JuJuDeals

Anyone reading this blog likely knows that all of the electronics in their RV reside at some point on their rig’s 12 volt electrical system. Like markers on a circular racetrack, if you follow the circuit, you’ll pass by each one in turn. Anyone who is reading this blog and has had their RV for a while also knows that when something goes wrong in the 12 volt circuit or in a device that sits on the circuit, repairs can be a painstaking and laborious process of guessing games. It kinda makes you wonder why no one has taken advantage of the fact that your 12 volt electronics are all interconnected, perhaps devising some bit of diagnostic wizardry to let you know what part of which thing is misbehaving.

Well, someone did. It’s called RC-V and it’s becoming increasingly popular in RV design. The RC-V standard allows your 12 volt devices to network or “multiplex” with each other and with a central diagnostic port. This has been a common convenience on most regular automobiles for a while now, but is only recently making its benefits known to the RV operator. Now, instead of having a repairman come check each part of the circuit and the many parts of each individual device to find malfunctions and miscalibrations, the technician can just come up to the diagnostic port, plug in their laptop, and get a specific message about what to fix.

Another helpful faculty afforded by multiplexing is the ability to program controls for various devices and activities. The diagnostic port can allow you to set timers for lights and generators, inform you of structural elements of the RV you may have forgotten to retract, or even configure an array of modes for things like “dinner time” and “movie watching.” This convenience, coupled with the streamlining that comes from having all of your options presented clearly and in one place, are set to revolutionize RV design and use.

So don’t be afraid of the RC-V standard. It is the future of RVs and it is your friend. Having your 12 volt technology cooperating and speaking the same language between each device can only make your life easier. If it starts going by “Hal” and calls you “Dave,” though, we’d suggest maybe spending the night in a motel.

Ah, the humble earbud-style headphone; ever present audio accoutrement of the modern world. You see them everywhere and on everyone. That kid on the bus? Catching the game on his portable AM/FM radio. That guy in the suit? Listening to a seminar on his smartphone. The sweet old lady?  Listening to hard core gangster rap on her MP3 player, cause we like to totally, like, blow away your preconceptions, maaan. Sure, they discreetly pipe sound from your devices to your ears, but that’s only the most obvious function of this omnipresent electronic.

In the study of Sociology, there is a term known as “function,” for which the opposite is “dysfunction.” The function of a family is to raise a child into a happy, healthy, well socialized adult. It doesn’t take a social scientist to figure out, though, that every family is also rife with dysfunctions; mom sings songs from musicals even though her voice is terrible and it drives you crazy, dad tries to fix everything himself so nothing in your house ever works, you dog’s an alcoholic divorcee, etc. Functions are broken down into manifest functions and latent functions, with manifest functions being beneficial things you expect, and latent functions being beneficial things you hadn’t planned for, but come with the package anyway. You could probably guess the manifest functions of the earbud headphone.

Manifest Functions of Earbuds

• Transmit sound from an audio device to your ears.
• Roll up for easy storage.
• Weigh less than standard headphones, allowing for extended wearing and additional comfort

But what about some of the latent functions? What about all those little perks that come with earbuds that didn’t necessarily go into the design itself?

Latent Functions of Earbuds

• Announces to the world: “Hello, world! I am successful enough to own an MP3 player.” Your waves of success will certainly ripple outwards, opening doors and garnering the company of attractive, desirable people.
• Creates what we call the “Headphone Forcefield.” If you’re in an elevator, you can completely avoid the awkward silence and smalltalk. If you’re lounging on campus, studying a book, you won’t be interrupted by some hacky sack kicking greaseball hitting on you. If you’re on the bus and a headcase that smells like model airplane glue is trying to find someone he can explain his theories on who’s really behind gravity to, headphones will spare you, or at least give you a good reason to pretend you don’t hear him.
• Keep your MP3 player or radio in an inside coat pocket and run the earphone cord through a long sleeve. Now, when you’re leaning your head on your hand, sitting through a boring lecture from a T.A. who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, you can secretly be holding an earbud in your ear and listening to whatever you like! So sneaky.
• Meet someone cute while listening to your freshly crafted playlist of certifiably cool music? Offer them one earbud and ask them what they think of the song for an instant conversation starter. Plus, if it works out between you crazy kids, you have a pretty adorable “how we met” story.

It’s always interesting to examine all the little associations and attachments that grow out of our interaction with electronics, but make sure you don’t fall into any earbud dysfunctions, like chewing on the cord, swinging the buds around, or talking louder to everybody else just cause the music you’re listening to is loud. No one else can hear it, buddy! Quit shouting at us!

It seems like everyone is all about these earbud headphones lately, and by lately we mean for like the last 9 years. Pretty much since the iPod was released. Now, there’s definitely a lot to love about earbud headphones. They’re sleek. They’re compact, and thus highly portable. They’re (usually) fairly comfortable, though that can vary on a case by case basis. They can also offer some pretty big sound, though that again depends on the individual model. But you know what they absolutely aren’t?

Funky.

