Hiding your goodies...

Recently got a new Octavia and while impressed with the audio in general have got a couple of questions:-

1. Car has the Mitsumi connector. This performs well but why have they designed it such that you have to leave your ipod on show when you leave the car? Am I missing something or do you have to resort to covering it up with an oily rag

2. I only use the phone for sat nav occasionally but was going to buy a nice Brodit charging cradle, more for the handiness of charging, since I'm in and out the car a dozen times a day and fishing around with a cable would be tedious. At the moment I have a simple window sucker job which I only use occasionally and find even then that I sometimes forget to take the phone with me. Not good, so now am thinking overall it may be better to either:-

Just stick with a dangling charging cable (leave the phone on passenger seat) or get a charging cradle but put it in a less obvious location - thinking about it, even inside the armrest may be the ideal spot?

Anyone got a better solution?