Mobile Sound

The Ford Motor Company will be collaborating with Sony Corporation for audio systems that the car maker would be used as factory installed Ford part on their latest vehicle models. As we all know, the domestic carmaker is not on the good boat this time which is why I guess they need to collaborate with other famous and reliable companies to sell more of their products.

The collaboration, according to the second largest auto maker in the US, only proves that no matter how unpleasant things are going out for them, they can still manage to sell cars that are still of good quality as well as sell the right kind of car parts.

Two of Ford’s models, specifically Ford and Mercury, shall be holding the new audio system coming on the American car market next year.

We all know that Ford is currently connected to SYNC and new cap less fuel filler systems which was all develop with the help of Microsoft Corporation. These new systems will be available in the soon to come 2008 Ford Focus.

The Ford Motor Company is also connected to some infamous car audio makers like the THX-certified audio systems which are now available on the ongoing Ford Lincoln models. Ford trucks and Mercury vehicles are all having unbranded audio system as well.

With Sony’s presence, Ford might be back to do more sales. But it’s too early to judge and it’s early to trust as well. We all I guess have to wait for the time. Well, I wish that Ford will make it good this time.

A stereo system was stolen from a man’s car last Wednesday, March 21st in Lancaster Street. He got up to go to work when he noticed that this stereo system was missing from his car parked in his very own garage.

The car thief left the car open after taking the stereo system. Included with the stolen stereo system were the speakers, subwoofer, amplifier, the CD player, 300 pieces of compact discs and some cash. Sob.

To sum it all up, the loss was amounting to $1,200 including the damages made on the vehicle’s auto body parts not to mention the dome light’s removal.

Another victim of such a misdemeanor was a contractor who parked his truck on Bainbridge last Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. Some of the owner’s tools such as sockets, a circular saw, cordless drills, hand tools, paint, dollies, miter saw and some other car construction products were all gone. The cost of the loss was amounting to $2,500 plus.

A man was also noted stealing some batteries at the store on Meijer. The Livonia police officer got a call from the security and run his car on the said area to search for the reported thieve. The incident also happened that very same day.

The man who fits the thief’s description was seen by the officer walking along Middlebelt. The officer pulled his car off causing the man to go in a different direction. The police shouted “Police!”, but the man continued walking as if he did not hear anything. Soon enough, the police finally caught the man and was found to have 8 packs of AAA batteries and AA batteries as well.

Anyone of you know what a Slacker is? It is not what you think.

The Slacker that I am talking about is a new gadget from San-Diego start-up that allows a music lover to play and listen to music from their favorite online stations without the use of the computer. This music player is a new digital and cool gadget and it has been created mainly for internet music fans. The creators of the mentioned device designed this one so much so that it would be able to compete with the Apple iPod and some other in-car music players like the Sirius Satellite Radio and the XM Satellite Radio.

The new music player is already launched and it has its very own online music stations. To access these, you can visit its official website at http://www.slacker.com this week.

The Slacker Portable Radio Players will start at a base price of $149 and they would be coming out this summer. These stations are using Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection.

Just like other in-car music players, Slacker is also capable of playing WMA audio files, Windows Media video formats, MPEG and MP3. According to the Chief Executive of Slacker Inc., Dennis Mudd, “The hardware player is critical. This is going to be the first personalized radio that’s really portable.” This he stated during his interview last Friday.

The new music player also allows the user to personalize and customize their music players by artist and music genres. You can also opt to play those music which are popular on other online music players such as Yahoo Inc.’s Launch, Pandora and Last.fm.

The Slacker Satellite Car Kit will also have digital radios soon and this is as according to the plans of the company.

The company also announced its licensing deals with famous companies such as Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment as well as some independent labels to have more than 2 million tracks on its launch. The Warner Music Group will also join the list soon, according to the music player maker. The future factory installed car part did not mention about what car company will they be available and totally exclusive to.

The CEO also said that the company spent $13.5 million for this new gadget and they will require 50 full-time employees to pursue the project.

I wish it will be available as a Jaguar parts soon so I could buy that new Jaguar unit I had been eyeing. Well I’m just wishing. Who knows? It may come true.

I am quite so amazed by the type of things technology gives us. And one of the most amazing things that I have ever encountered is Bluetooth. No doubt about it. You can call me a geek if you want to but it still continues to amaze me.

