By Chris Scott Barr

If you’re a tech-savvy consumer, it’s not hard to find ways to get your favorite music into your car without relying on FM radio stations. MP3 players are generally the most popular, but you’ve also got satellite radio, HD radio and other options as well. However, if you’re terrified of technology and have no desire to install new hardware into your vehicle, your selections are limited. That’s where the Carmen by Livio comes in.

The Carmen is designed to be a very simple way to get the music you want into your car, without all of the hassle. The idea is simple, you plug in the device to your computer, select a music genre and start capturing music from one of over 42,000 stations streaming online. Once you’ve captured your fill of audio, you take the device to your car and plug it in. Tune your radio to the proper frequency, and your music plays. The question is whether or not it lives up to those expectations.

Setup

Setting up the Carmen is just as easy as they say. Plug in the included USB cable to both the device and your computer. Run the executable file, and you’re ready to make your selection. Pick the genre you want, then choose a station. Once it starts playing, the device also begins recording. You can choose to mute the playback if you’re simply wanting to record. Let the device record for a while (up to 45 hours) and then close out of the application when you’re done.

Installation

Now that you’ve got the device loaded up with tunes, plug it into your car, and either hook it up via an aux input (if your stereo has one) or through the FM tuner. Here’s where you’re going to run into my first major complaint. The Carmen has a tiny LCD screen where it will tell you information. This thing is a pain to read from very far away, and nearly impossible to decipher if your car lighter is in an inconvenient location. However, once you find the right station, you’re ready to listen to your recordings. Well, Almost.

Usability

Now that you’ve got it all setup, the audio starts playing through. But the first thing you hear is not the music you’ve recorded. Rather, it’s a clip telling you how to setup the device. This is annoying, because by the time you’ve actually plugged it into your car, you’ve already taken the steps outlined. You’ll want to go in and manually delete this file from the device next time it’s plugged into your PC. Now, after that finishes, you’ll hear your music.

The music playing is of decent quality, but it’s certainly nothing I’d write home about. After all, you’re capturing streamed audio signals, compressing them, then playing them back over an FM signal. It’s not going to be fantastic. However, it’s no worse than listening to an FM station that comes in really well. Most people using the device will be perfectly happy with the quality of sound. At least for around 15 minutes.

So what happens after 15 minutes? Nothing. Specifically, for one to two seconds, absolutely nothing plays. This happens every 15 minutes on the dot. You see, the device records your audio into 15-minute blocks so that you can skip through them easily. I’m not really sure why they bothered, as skipping through these blocks will almost always land you right smack in the middle of a song. So how bad is this pause between songs? For me, it’s an absolute deal-breaker.

You might think that it’s really not that big of a deal, but I’ve spent more hours on the road in the last few weeks than I’d care to mention, and I’ve been using this thing on many of my trips. Imagine hearing your favorite song comes on the radio, and you have a car full of people. You’re all rocking out and singing along, only to have the music cut to dead silence for a moment. Suddenly you’ve gone from really enjoying yourselves, to the awkward sound of five horrible singers butchering a great song. Now, picture this happening every 15 minutes for a five-hour car ride. Yeah, it really gets on your nerves after the first hour or two.

Another big complaint I have is with the included remote. There are buttons on the device itself, but it’s likely going to be situated out of reach. The remote is simple enough, with the usual buttons you’d want. However, it really doesn’t matter what button you decide to press, as it’s probably not going to register anyway. I tried moving the device around every way I could think, but the remote would only work when held a few inches away, pointing at a very, very specific spot. A quarter of an inch in the wrong direction, and it would not register.

My last real issue with the Carmen is the fact that when you shut off the car, it still keeps playing. You won’t be able to hear anything since the stereo is turned off, but it plays anyway. You’ll need to remember to press pause each time you get out of the car, and again once you start it back up. If you decide to just unplug it, you’ll be stuck going back to the beginning of the 15-minute block you were on.

Final Thoughts

The Carmen is simple to setup and use, I can’t fault it there. However, the numerous problems that I outlined above are enough to make me think twice before recommending it to anyone. It is possible that they will fix the pause between audio blocks, which would make it a considerably better device. Until then, I’ll probably suggest finding an alternative to this $40 device.

