This line from RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter, is my favorite of the day…
This line from RAIN: Radio and Internet Newsletter, is my favorite of the day…
“There are plenty of ways to stream Internet radio in your car (RAIN coverage here) but most of them require buying a new car which can be rather expensive.”
Admittedly I’m quoting the line out of context, but it’s good that way.
The other part of the story has something to do with wireless speakers, scroll down a bit…
http://textpattern.kurthanson.com/
Reflections
Oddly enough, most people don’t invest 30-thousand dollars to buy a radio with a power plant and wheels. They make the purchase based on issues that are heart-borne, not brain-borne.
Having worked in broadcasting for many years and also worked for some of the largest auto dealers in the U.S., I am reminded of why people really buy cars. Their are hundreds of reasons. The number one reason is security (connectivity) and control. A car gives the owner a sense of independence, of being in control of time and space, even distance.
The on-board radio is a link to the outside world while on the move, to be able to make decisions about speed, routing and destination, or maybe something totally unrelated to the transportation experience.
If you have ever piloted an aircraft, you may have discovered that without the radio on-board there is no link to terra firma. You are truly free from the earth, it’s influences and it’s inhabitants. The radio supplies you information to combine with the rest of the instruments data and visual input from outside the airplane to make decisions about what you are doing next, or how your flight is going. The radio assists in supplying an experience of freedom and control simultaneously.
The technology continues, to some degree, to be the message. And as long as the message is what people feel passionately about, they will find the money to afford the technology, no matter how expensive. The ubiquity of online services has made the world a very small place indeed. Who wouldn’t want to have the world at their finger tips? Wait, we could call it….OnStar. Or, maybe not.
RE: Reflections
FWIW I started flying in gliders at Douglas County Airport, Minden, NV. Uncontrolled public use airport … no radio.
Gliders have right of way of course, but you can’t use that as an excuse to cut off a powered aircraft on final. You have to get your head out of the cockpit … see and be seen. It’s still my favorite form of flight.
Anyway, my audio engineer friend and I were just joking about this tech stuff last week. We concluded that many new cars are just that … a mobile media device on wheels 😉
Next week, I get the chance to sit right seat in a brand new Beech King Air C90GTx, all glass panel, compact version of the same thing that’s in a Boeing Triple 7. It reports nearly everything that’s happening on board and ‘out there’. Kick the tire, light the fire, push a few buttons and we’re outa here!
Or free with a two year service plan 🙂
My two year old smartphone will stream internet radio in the car or anywhere there’s a signal. I am on an unlimited but fairly slow bitrate data plan (so it’s affordable) and several streams have been working pretty well.
It’s kind of an odd listener experience for me because I’m sort of old and the idea of listening to a radio station on my telephone has to break through decades of mental images of tabletop radios and Western Electric rotary-dial phones, but I like it!
I’m thinking you’ll be able to get Mobile Travel Broadband Routers in cars as standard equipment pretty soon and then it’s everything all the time.
Without a Phone
I’m glad you (SCWIS) brought attention to the modern cell phone as the “entertainment center” it has become. But what about those with no cell phone?
In addition to having no need for a cell phone (as a phone, that is) I am one of those that considers microwaves close to the body as harmful, and I cannot be convinced otherwise.
Now that you know my limitations, is there a way to get internet radio to the car for stubborn types like me?
Get an air card for your note book
http://www.readymobile.com/products_bb_devices.php
$30 solution for internet radio in your car
Here’s a $30 investment to supply your car with internet radio..
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/diy-in-car-laptop-table-15-07-2009/
(Scroll down a little for it)
The only thing missing…
The only thing missing in the $30 solution is duct tape. Where is the duct tape? Eventually the inventor of this device will discover his short coming; no duct tape. Then he will have an invention that will stick around for awhile.
After All Day
It took all day to think of what duct tape would have to do with the $30 solution. Well, it would be to tape the coffee cup to the whole rig, since it ties up the cup holder in the sidebar space.