David Automotive

Archive for the ‘Mobile Audio Video’ Category

Paul is a nice kid, he gets decent grades and he’s now a Junior in High School, he works at Boston Market and has graduated from his skateboard to his brother’s hand-me-down Honda Car from College. He likes having his own wheels and brags about initiating his manhood in the back seat, although somehow I doubt it by his teenage demeanor, but he has a somewhat convincing story. Anyway, he was upset the other day when he turned up the volume on the car radio and it crackled, and he blew out a speaker, which really looked like it was made in the late 70s.

Indeed, I explained that he could buy a stereo and install it himself to save money, as the average car stereo installment is well over two-hours of work and at a labor rate of $60 plus per hour, some charge much more. Indeed, it is worthy of consideration put it in yourself, but be forewarned aftermarket auto electronic accessory installers do earn their money and they are worth every dime. Here are the tips I gave to Paul for self installation;

With the rate technology is advancing, it can only be a matter of time until we have internet hookups in our cars as standard. This may seem like a massive leap from what we have today but the technology is already there it just needs to be put in place.

We live in a society in which our lives are broadcast across social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. When driving, you have an escape from this interconnected world but for how long. We only need to look at our mobile phones to realise how small internet technology has become. We can access the internet through a chip the size of a 1p piece so to then add this to a car stereo would take minimum effort.

Web 2.0 isn’t just making the internet a better more useful place to surf. It’s also helped develop the day to day sites applications being used on a hourly basis (for most people), on devices such as the iPhone, iPad and other tablet pc’s & Android phones. You know sites such as Facebook, Twitter and a variety of other sites on the social scene. The surge in interest of the social media wave has also made an impression on the traditional none-web businesses. Now it’s becoming more important to at least think about introducing ways of integrating App’s or using App’s on the devices created by companies.

The 375 is the latest offering in Beats price smashing range of car stereos. Beat have packed this unit so full of features they struggle to fit them all on the packaging. Priced at less than £90, the Beat 375 is better equipped than some units that are twice the price.

I like to use a unit for a solid fortnight before passing judgement on its credentials. Upon fitting the Beat 375 I had high hopes for this attractive looking unit. It immediately became apparent that I was not going to be let down. The touch panel controls that are spread across the unit have a good level of sensitivity meaning that your input is picked up nice and clearly. The first day I had the stereo fitted it took me a while to get used to this feature as it has been a while since I used a purely touch panel unit.