[ Livio ]

Update: After speaking to someone at Livio I have learned a couple of things that are worth mentioning. First, they will be releasing an update that will allow you to increase the blocks of music from 15-minutes to an hour. This means you’ll only get a quarter of the pauses in your music, which is more acceptable. Also, they informed me that in a future update they will make it so the device does stop the music when the car is turned off, so you can keep your place.

Once these two things happen, I think this device will be much more appealing to the target audience.

By Chris Scott Barr

Cell phone have, for better or worse, become an important part of our daily lives. Which is why it really sucks when you get somewhere, only to realize your phone is sitting at home, miles away. I’ve found my own way around that, as I use mine to play all of the music in my car, so I notice right away if I’ve left it in the house. However, if you prefer to listen to the radio, that’s not a viable solution. Instead, you might consider this rather simple device.

Bringrr is a small Bluetooth accessory that detects when your phone is nearby. If you start your car and the phone isn’t present, it will emit a sound to let you know. It’s small, rather cheap ($35) and helps to ensure that you never leave home (or anywhere else, for that matter) without your phone.

[ Bringrr ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Having a GPS in my car is great for those times when I’m visiting a new city. It tells me the most efficient way to get to where I need to be. When I want to find something to eat, or a specific store, I can just look it up on my phone, find the address and then type it into the GPS unit. Actually, that is something of a pain. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just press a button and send the address to your GPS, rather then manually typing it in? If you have a SYNC-equipped Ford car, you’ll soon be able to do just that.

Ford is getting ready to roll out an update called “Send to SYNC” which will allow you to send information from Google Maps directly to the car. You’ll be able to pull up a restaurant on your iPhone, laptop, or even your home computer, and then send the address to your car. Once you’re ready to take off, the car will guide you to your predetermined destination. Now if we could just get this sort of functionality out of standalone GPS units.

[ Ford ] VIA [ DailyTech ]

By Chris Scott Barr

For years people have been using radar detectors in their cars to avoid expensive speeding tickets. Those are great, but generally won’t protect you from automatic speed cameras and red light cameras. What you need is something with a database of current locations that house such cameras. For that, GPS Angel has released their new V4 Red Light Camera and Speed Camera detector.

The new GPS Angel device uses SiRF Star III GPS technology to pinpoint your location and run it against a database of known speed trap and red light camera locations. It then uses visual and audible alerts to warn you of them. You can even program it to alert you when you’re speeding through school zones, playgrounds and other high-risk areas where you can get penalized further for speeding.

No, this isn’t the first such device of its kind. However, it is the first I’ve seen that doesn’t require a monthly subscription in order to stay updated. Granted, you will have to remove it from your vehicle and connect it to your PC to get the updates. It comes with a rechargeable battery so that you don’t have to run any unnecessary cords, though you can plug it into your car adapter if you wish. You can pick one up now for $129.

VIA [ GPS Angel ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Do you do a lot of eating in your car? If so, then you probably grow tired of digging around in the McDonald’s bag for those last few french fries. What you need is some sort of handy tray to set all of your food on before driving away. Well my friend, such a tray exists and it’s called the Swivel Car Tray.

First, I would never trust this thing to hold a juice box in place, regardless of what you see in the picture. Other than that, it probably is rather handy to have around, even if it does look a bit silly. I suppose you could simply take it out of the cup holder when you aren’t planning on stuffing your face on the freeway. If this sounds like something you could use, then pick one up for just $11.

[ CollectionsEtc ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Having a 3G card can come in handy when one is traveling long distances. I know that mine came in handy this past summer when I drove across the country and back. Of course if you’re in a car with multiple people with laptops, wouldn’t it be nice to share that wonderful internet? Ford thinks so, and is planning on making that an option with their next generation of Sync.

With the next version of Sync, Ford will allow you to plug in a 3G card (via USB) and have it broadcast the signal via Wi-Fi. Since you won’t want outsiders leeching off of your connection, you’ll have access to the same security measures as any other wireless router. As an added level of security, all new wireless devices must first be confirmed by the driver before they are allowed on the network. Look for this feature to debut on Ford cars sometime next year.

