As you may read previously, my attempt at going hands-free using the Motorola T505 was a failure.  At my friend’s suggestion, I decided to go to the Bluetrek website to see what they had there.

They have a ton of bluetooth headsets, but they also have 2 car kits.  One has a head-set plus car kit, and the other is just the car kit.  The unit I got is called the Bluetrek Car Kit Suface Sound Compact, and is shown below.  The MSRP is about $100 but I got mine online from Expansys where it’s currently selling for $54.  You can also get this device at the Apple store.

Front showing the flat surface speaker

As you can see, the entire flat surface is the speaker.  It’s very interesting technology, but it doesn’t seem to make the sound any louder than the tiny speaker that was in the Motorola unit.

After unboxing and charging the battery, pairing the unit with my LG EnV2 cell phone was a breeze, and didn’t even require typing in any passwords or anything.

Back of unit showing the clip for the visor

The picture above shows the back of the unit and the clip that is used to install the unit to the car visor.  As you can see, there’s not much except for the large flat surface for the speaker on the other side.

The microphone is located on a “stick” shown on the left in the picture above.  By lifting the “stick”, you move the microphone closer to you, and at the same time, this turns the device on.  It might also contain an antenna for the bluetooth but that’s just speculation on my part.  From what I’ve seen with bluetooth headsets, there doesn’t seem to be a need for any antennas.

Angle showing the buttons on the side

In the photo above, you can see the buttons on the right side of the unit more closely, with the microphone “stick” in the up (or on) position.  The top buttons are for volume up and down.  The bottom button is for “talk” and “mute.”  If your phone is not set to auto-answer, you push the talk button to pick up the call.  I have mine set to auto-answer so the call just comes through to the speaker phone so I don’t have to push any buttons.

The LED near the left bottom of the picture is an indicator light for power.

Installed on car visor

The device comes with a car charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket of your car for charging.  This same cable unplugs from the car charger and can plug into an USB device for charging via laptop or similar devices.

Unlike the Motorola, I didn’t have any problems with buzzing or strange background noise with this device. The speaker is loud and clear.  At first, I had some problems adjusting the microphone but I figured out that the best position is to have the microphone stick parallel to your face instead of having the end pointing to your mouth.  After this adjustment, the outgoing sound was clear and loud enough for people to hear me.

When you turn on the device via the microphone stick, the unit with flash and make a repeated beeping sound to indicate that it’s pairing automatically with your cell phone.  I like this a lot better than the Motorola which required you to push the “On” button for 3 seconds, then wait more time for it to pair.

The only thing that is a little bothersome is the microphone stick itself.  On two occasions, when I was moving around in the car, I hit my head on the stick.  It didn’t hurt or anything, but it’s a little annoying.  It’s not a big deal but something that I thought I should mention.

Otherwise, I’ve been happy with this device, and now I am fully hands-free and legal on the streets of Los Angeles.

If you live in California, you should be aware that as of July 1, 2008, if you drive and talk on your cell phone without a hands-free device, you can get a ticket.  I’ve pretty much ignored this law change until recently.

Last year, I bought this Plantronics Discovery 640 from Best Buy, I think for about $80 but I’m not sure.  Assuming you know how big a casino chip is, you can see that this bluetooth cell phone headset is very small.  The sound quality from this unit is excellent.  That’s the good news.

The bad news is, the ear piece keeps coming off, and the charger plug keeps falling out during charging.  I also just didn’t like having something in my ear for a long time.  I guess I could never live in a Star Trek world where you have to have one in your ear all the time.  Actually, I see a lot of wannabe deal makers wearing these things all day, and all night.  They even wear it when they go out clubbing.  Yeah, so cool.

As the July 1st deadline comes closer, I decided I’d better get something else pronto.  So back to Best Buy I went and found this Motorola Motorokr T505 hands-free bluetooth device for about $130.

It has a rechargeable battery, a built in speaker and microphone, but can also broadcast on FM to your stereo system in your car.  In reading the reviews by people, there seemed to be some complaints about the FM signal being marginal in Los Angeles.

When I tried it out, I didn’t have any problems with the quality of the sound coming from my FM stereo.  The bluetooth setup was a snap, and pretty much everything worked as advertised… except for one small problem.  My first test call receiver told me she heard a buzzing sound in the background.  I didn’t make much of it since it could just be the connection, her cell phone, or even something in my car.  So I made another call, with the same problem.

Finally, I took the unit out of my car and made yet another call and the buzzing was still there.  It couldn’t be the connection, or my car, or all those people’s cell phones.  The only constant was my cell phone and the hands-free device.  I’m not about to change my cell phone right now so I guess I’ll have to return this unit and try to find something else.

I hope I find something before July 1st.  I don’t want to go to jail.

In the last month or so, I’ve been seeing these almost golf cart sized “cars” on the road.  I assumed they were electric cars but didn’t know what it was.  I finally got curious enough to google it and found the company called “Smart” and their car is the “Fortwo.” [Click on the picture to see other angles of the car.]

It turns out that it’s not electric but does get good mileage.  The company is a joint Venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swatch (yes, the watch maker), and it’s been out in Europe but only recently (1/2008) in the US.  Because of the Mercedes engineering, they’ve put a lot of work into safety, including 4 standard airbags (2 front, 2 side).

