How to listen to your iPod/Zune/MP3 player in your car

Got an iPod, Zune or other MP3 player? Want to listen to music and podcasts in your car? Obviously you shouldn’t drive around with earbuds in your ears that might prevent you from hearing the sounds of drivers and environment around you.

Here’s some simple steps to get you hooked up to play your digital media through your car’s built-in speaker system.

1. Late model cars have started to ship with an auxillary input plug on the stereo or dashboard. All you need is a Mini-Stereo Audio Cable with two male ends to connect your MP3 player to the stereo’s Aux input. I recommend a short 3ft length rather than standard 6ft.
Audio quality: High
Cost: $6-10 USD

2. If car has a cassette deck, simply buy an old-style Cassette Adapter. The cassette has a wire to plug into your MP3 player. I’m using a 15 year old one that came with a Sony Car Discman I once owned.
Audio quality: Medium/High
Cost: $10-15 USD

3. A wireless FM transmitter, such as iTrip, can send output your songs/podcasts wirelessly. Simply select a lowband frequency on both the transmitter and the car’s stereo.
Audio quality: Low/Medium
Cost: $35-50

Note: Signal interference can occur while passing stronger radio signals or traveling in cities. Some transmitters exclusively use the MP3 player’s battery as sole power source, which will drain the battery quicker.

If you don’t like any of the above options, you can always burn your music to audio CDs, but your limited to roughly 70 minutes of playback.

Another option is get a car stereo that can play back MP3 and WMA files. That way you can burn a larger number of audio files on a data CD to listen to in the car.

Personally, I used the Griffin Technology iTrip Nano LCD/FM Transmitter for iPod Nano, Black for awhile. But I’ve switched back to using a simple Cassette Adapter or Mini-Stereo Audio Cable. It just works!

I hope you found this useful. Good luck and enjoy the ride!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and NewMediaSandbox.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Saving time, saving money while Christmas shopping

My wife and I no longer desire to visit brick and mortar retail stores, especially during the holiday buying season. In fact, my wife prides herself on completing nearly 100% of her Christmas shopping entirely online, without visits to the local mall.

In the past, it crossed my mind that this might seem a bit impersonal. After all, gift giving should not be about obligation. Each gift should be thoughtfully paired to it’s recipient. While I struggle, my wife excels at that.

With the breadth of eclectic products that can be purchased online, I’ve come to agree that online shopping truly can replace the tactile experience of in-store shopping. No more jambed parking lots, packed aisles and fuss. I can truly withdraw from society except for the occasional trips to the Post Office.

With that in mind I offer these last minute Christmas shopping tips:

• It’s not too late to still take advantage of free shipping to have your packages delivered before Christmas.
• When filling out online order forms, be sure to do a quick Google search on “promo codes” for the retailer. You’d be surprised how often you’ll find something (i.e. 5% off, $5 off, free shipping, etc.) to use at the online checkout.
• Signup and use Upromise.com. Login and click through to the online merchant to gain additional credits (i.e. 1-3%, etc.) towards your account.
• Check if the retailer is part of a family of brands that might offer a discount. For example, ThePopcornFactory.com is part of 1800flowers.com.
• Upromise users who also have a Citi Upromise MasterCard get 1% credit to their account on purchases made with participating merchants.
• Consider paying a few bucks extra to have the retailer ship the present to the recipient, especially if you are concerned you might not get it in time. That also saves you from having to wrap it. Your time is valuable, no sense adding more pressure on you the day before Christmas.

Point is, be a savvy shopper. Keep breathing. Try to relax. Enjoy the holidays.
Merry Christmas!

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Holiday tradition: Re-gifting

It’s that time again. Your opportunity to re-gift. You know you want to.

Wikipedia cites the following rules of re-gifting etiquette:

• The primary rule is not to give a gift back to the person who gave it to you.
• Similarly, re-gifting to someone who knows the original giver carries the risk of exposing both your lack of attachment to the gift, and your failure to select and purchase a new gift for the recipient. (Made popular on the ’90s sitcom, Seinfeld.)
• One should remove any cards and other indicators that the gift was originally given to you.
• Finally, using the gift before re-gifting it — so that it is no longer “new” — is generally considered inappropriate.

Etiquette guru Emily Post suggests that re-gifting should be done only rarely, and under specific criteria:

• You are certain the gift is something the recipient would enjoy.
• The gift is brand new (no cast-offs allowed) and comes with its original box and instructions.
• The gift isn’t handmade, or one that the original giver took great care to select.

According to results of the November 2005 Re-gifting and Holiday Credit Card Use Survey posted at Regiftable.com:

• More than half of surveyed consumers do not find re-gifting rude
• Nearly 4 in 10 people have practiced re-gifting
• Women 35-54 years old are more likely to regift than men
• Re-gifting is more practiced among those who are college educated
• One third of re-gifters do so to save money

In general, don’t regift the following:

• Used or opened items
• Expired items, such as last year’s Dilbert desk calendar.
• Champagne/alcohol
• Eclectic items the receiver might not be interested in

If your feeling tacky about the whole idea, give your stuff to a charity or resell on CraigsList, Amazon or eBay.

Related links:
(You’ll enjoy this song) Regifting for the Holidays by The Alice Project

Regiftable.com

Emily Post

GiftMe.com

MSN 12 rules for regifting without fear

US News & World Reports

That’s all folks. Let the re-gifting begin!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional who doesn’t regift. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.

Save time when trying to schedule a meeting

I learned about this time saving tip from Merlin Man and think it’s brilliant.

Normally, in your office environment, you might be able to schedule a meeting with coworkers using MS-Outlook’s calendar to see when they appear to have available time. Outlook permits users to accept, decline or recommend alternate date/time. Unfortunately, these features typically don’t work when arranging a meeting with a group of people outside your network (i.e. clients, partners, vendors).

The simple solution is Doodle. Doodle allows you to structure a simple poll based on the dates/times you recommend. Then you send the link to your team mates and they vote on when they are available to meet. Finally, you review the results and issue your meeting invitation the way you normally would, knowing that the participants are less likely to decline.

Benefits:

• Simple interface.
• Anyone can access it remotely, via a Web browser.
• It’s free.

Limitations:

• You can only vote on date/time. It would be great to have flexibility to turn the columns into poll topics to vote on.
• It doesn’t integrate into your calendar application.
• Keep in mind this is a third-party, insecure tool, so don’t post anything too confidential.

In summary, Doodle is great, free tool for arranging meetings with your distributed work force, teammates, family, friends, etc. It’s not just for the office. Use it to schedule the best day to meet your friends after work. Find out the best day to have family come visit. Poll your friends to pick a date for a get-away trip. Check it out for yourself.

Enjoy!
-Roland

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.