..presents itself as we fumble from CD shuttle to iPods and MP3's
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I've never been one to go too overboard with my car sound and, athough I have had friends with speakers the size of small children in their boots, I have been more one for music access and space. When I got my first car, 6-disc shuttles were not enough for me and I outsourced a 10-disc shuttle from the States (the early days). When mini-discs came out I got hold of a car mini-disc player and had a plethora of the little discs in the glove compartment. This allowed me more music per square litre of space in my citi-Golf (the fastest production thirteen hundred on the road at the time - I believed, and still do).

So now we are where we are, with enough music stuffed into tiny little objects than we could ever possibly imagine. Mozart's entire works can now be fitted inside your eyeball if you gave them half a chance. I had a slave tape (politically correct term is actually "courier tape") linked to my iPod Nano (purchased in New York during last year's "Stengthening Ties Tour") which played the music via a wire into my tape player. It looked revolting. My new car doesn't have a tape player and my music needs have now progressed further than the car's built in CD shuttle.

Lo and behold! U2 can stop singing because I have finally found what I've been looking for! Don't say I don't look after you!

Ladies and gentleman....do not be afraid of it's Star Wars sounding name...

I present to you, the Flash Forward MP3 FM MODULATOR!! [applause]

Bond would have had one

You are just loving that, aren't you? Isn't that just adorable! Let me explain it to you. The black Turbo Boost looking thing plugs into your car cigarette lighter. This is the modulator. It has a hole (USB for those who are down with the jargon) where you can plug in a flash memory stick. Most of you should know what these are - they're used to save information these days and aren't bigger than a small lighter. Anyway, how this works is that you store as much music as you can fit onto the memory stick (these days they can hold anything up to 2 gigabytes of music (that's a lot)) and then you plug it into the modulator (the black thing stuck into your car lighter. The modulator has a choice of pre-set FM stations that YOU CAN TUNE YOUR CAR RADIO INTO AND PLAY WHATEVER MUSIC IS ON THE MEMORY STICK! Are you with me? On the top of the modulator you can see there are buttons. These are for controlling the music stored on the memory stick (play/pause, stop, forward, back).

So it plays whatever music is on the memory stick THROUGH your car radio. No more effing wires anywhere!

There is also a plug on the right on the modulator that let's you plug in your iPod (or any music player) with the lead that comes with the thing.

But even if you don't have an iPod you can just plug in the memory stick with music on it that you have copied from any computer. So you can have more music than you would have in a CD shuttle - in one cigarette lighter!

It's a little bit silly really.

I said to the guy that I found that if he gave me one I would tell the 2oceansvibe legions about it. He gave me one and here I am. Naked, in front of all of you, telling my story. Telling my touching story of my encounter with the FM Modulator.

I do it all for you. Like Bryan Adams.

Get hold of these guys I found if you want one. The "Flash Forward" FM modulator is R399 and the guys will deliver it to your door in Cape Town within 48 hours absolutely free of charge. All you have to do is SMS "MP3" to 34007

Bond would approve

There is a new craze sweeping South Africa called "SMS Shopping".
Basically the way it works is instead of calling a long and involved telephone number where you don't know how long you're going to hang on and listen to music while your phone bill goes through the roof or labouring over ordering online all you have to do is SMS a key word to 34007 and they will call you back and get all your details. The SMS only costs R2 and the
benefits include:

1. Not having to remember a long telephone number or
e-mail address,
2. You can SMS them any time of the day or night so the "store" doesn't have to be open to receive your details,
3. They pay for the call when getting all your details, such as, credit card numbers or your delivery address.

Does it get any easier?

Seth Rotherham
Editor
2oceansvibe.com
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