According to the website, they have 3 models available in the US.  The basic stripped version sells for $11,590 and just comes with the naked car.  Their middle model called “Passion Coupe” sells for $13,590 and includes air conditioning, panorama roof, and power windows (and some other stuff). Their top model is their Cabriolet, and basically is their Coupe plus a soft top for $16,590.

Other interesting specs are:

• Inline 3 cylinders (four valves per cylinder).
• Automated manual five-speed.
• Anti-lock brakes (ABS), front airbags, and side airbags all standard
• Rack-and-pinion steering (optional power steering for $450).  My MG Midget was rack-and-pinion but that was back in High School. Might need power steering now.
• 90 mph top speed (electronically max regulated). I bet you can get one of those programming boxes to remove this limit.
• 0–60 mph acceleration in 12.8 seconds.  You’re not going to be racing anybody.
• City/Highway mileage: 40/45 (EPA 2007); 33/41 (EPA 2008)

A lot of people are probably going to be concerned about safety so their website really has a lot dealing with this issue.  One of their big features is:

“The tridion safety cell is a “hard shell” that surrounds the smart fortwo’s occupants with an energy displacing system of longitudinal and transverse structural members. Then the engineering team added Electronic Stability Control (esp) and ABS brakes to make the smart even more technologically advanced.”

They have a video on the website showing an offset head-on collision between the Smart and a Mercedes, shown in slow motion from different angles.  The Smart’s tridion safety cell does seem to do what’s it’s supposed to do.

When I owned my MG Midget, one of the biggest problems I had was bus and truck drivers forgetting that I was in front of them at the stop light and almost rear ending me when the light went green.  However, part of that problem was how low the MG was.  The Smart car is not that low.  In fact, their seat is higher than normal, partly for higher visibility, but also for side collisions (as explained on their website).

The price seems perfect for High School and College kids and the safety features may help parents feel more comfortable with their newbie drivers going on the streets.  The middle model has a MP3 (read iPod) input for their stereo system. It’s clear that their demo-market is head-to-head against Toyota’s Scion.

It’s small, but “smart.”  If I get a chance to drive one of these, I’ll report back.

As the holiday season goes into overdrive, so does gas prices.  It’s such an interesting coincidence that when people have to travel to meet their friends and family, the oil companies jack up the gas prices.  Weird.

This is a picture of a gas station price sign in downtown, that is electronic (maybe LED), and not the regular plastic numbers that they have to manually change with a stick.

With prices fluctuating so often, you would think that all the gas stations would get this high tech sign with electronic numbers that probably can be updated via the Internet.

Of course, this convenience could encourage the gas station owners to change the prices every hour, on the hour.  Maybe it’s not such a good idea afterall.  At least not for us drivers.

In a past blog entry, I mentioned seeing Steve Case’ Flexcar.com being advertised on the bus in Los Angeles. Well, now I’ve seen it actually in the wild in downtown Los Angeles in the parking structure at 333 Alameda.  At this location, there were 2 cars (Mini and Toyota?) and some signs promoting the service.  In Los Angeles, it’s $5 per hour to use these cars, and that includes insurance.  Not a bad deal for students who need to use a car for a couple of hours.

One thing I didn’t realize before was that the cars have a prominent logo on the doors, so if you’re a college student wanting to trick some girl into thinking you have a car, foget it.

On the window of the Mini, there was an ID number and some type of electronic device that looked very interesting.  It seems to indicate that there’s some type of wireless remote device to activate the car.  Maybe all members have one and it’s somehow matched with the ID number via the website.

You can click on the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the pictures.

My car was in the shop, so I had to take the bus to go pick it up.  While I was riding the bus, I looked around at all the ads on the bus.  My prediction is they will all be LCD displays with ads in the near future.  It might even be video.  The age of “Blade Runner” is coming my friends.  But I digress.

One of the ads I saw on the bus was for flexcar.com.  It said you can rent a car by the hour so I took a lookie see at their website.  First thing I noticed was that the company had been bought by Steve Case’s company in 2005.  Apparently, he’s collecting companies like I used to collect DVDs.  I like keeping track of what Steve’s doing since he was my classmate in High School (along with Barack Obama).  They’ve done well for themselves, but I’m catching up with this little blog.

Anyway, the way flexcar works is you have to join and be a member ($35 per year in Los Angeles), which allows you to rent a car by the hour ($5 per hour).  Unlike regular rent-a-car places, the cars are parked in public places.  There’s a bunch of them at UCLA and USC.  I guess it’s geared mostly to college students.

It’s not a bad idea and I would have used it when I was in college, but I don’t think I need it now that I own a car.  If I could rent a Porshe for $5 per hour to impress a stripper, I might do that, but the cars are mostly hybrids and some SUVs.  Maybe I could impress some eco-minded stripper.

Okay. This looks like a regular black Toyota Prius Hybrid, right?  Take a closer look. It comes with a driver and tinted windows.  Yep.  It’s a limo for rich people who want to slow down global warming.  Perfect for pretendica Debutantes and politicians, who want to make sure the reporters don’t ask uncomfortable questions about their eco-foot print.  How about using a bicycle?  You too can pretend to care by contacting Eco Limo.