Take a stroll down memory lane to Retrobrick, and see how things were "back then" in the day of the old school mobile phone.  Its amazing how far we've come.  I remember my dad's car phone...a giant monstrosity bolted down to the middle console of his Ford Explorer.  We were the coolest kids on the block because we could...*GASP*...talk while driving! 

Thinking about adding some bbbb-bass to your ride?  Check this video for some good tips on how and where to get started.  See the other related videos for more about car stereos.  BASS FOR YOUR FACE! 

Being in the middle of a road trip myself as I write this, I have already downloaded half of these.  They are pretty right on.  More to come on the trip in the next couple of days.  Let's just say that it has been a wonderful time.  The car has performed wonderfully, and the kids have been even better.  Find the list here.  

Edmunds.com has a pretty detailed list with different categories.  For your enjoyment!

While we're on the subject of iPhones and cars...

Having recently bought an iPhone, I thought this article was extremely helpful.  I was surprised by some of them, but needless to say, they are all on my phone now.  Just make sure that the car is stopped when thumbing through them.  Do you have any iPhone apps you'd like to share with us?

Check this article on the top 5 car gadgets.  Its from 2008, but still very relevant.  What do you think?  What are your top 5 car gadgets? 

 

If you are a high profile target, be it drug dealer, politician, seedy owner of a strip club, bar, check cashing joint, coin operated car wash, or laundromat (or all of the above), CIA agent, CIA agent supporting a revolutionary upstart, deposed leader in (insert war torn country), simply have the stones to think you need protection from bullets, or if you live in Texas and are a democrat, then you might be interested in these websites that sell Armored vehicles. 

Interestingly enough, I didn't see options for machine gun mounting.  I guess the best offense is a good defense...but still...no machine guns? 

http://www.armoredcars.com/

http://www.alpineco.com/

http://www.armormax.com/

http://www.customarmoring.com/

http://www.execarmor.com/

At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, knowing where you are going in your car is important.  Here are the options available for driving directions, with pros and cons for each:

Handwritten: Pro: inexpensive, if you have paper (or a napkin), and pen (or crayon, which happens to be the case with me all too often).  Con: who writes anything by hand anymore?  Nobody wants to deal with cramped hands do they?  It sounds silly but I would rather not go somewhere if I have to write the directions down by hand.  Ok not really, but really...this is always a last resort in my world.  Pony up and at least learn to use a printer and the miracle of google maps.  

Google/Yahoo/etc. maps - print out the directions and follow them.  Pro: inexpensive, if you have a printer with ink and an internet connection.  In addition, you get to pretend that internet maps are still cool and cutting edge.  Con: This of course works only if you have a printer, and mine ALWAYS seems to be out of ink.  The whip of printing out directions always seems to happen last second, as the suburban is full of wifery fending off the progeny slowly boiling over into a full blown fight between the two eldest over who gets to sit next to the baby in the remaining middle seat, and who gets confined to the dreaded third row of seclusion.  

Maps on your iphone/blackberry/pda - Pro: these tell you where you are relative to your destination, so if you stay on the path you know where to turn next.  They are most helpful if you have a navigator, so when you get off the beaten path, you don't have to look while driving.  Problem comes when control freaks like me grab the device from their navigators/wives while driving because they don't trust anyone with directions.  Con: while helpful, these aren't really a blessing if you happen to get off the trail.  In order to get back to where you are going, you have to actually look at the map (God forbid!), which of course isn't the end of the world, but is less than optimal if you are driving.  There is also not the smooth and silky voice of a british woman telling you where to turn, which oddly enough, is comforting.  

GPS on your iphone/blackberry/pda - Pro: i've found these to be mostly reliable.  I've driven long distances using my Blackberry GPS.  In addition, if you own a smartphone, which many do today, it often comes included, or at an affordable price.  Con: they are a bit clunky, no other way to say it.  In my case, everytime I needed to make a phone call, it was a dramatic and epic journey to get back to the GPS screen, all while driving, which is double fail.  

Dedicated GPS Device -Pro: Hard to beat this, anyway you slice it.  I drove from North Texas to Yonkers blindly relying on a GPS.  We were delivered safely to the exact location we had entered back in Dallas.  If you get off track, you just listen to your GPS and you will get back on.  It does require a measure of faith, especially when you get into unfamiliar areas with lots of bizarre highways, loops, spurs, streets whose names keep changing, etc., but your GPS won't let you stray off the path too far.  It is also fun to name your GPS.  I call mine Marge.  Con: Cost is pretty high, though pretty affordable for the lower end ones.  They are also thief bait.  When traveling on the road and making many stops, especially overnight, a dedicated GPS is one more thing you need to secure in your car as you leave it in an unfamiliar parking lot. 

If at all possible, a dedicated GPS device is the way to go.  I don't think it is necessary to pay over $150-200 for one.  I'm not even sure what the higher end ones do that the cheaper ones don't.  Do they make you breakfast?  Come with a free toaster?  After reading the reviews, the whistles and bells are nice, but at the end of the day they both get you to the same place.  Of course the same could be said for handwritten directions or print outs.  At the end of the day, its all about convenience and how well you want/need to pamper yourself in order to make it through a long road trip, or a Craigslist pick up the next city over.  Check out cnet's top 5 GPS systems here.  

Ian Douglas writes in the Telegraph this article about the Peapod, the latest offering from GEM, a subsidiary of Chrysler.  Just when I thought the Mac/iphone world couldn't get any more bizarre, along comes a car with an iPhone key.  Not keys that look like miniature iPhones.  Not a cute little iPhone keyring.  No, its an actual iPhone that starts the bloomin ignition!  I'm trying to work this out in my mind.  Other than a gratuitous cool factor, what are the practical benefits of this?  Are regular car keys becoming so obtrusive and offputting?  This suspicious attitude was of course was my first reaction upon reading the article, as is usually the case with all new fangledness, because I like to sit in self righteous judgment over new inventions or innovations out of sheer jealousy.  But then I started thinking.  This could be really cool! 

Well, hold on a sec.  Its not a real car, for as Douglas says from the article, "They haven't been crash tested by Ncap so I have no idea how dead you'd be if you hit something, the seats are made of gauze and from the photographs the whole thing has more than just a whiff of Playmobil about it," and elsewhere, "Canada and the USA have refused to allow it on the open roads so it can only be used in gated communities, campuses and the like."  But still.  For me this would be cool because the following could happen:

- I could actually own an iPhone. 
- I could store my phone, car keys and car stereo in my pocket. 
- I could have that arrogant, "why aren't you driving a car that goes 25mph" air about me, putting the SUV drivers (including myself) to open shame.
- I could actually own an iPhone.

And maybe thats it.  Having an iPhone for a key is bizarre enough, but it only makes any kind of sense in the equally bizarre world where souped up golf carts pass as cars.  That, my friends, is a world that I just don't understand, and I'm afraid I never will.