[ Ford ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Next year those people anxiously awaiting the new Chevy Volt will finally get their hands on it (barring any delays). In addition to having an awesome electric car, they’ll also have a cool way to interact with it remotely. That’s right, iPhone and Blackberry users will have the ability to link up with their car using their phone of choice.

So far it seems that the only current features will be controlling when the Volt is charged, and being able to tell just how much juice it has at any given time. Seeing that they still have a long time before the car is due out (currently late 2010), we should hopefully see more features added to the phone apps.

[ GM-Volt ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When it comes to listening to music in your car, you have a lot of options these days. Satellite radio, AM/FM stations, CDs, and MP3 players can all give you access to your favorite tunes. With the popularity of the iPhone, many people like to utilize it for their in-car listening pleasure. Unfortunately if you’re looking for a truly integrated solution, you’ll find that you have few options.

I personally use a Sony head unit which features an iPod adapter. In order to get it to play nicely with my iPhone, I rely on a special adapter from Scoche which does the trick. It gets the job done, so long as you aren’t searching out specific songs or artists to listen to. The controls are clunky at best and barely functional at worst. Most of the time I have to unplug the iPhone, find the artist or song I was looking for, start a song, then plug it back in. I finally became fed up with it, and have started on a search for a better solution. Apline was kind enough to endulge me by letting us test out their iDA-X305 stereo. Read on for my full review.

I’ll start off by reminding everyone that I’m no audiophile. I’ve worked around audio equipment enough to know when something sounds really off, but I’m not going to focus on the audio merits of this device. I’m really only here to talk about how well it functions in conjunction with an iPhone. That being said, the audio quality was not lacking in any way, thus I have no complaints in that department.

Installation

If you’ve installed a car stereo before, then this is familiar territory. You’ll go through the usual steps of stripping wires, twisting them together and wrapping them in black tape. I do get frustrated by manufacturers that decide not to specifically label each individual wire. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but when you’re colorblind (as a large portion of the general population is) and staring at two sets of wires which only vaguely resemble the same colors, it gets frustrating. Proper labeling alleviates these frustrations. In the case of this particular unit, the wires were not labeled. A minor complaint to be sure, but we’ll just call it a pet peeve of mine.

Setup

The controls on this unit are fairly self-explanatory. I had no problems whatsoever navigating the menu to set the date and time. I was also easily able to modify the background of the LCD screen to my tastes. It’s usually at this time that I turn on the radio to set my favorite stations. This was a task that was apparently beyond my abilities.

Most stereos have several dedicated buttons for the preset stations, something that the iDA-X305 lacks. This of course meant that setting a station involved something more than simply tuning to it and holding down on the corresponding preset button. A quick check of the manual gave me information on how to scan all stations and automatically assign the presets. Let me make it perfectly clear that this is in no way helpful whatsoever.

If a person is defining preset stations, it is because in the dozens of signals out there, there are a few that they really wish to listen to. The iDA-X305 merely scans all frequencies and assigns six of the best signals (in no logical order) to the presets. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to manually assign which stations you want to have. There are four stations that I always keep assigned in my car, only one of which was ever assigned to the list.

Design

Looks aren’t always the most important factor when selecting a device, but most people do enjoy showing off their stereo. The 2.2-inch color LCD screen is going to jump out at anyone sitting in your car. This can be set to one of three modes while playing music. First, you have your typical hybrid display. This will show a thumbnail of the album artwork and all relevant information for the track (name, artist, album). You’ll also see a small clock and date below these. Second, it can display a larger picture of the album cover with only the track name printed. Finally, you can have it depict a large clock along with the date.

There aren’t a lot of buttons to be seen on the face. It is dominated by a large silver knob, which is used for most of the navigation functions. The center is also used for searching and doubles as an “enter” button. Your other primary buttons surround the knob, with a few other minor ones off to the left. As with most stereos, the face is removable, though only partially. The left side will come off, leaving only the LCD screen in place.

iPhone Functionality

The iDA-X305 comes with a USB cable and a special iPod connector. This is long enough to run to your glove box, or just about anywhere in the front of the car you’d like. Upon plugging in the phone, you’ll be greeted with the same charging screen that you see with all iPhone-supported docks. On the stereo itself, you’ll see a brief message notifying you that it is “scanning.” This lasts for a second, two at most, then your music starts.