Anyway, I did a quick research to find out more about these Bluetooth gadgets that are available in the market. There seemed to be plenty of uses for Bluetooth technology so much so that I decided to narrow down my search to those Bluetooth gadgets that would definitely be of big help to me when I am in my car.

So okay. I got a list of various items - from the coolest to a few weird ones. And I decided to cut down the list more into just a couple of the things that I would find to be useful for my own baby.

I found the Bluestone BT-1 Plug and Play Bluetooth Handsfree Car Kit to be quite amazing. Here are some specs:

• You can use this one to make calls without using your hands.
• You get a clear connection with your mobile phones and even your PDAs.
• All the necessary information you need like a caller ID, battery status, and call status are available at the display.
• You can synchronize your phone book so that you would not have to go through one gadget to another just to find out the contact number of your high school sweetheart.

And then there’s the Clarion BLT433.

• Allows you to make and take calls without your hands having to leave the wheel.
• This one does not need you to do any complicated installation processes.
• This one has been made compatible with most gadgets that come with the Bluetooth technology symbol.
• You can enjoy your calls more for this one comes with an echo cancellation and a noise reduction feature.

I also did encounter the Panasonic CYBT100 Bluetooth kit. And it has feature that are more or less like the two mentioned above.

There are still a lot more and I am now having a grand time going through these and finding out which one I would like to buy for my own vehicle. And since I am currently enjoying my search through a whole loot of these items, I need to cut this short and I’ll tell you about it maybe next time.

This week, the 10 inch and 15 inch Models will be available while the 12 inch Models for the Car Audio Season will be available this coming April.

For car audio enthusiasts, this new is just right for you. Directed Electronics, Inc. just announced that the new HCCA super heavy duty subwoofers are now available to Orion Car Audio retailers around the world. We all know that the company is one among the biggest share holders and holds one of the best positions in premium home theater loudspeakers, consumer branded vehicle security and remote start systems. It is also well liked in the segment of aftermarket satellite radio receivers.

Directed Electronics, Inc is also a major distributor of mobile audio and video whose portfolio of well-known brands includes the Polk Audio, Viper, Definitive Technology, Python, Clifford, Orion, Precision Power, Autostart and Astroflex.

“Directed is proud to release the most rugged and bulletproof world class Sound Pressure Level (SPL) subwoofers in our history — the latest milestone in a 20-year Orion HCCA legacy of cracked windshields and world championships,” the Senior VP of Engineering and Product Development, Mark Rutledge, said.

HCCA or High Current Competition Audio subwoofers is composed of an aluminum basket, a 4″ copper wound voice coil on a high temperature polyester amide / amide resin coated (PAARC) aluminum voice coil former, and an enhanced forced convection voice coil cooling system, with aluminum heat sinking and shorting rings to reduce inductive heating.

Talking about the power supply, the linear excursion is approximately 4 inches in length. With the average power of 1,500 watts RMS on 10″ models and 2,000 watts RMS on 12″ / 15″ models with power rating of 3,000 and 4,000 watts respectively.

Prices range from $599 to $799 for HCCA 10″, 12″ and 15″ models. If you are looking for Weathertech mats and the Eibach pro kit online stores are always open for you to purchase these car parts you need.

It is pretty impressive for the Chronic Car Audio to receive four awards at the recently CES show in Las Vegas. The event happened last March 2. The four prestigious awards that the mentioned car entertainment system took home were:

• Powerbass Dealer of the Year
• MTX Dealer of the Year
• Eclipse Dealer of the Year for North America
• Soundstream Dealer of the Year for North America

“It was exciting and a great honor to receive those awards. It shows how our company continues to improve,” said Bren Blanchette, the Chief Executive Officer of Chronic Car. “It was not unexpected that Chronic Car Audio won this award, they continue to amaze us by blowing away the sales quotas!” Mike Lockman of Soundstream added.

The founder, Bren Blanchette, is the present CEO of Chronic Car Audio, Inc. and the company is under the Nevada Corp. and was incorporated in July of 2003. The company is well known to be part of the retail and installing business of car audio, car alarm, and mobile video entertainment. It opened its very first location and business place in August of 2003 in Mesa, Arizona. At present, it is operating with 6 locations all over Arizona. And just recently, the company purchased property in Peoria, AZ for further expansion.

It is really impressive for a small company to make names knowing that they started with almost nothing. Chronic Car Audio, Inc. is a symbol of success and must serve to be an inspiration to all car makers in the US. Meanwhile, I will be continuing my search for a good door handle for the door of my car.