet Insight: Mount Your Tablet For A Ride

Many of us have abandoned roadmaps for the more convenient and accurate GPS. There is no shortage of apps for navigation, just make sure to use them safely while driving. Conveniently there are a several tablet mounting systems that work perfectly on the road.

No more difficulties when trying to look at the highway and tablet at the same time (even if you are just flipping through music). Typical tablet car mounts either stick to the windshield or get mounted to the dashboard.

RAM Mounts provides some of the best, cheapest and most interesting solutions to using the iPad in a car (or boat, tractor, golf cart, or whatever vehicle you use). They list quite a few mounting solutions on their website. In particular, Tablet2Cases would recommend the Ram Pod I Universal No-Drill Vehicle Mount that you can buy from Amazon for $58.88. Also check out Bracketron & The Joy Factory car mounts.

If you consider buying your own mounting system too boring, then there is an option of making one yourself. Customization is as old as the car industry, so we can expect gearheads to be showing off their skills and design with the iPad. Clearly SoundMan Car Audio haven’t been satisfied with store-bought car mounts, so they have taken things into their own hands by customizing the iPad to their dashboard, like this impressive job:



But dashboard customization can lock users into only one viewing angle. What if you have apps that only work in portrait mode? What if you can’t read the iPad because of the glare from the sun? If you have the know-how, why not take it a step up and add a home-made swivel mount to your dash:



So it seems that after all this hard work and preparation for the iPad in the car, it is only the driver who benefits. Let's not forget about the passengers. For those who have a 5-hour journey in the back seat enjoying games, films or videos has never been easier with headrest car mounts .

There is an abundance of universal back-seat mounts adjustable for any car model. Some of the best ones include The Snugg Car Headrest Mount Holder (buy now for $25.99), DBTech Headrest mount (buy now for $19.99), Vogel's RingO Mounting System (buy now for $119.99), The Joy Factory Valet Headrest Mount (buy now for $65.90) and the Wallee Headrest Mount (buy now for $39.95)

Just be careful not to sit in front of an overly "touchy" passenger who will always be pumping your headrest with enthusiastic button pressing.

Finally, one last cool development in the world of tablets and cars - Hyundai’s Equi owner manual/app. Now instead of reaching into the glove compartment to pull out a map, you'll be reaching for an iPad with a preloaded manual.



The great thing is that the iPad is the new owner’s manual for the luxury car, so expect this tablet to be showing up with your next auto purchase. Surely the Equis is only the first of many car manufacturers to begin cross-marketing with iPads. If this is the future for high-end consumers and car dealers then dress that tablet in a business leather case!

Tablet Insight is a weekly column by Thomas Andersen that focuses on the innovative tablet uses and considers what is the most compatible and necessary tablet case.