I Can't Hear You!!
by Gary Woods

PDAs and laptops usually have little tiny speakers as do most MP3 players. This means you're forced to listen to either horrible, harsh sounds or you have to plug in some cheap ear buds, which aren't much better. Even if you plug in some pretty good headphones into these devices the sound isn't great. So, what to do.....?

A company called Digital, Inc. has a device called the 450FM Beamit. The 450FM is about the size of a lipstick with a small LCD screen and a three way rocker switch to turn it on and off, and select any of 100 FM stations to output to your radio. The Beamit remembers the frequency it was last set to between power cycles so you don't have to fumble around the next time out.

Once you've got the frequency set you just plug the Beamit's gold plated 3.5mm jack into the headphone jack of your device whether it's an iPod, Palm, PocketPC, laptop, or almost any device you can think of with audio output. Then tune your FM radio or receiver to the same frequency and start cruising to the tunes.

The 450FM uses only one AAA battery and gets incredibly long life from it, since its screen's soft alien green backlight only stays on for a second after you touch the toggle to turn it on or off or to change the frequency. All this for only $39.95 direct from www.irock.com.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910