Ten... in-car gadgets and accessories

Exogear Exomount Universal Gadget Mount

With satnav coming free with Android and Nokia’s WinPho 7 handsets, and available in various paid forms for iOS, a reliable and secure way of attaching your smartphone to your windshield is now more necessary than ever. The best I've come across by a country mile is the Exogear Exomount. I reviewed the unit in detail here and after six months of continuous use I have come to appreciate it even more. The various hinge and ball mechanisms show not the slightest signs of wear and everything is still as tight as the day it came out of the box. To cap it all, it also still leaves less in the way of window-ring marks than any other mount I’ve tried.

Garmin nuLink 2390 with PhotoLive

With satnav rapidly becoming just another smartphone app, PND makers have to look for new tricks and treats, and Garmin has come up with PhotoLive. This lets you see snapshots of actual road conditions from traffic cameras. It’s a cracking idea and as long as you're happy with the pictures being five minutes old, works really well. It has saved me wasting my time on the M6 on a several occasions. The rub with PhotoLive is the cost which, at £3.95 a month, is a bit steep, so I can’t see this being a must-have feature unless your daily commute takes you through areas of unpredictable congestion or you don’t trust your satnav to discern between a tolerable level of traffic and a car park.