Essential Car Gadgets You Should Own

cool car gadgets
essential car gadgets
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If you spend so much time in your car that it feels like a second home, then why not buy some gadgets to make your drive that much easier and fun? There are so many great essential car gadgets out on the market today. Here are four essential car gadgets you really should think about getting.

Cell phone charger

Everybody forgets to charge their cell phone sometimes. Hopefully, the juice left in the battery will last you the entire day, but sometimes cell phones go dead at the most inopportune times – like right before you need to make an important business call. With a cell phone charger that you can plug into your car, you will never have to worry about being without your phone again.

Auxiliary cable or cassette adapter for iPods

Have access to your entire music collection while driving without the hassle of bringing along your entire CD collection. There are two ways to hook your iPod up to a car. Newer cars will have a place for you to plug in an auxiliary cable. Plug the other end of the cable into the headphone slot on the iPod and voila, everything is connected. However, if you have an older car that only plays cassette tapes, you will need to buy a cassette adapter to connect your iPod to the car. Make sure to create a great playlist that will play automatically while driving – as a driver, you shouldn’t take your attention off the road to pick new songs and mess around with the iPod.

Satellite radio

Sometimes regular radio channels simply aren’t enough. With satellite radio, you have access to tons of additional channels that offer specialized and unique content without annoying commercials. If you are a sports junkie, then satellite radio is perfect for you, with offerings ranging from football and baseball to NASCAR racing and soccer. There are plenty of talk show channels as well as channels playing any type of music your heart desires.

A GPS navigation device

Many people like consulting maps or using MapQuest to figure out where they are headed, but with a GPS navigation device directions become so much simpler. You don’t even have to look at the device – a voice will announce the directions and tell you when to make turns. The device can also adjust to deviations in a route, so if you take a wrong turn it can tell you how to correct your route.

Author Byline:

This article was written by Ryan Embly from the website CarRentalExpress.com – they offer price comparisons on car and van rentals all across North America and Europe.

Eco Soldiers Green your Mobile and Broadband Life

Green your mobile

With the increase in mobile phone use and possession throughout the world, it is essential that phone services and the phones themselves become more environmentally friendly so as to minimize our “carbon footprint”. It’s time to Green your Mobile.

There are numerous ways to make mobile phones more green and even the smallest things can make an enormous difference to the environment if enough people develop these beneficial practices.

Green your Mobile
Green your Mobile

Recycle Your Phone

This is a highly effective practice and can both save money as well as help the environment. An old phone can be sold on eBay for a significant amount of money or can be given away. In order to determine the amount that the phone is worth, websites such as Envirophone are available. This site allows you to enter the model of your mobile phone so that you can determine its worth.

Additionally, if you are experiencing a difficulty with the SIM card in the phone or you are required to change your number, you can keep the old phone and simply buy a new card. This limits the raw materials which are required and, therefore, is a highly environmentally responsible practice and also saves significant amounts of money.

Monitor Energy Consumption

You can monitor the amount of energy that you are using through a website known as Electricity Monitor. Certain mobile phones consume more energy than others so attempt to choose one that uses a smaller amount. Changing the settings on the phone may also serve to reduce the amount of energy that is consumed by the phone.

Environmentally Friendly Applications

Green apps include those which provide you with information as to what products are greener than others. For example, if you are searching for a specific product, applications exist which provide the user with the ability to compare the amount of energy that each product uses so that energy can be conserved. There are also smart-phone applications that prevent you from overcharging the mobile phone, which limits the amount of energy that is used and helps the user to become more environmentally conscious.

Analyze Various Suppliers

Make sure to research each of the various providers of mobile phone service which are accessible in your area. Determine which of the providers is more environmentally conscious. In order to encourage additional companies to become “greener”, purchase a plan from a “green” company. This will hint to other companies that they should do the same. Although “green” plans are typically slightly more expensive, it is certainly worth the extra cost to protect the environment and you will be secure in the knowledge that you are helping the globe to be cleaner and healthier.

“Greener” Broadband Service

Searching for green or Eco broadband ISP’s you can find providers that are much more ecologically aware they will use sustainable energy sources to power the severs and there offices such as solar panels and will often have Eco schemes set up to offset any damage to the environment such as tree planting. Mobile broadband is an alternative to power hungry infrastructure so should be looked at if your consumption isn’t as demanding as requiring fixed line broadband, now mobile broadband is fast now and a viable alternative, mobile broadband by its nature means you can work remotely so can often save fuel costs in traveling to the office.

Green Charity donations

Do your research so that you find a service that donates a percentage of their profits to charitable institutions. These services can be found at www.greenmobile.co.uk. Businesses which are “greener” will donate some of their proceeds to environmental organizations as well as find a way to reduce their usage of energy so as to reduce their “carbon footprint”. Many of these environmentally conscious company’s mobile phone packages come with the guarantee that a part of their profits will go towards environmental charities. Some of these businesses will also provide their customers with information regarding how to benefit the environment as well as provide them with local recycling programs, charity organizations, and awards which they have won for their environmental consciousness.