I always dread doing work on my car. Today’s project was to install a new stereo.

I bought the car back in March. It already had an aftermarket stereo: the JVC KD-G200. There’s nothing wrong with it. I got something like it for my previous old clunker back in ’01 or ’02 so I could listen to CDs as I drove to Greeley. But that was 10 years ago, and nobody uses CDs anymore. (In seven months, I haven’t even unpacked the ones we moved here.)

What I want now is something that will let me play my iPod through the car stereo. So for my birthday, I got the BOSS 612-UA. It doesn’t have an optical disk slot. Instead, it’s got

• AUX IN for the iPod or other consumer electronics
• USB socket (for a thumb drive, e.g.) (and, possibly, to provide power to your iPod if you’ve got a long drive)
• SD card slot (you can just leave it there so it’s no big deal if you forget the thumb drive)

Pretty cool, yes? Continue reading →