Tech with a twist of lime! & FLHybrid Club.

This is the first part of a review series about the Soundgate Zune integration solutions due to the modular nature of the product.

Ever since I had my Creative Zen Vision:M tethered to my Civic’s aftermarket radio, I’ve dreamed of a direct connection, like the one seen on some BMW and Scion vehicles. An iPod can plug directly into the stereo system and charge while providing digital audio and remote controls via the steering wheel or head unit; except designed for alternative players. I have always admired Apple products but there is usually something about them keeping me away, and the iPhone and iPod exude this condescending vibe at a level of eleven. After Microsoft stabbed Plays-for-sure in the back and my Urge account was sold to Real/Rhapsody, I have been using a Zune 80.

I saw Jason Dunn’s piece from CES

where he interviewed a Stillwater Designs (the parent company for Kicker and Soundgate) employee, Joe Hobart. They mentioned my exact usage scenario, I listen to my music most in my car and I do not charge it there, arriving with a drained player and on long trips due to my listening style, a dead player. They were describing a device that hooked directly to the factory radio and the Zune; the interviewee mentioned both Honda and Toyota, radios I work with everyday. He described how I would be able to listen to my Zune through my factory radio and use my steering wheel controls and head-unit’s buttons to control my Zune but also Voice Command (He didn’t say voice command but that is an OEM control for me and I later confirmed this).

Encarta has an easy read on the history of Earth Day.  What are you doing or what did you do for Earth Day this year?

I attended Earth Fare, and will help Keep Midlands Beautiful with a project early next week.  Drop a comment I'm curious what everyone is up to this year.

Article: What is Earth Day? The official encyclopedia entry from Encarta

I have needed to make this post for some time now.  FLhybrid.com needs a local event coordinator, and a volunteer editor.  Midlands Hybrid can use an assistant event coordinator and a volunteer editor as well.  Please send your information via the Contact us page at GRLT.com

When planning some of the recent events for the Midlands Hybrid Club I realized that the physical distance between the club and myself has made regular events difficult for me to orchestrate from South Carolina without hiring someone.  I want the Florida club to have the same opportunities as the South Carolina Club, what I'm looking for is someone energetic and enthusiastic who can handle the stresses of building awareness through events such as gatherings and fundraisers.  I can still do major functions and remote based gatherings with everything as it is. When going over the short-term goals for the Midlands club and after a particularly hard-hitting question from a reporter at The Gainesville Sun, I want to make sure all the clean personal transportation clubs to have the same opportunities available so that national events are not out of reach.

Kacey Green
for the GCustom clean personal transportation clubs
“Promoting the spread of clean personal transportation technology.”

*This is a draft post the reason for an incomplete posting is to provide notice for members and guests wishing to attend Earth Day functions.*

This year GRLT.com, FLhybrid.com, GChybrid.com, Midlands Honda & MidlandsHybrid.com will be joining the Earth Day festivities at Earth Fare on Devine Street. The GCustom brands will be playing a minor role, supporting the soft launch of The Midlands Hybrid Club. The official soft launch of MidlandsHybrid.com will be Saturday April 19.GCustom and Midlands Honda are the launch sponsors of the new club. The Midlands Hybrid Club will focus on the spread of clean personal transportation technologies, and will have an owner's club open to all brands of hybrids.There will be a strong focus on green living and the green lifestyle, this club is slated to have a more frequent and bigger local presence than any club sponsored by GCustom.com to date. MidlandsHybrid.com is going to be the first green focused site in the GCustom Family not to share the GRLT.com domain, the site will have a differing number, and type of ads as the revenue model is not self-sufficiency, but rather increasing local awareness for green lifestyles, a more capital intense project.

Please welcome our first dealer sponsor, Midlands Honda, Midlands Honda has pledged full support for the new club and the General Manager, Randy Threatt (pronounced Threet), has already shown marvelous support for the “Think globally, live locally” lifestyle. In the interest of full disclosure: the PSC Automotive Group (the owners of Midlands Honda) employs me, I am also the Corporate Liaison between the company and the club.

GChybrid, FLhybrid, and GRLT will remain on the same domain for the short term but FLhybrid will be having a re-launch and finally get its own space. GChybrid will help keep all these separate clubs cohesive and will allow GCustom to focus on environmental endeavors. GRLT will return to the previous schedule of posting on interesting technology topics and will still have the automotive focus veteran readers remember fondly. Most of the sites will also sport full forums a feature our readers have request make a comeback.

I've received many requests to bring back the old forums and to remove the new forums.  I don't like the new forums either, so shortly after I update the site framework, I'll convert the old forums to a newer version and re-integrate them with the front-end of the site.

Kacey Green
GRLT.com
"Tech with a twist of lime!"
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