Cobra Electronics Joyride hands-on

We checked out CES Unveiled tonight and Cobra Electronics was there to show off the goods it announced a couple days ago. Among the items of interest was the JoyRide, a car charger that, with its companion app (available for free on the Android Market), allows you to maneuver around aspects of your phone without even touching it. Here's how it works: there's a button on the charger that can be quick-tapped or long-pressed, and by going into the app you can assign a specific program to either of those actions -- in other words, you can tell the app that you want to go into your music player just by long-pressing the JoyRide button. Additionally, you can tell the app to perform tasks whenever you connect or disconnect your phone to the charger; for instance, you can tell the phone to automatically hook up to Bluetooth as soon as you plug it into the JoyRide. The app is still in beta status at the moment and should be ready to hit the mainstream for $40 sometime in Q2. Look underneath for screenshots and images.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.