Probably my favorite story that we tell in the book is about Greg Tackett who owns a car stereo customization store in Pikeville, KY.
We've seen it before -- it's basically a car stereo faceplate that sports 1GB internal memory and connects with your PC to transfer music.
Likewise, the company's FlashTrax looks just like an audiocassette: Stick in a multimedia card or memory stick, and you can play digital music on a car stereo or boom box.
For example, a consumer shopping for an Apple iPod might just be thinking of it as a portable device, not realizing it can also be used with a car stereo or for movies.
There's a lot of leather to be found and high-quality materials abound, but the focal point of the whole thing is the 17-inch touchscreen wedged in vertically where you'd expect a car stereo and climate controls to be.
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Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Pioneer became the latest company to jump on the car-tech bandwagon on Wednesday when it unveiled a new car stereo unit that has maps with local searches, a "music sphere" and tunes from the Internet radio site Pandora.
The Jukebox jacks into a home or car stereo system for playback.
In 1947, the company dropped the name of its founders in favor of a punchier moniker borrowed from its early car stereo -- a name that meant "sound in motion, " according to the company line.
On the drive there, a fuse blew, knocking out the car stereo, and so I pulled over, removed the fuse box, fashioned a fuse out of some aluminum foil from a pack of cigarettes, and got the cassette deck going again.
The wireless Bluetooth HID remote allows users to control any iOS Bluetooth Device while connected to a TV, dock station or car stereo.
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And then you could order the car with an interior by Prada, a dashboard clock by Rolex and a stereo by Bose.
Thanks in part to ideas born at dB Drag events, the acoustic power of car stereo speakers has increased tenfold in the last ten years, from a maximum of 500 watts per square meter to 5, 000. (A loudspeaker at a rock concert puts out 2, 500 to 3, 000 watts.) Pioneer learned from dB Dragsters to cover speaker coils with ceramics to dissipate heat.
Grant says the company is working with auto manufacturers to explore how on-board computers can help detect whether a driver is drowsy or not paying attention to the road, and allow a driver to control certain things in the vehicle -- like temperature, and in-car stereo -- using eye-control technology.
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The two main batteries are from a child's ride-on toy, and its PA speakers are made from an old car stereo.
We got a demo from a GM rep, who showed us how to access messages, read back to you through the car stereo.
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