With the absolute basics out of the way, my main concern was navigating through my piles of music. The last thing anyone wants to do is spend 5 minutes searching for a song while they’re driving 70mph down the interstate. Sure, I have playlists with groups of music that I enjoy listening to, but finding specific songs, albums and artists should be easy as well. The iDA-X305 does an excellent job of this.

With the press of a button you are prompted with the choices of songs, artists, albums and playlists. Once you select one of these, you can then use the large knob to scroll through and make your selection. Since there could be hundreds of options to scroll through, there is a secondary way to get through the list. If you press in on the outer ring of the knob and twist, you can skip through the selections much faster. This can be programmed to skip ahead by 10% of the list, or to the next letter of the alphabet. Utilizing this, one can find exactly what they are looking for in a matter of seconds.

It should also be noted that all of these controls respond almost instantly. Most other head units that aren’t specifically designed around the iPod/iPhone tend to have a delay which causes further headache. This is in no way present here, making navigation a smooth process.

Other Features

The most notable feature that you won’t find on the iDA-X305 is a CD player. This could be a turn-off for some people, as it’s still common for some people to burn a mix CD, or purchase a new album off the shelf. Unfortunately with the rise of MP3 players, the compact disc is dying. I’ll sometimes live in a CD for those times when I’ll not be in the car long enough to bother hooking up my iPhone, but after having this installed in my car for a few weeks, I was perfectly content without that option.

Not everyone is going to have an iPhone or iPod filled with music, which seems to defeat the entire point of having this particular unit. It does support other MP3 players and even hard drives (and flash drives) via USB. I loaded up some of my music onto a 2GB flash drive and tested this feature out. It doesn’t do anything fancy with your files (like display artwork or sort them into artists/albums), but as long as your songs are organized, you should enjoy listening to music in this way. You can still set individual folders to shuffle if you like, and navigating through them is just as easy as on the iPhone.

Optional Extras

The iDA-X305 has support for several extras that Alpine offers. This would include an HD Radio Tuner, Satellite Radio interface and a Bluetooth adapter. We did not have the opportunity to test any of these add-ons, but they are available if you are interested.

Verdict

The Alpine iDA-X305 has a couple of minor annoyances, but these are overshadowed by its seamless integration of your iPhone/iPod. It’s clear that in the future we’ll be moving away from CDs and relying more on MP3 players, and Apple still dominates that market. Alpine has done a great job of making sure this unit feels more like an extension of your iPhone/iPod, rather than a clunky accessory. The $350 MSRP is pricey, but you certainly get the quality that you’d expect from Alpine. (Not to mention smart shoppers can find it for considerably less by shopping around.)

[ Alpine ]

By Chris Scott Barr

There are some people in this world that need to be connected to the internet at all times. Sure, I’m an internet junkie, but I don’t think I’d ever go so far as to install a permanent WiFi hotspot in my car. GM announced that they will soon start offering Autonet, an always-on wireless internet solution for your car.

The device can be installed in your new van, SUV, truck or crossover starting later this month. Installation will set you back $499, while service is going to cost $29 a month with a 1GB cap. There is also a 5GB package, though no price was listed. The WiFi signal will reach up to 150 feet away, so you won’t be limited to using it just in your car. Great, now kids can check their Facebook and watch YouTube on long car rides. All my brother and I had was one GameBoy to fight over.

[ GM ] VI A [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Keys are one of those objects that seems almost archaic when you think about them. We have so many technologies at our disposal, you have to wonder why we rely on these so heavily. If you don’t have a car with a fancy keyless setup, you can now add a Viper StartSmart system that will let you control your car from your iPhone.

The new StartSmart System won’t have you driving your car from an iPhone, but you can do a host of other functions:

• Lock/arm
• Unlock/disarm
• Remote car starter
• Trunk release
• Panic or car finder

You can do all of the above functions anywhere using your iPhone or iPod Touch, so long as you have either a data connection or WiFi available. The App is free, but you’ll need the Viper StartSmart hardware in your car. The StartSmart kit will set you back $499, and you’ll need to pony up $29.99 a year for service (the first year is free).

[ Viper ] VIA [ Dvice ]