Funkiness isn’t for everyone. At some point in every person’s life, whether they realize it or not, they take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they have what it takes to be Funky. To truly live The Funk, full time. Not all will be able to say yes, and that is okay. You will find no judgment here. There is room for all manner of person under the sun. However, for those of you who embrace that little purple ball of glittering excellence known as The Funk (even if it’s only on weekends), you know that it requires the willingness to place a higher value on what you know is awesome than on what will let you fly under the radar. This is where headphones come back in (you were probably beginning to wonder).

Yeah, you could listen to Prince or the Parliamant Funkadelic on earbuds, and no one would be the wiser. But you’d know. And The Funk would know. And Prince would definitely know, cause that guy’s got powers. Everyone knows that the funkiest way to listen to music is with a boombox over your shoulder. Even babies know this, and babies know barely anything. Unfortunately, the giant boombox is also sort of impractical and, depending on where you are (school, hospital, movie theater, funeral), rude. A close second is with a big set of for real headphones, like these Pro Audio Digital Headphones.

Pop bad boys like these onto your skull and no one will doubt that you have what it takes, whatever “it” may be. Remember how mild mannered reporter Clark Kent would duck into a phone booth, only to pop out seconds later as Superman? That’s what these headphones will do for you; a portable phone booth that transforms you into The Funk. We know you want ‘em. You know how we know?

Because everybody wants to be friends with The Funk.

Embrace The Funk

Now, this probably won’t make a whole lot of sense to those of you who can’t remember a time before the internet, but for those of us who have a box full of 80s clothes that we actually bought in the 80s, one of the quickest ways to conjure up a nostalgic tear or two is to remember the long-lost art of the mix tape.

Monday you can fall apart / Tuesday, Wednesday, break my heart

The mix tape was the premiere way to woo the target of your desire, or to make sure an already wooed target stays in the throes of complete and utter woo. Now, if your early childhood memories are those of Pokemon, you’re probably thinking “But wait, how is this any different than a mix CD? Or building a streaming playlist and sending the object of my affections a link?”

Well there’s a big difference, buster! Mix CDs are cool and all, but it takes basically no effort to make one. Click your mouse button a couple dozen times and POOF! Mix CD. And a playlist? Come on. That’s like wanting to draw a beautiful portrait for your love, only to hand them a post-it note saying “If I had more energy, this would be a beautiful portrait.” It’s not always the thought that counts.

No, a mix tape required effort. You had to decide what songs to use, and in which order. What was the message of the tape? You had to be totally sure beforehand, cause there’s no reordering the track list after it’s on there. You had to sit there and hold play on one tape and record on the other. If you didn’t have a crucial song, you had to sit by the radio and start recording the second it came on. After all that, you had to decorate the package, give it a cover slip, maybe even write out the track list and lyrics with some cool little designs.

Thoughtfulness, patience, perseverance, effort, creativity; the mix tape showed you used them all, which brings us to the good news. KAPOW! You can still make one. The nice thing is, this portable stereo also plays audio and MP3 CDs, so you can sorta cheat and make a mix tape with half of the effort. We’re telling you, people, whether you were around for the rise and fall of the mix tape or not, there are many reasons why making one and giving it to someone you care about will still totally knock their socks off.

Not least of which will be the added mystery and appreciation your target experiences by having to actually find a way to play it. Searching always makes the reward sweeter, and hey… maybe you can invite them over to play it on your stereo?

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before:

You’re on a road trip. You’ve listened to the three CDs in your glove box five times each. You have some more in your trunk, but they’re probably under all your luggage and you really don’t want to pull your car over and get to your destination any later. You look out your windows at the landscape speeding by and all you see are hills and the occasional bored-looking cow. You grit your teeth, brace for impact, and turn on the radio.

Middle of nowhere radio is pretty much the definition of a crapshoot, in that it’s mostly crap, and it makes you want to shoot your radio. Sometimes you’ll get some barely audible, static-riddled pop music from the early 90s. Sometimes its deeply unhinged local talk radio from a guy that believes politicians are actually alien reptile men in disguise. Usually it’s someone reading from the holy text they wrote in their tool shed about how his talking dog is blessed with the power of prophecy and you should give him some of your money. It’s times like this you think “I would give everything I own to pick my own tunes right now.”

Fortunately for you, everything you own is waaay overshooting the mark. Try something closer to $15. With an FM Transmitter, you can broadcast your MP3 player, CD player, heck, maybe even your record player to your radio. Just find a station with nothing on it, set the transmitter to that station, and voila. You are now the owner of your very own portable radio station.

Oh, and if the alien-hating talk radio guy is taking call-ins, you should tell him about the guy with the psychic dog. They’d probably get along swimmingly.

The new Naxa NX-432 hits our shelves today. Please be sure to come check out our newest Wall Mountable Stereo. It’s Brand New for $54.95 and ships out FOR FREE!

Check it out here: Naxa NX-432 Wall Mountable Stereo

Seems like the hottest gift this holiday season is gonna be MP3 Players again. No surprise there. However, the surprising thing is that even though our country will be entering the holiday season in a failing economy, many polls show mp3 player sales will increase nearly 10% this holiday season.

But how could this be? Experts speculate that the rapidly improving technology fueling the mp3 player market is making it more affordable and efficient for companies to produce reliable long lasting mp3 players for a fraction of the cost of iTouch and Zune.

With better technology available for cheaper prices, its no wonder why holiday shoppers will flock to the mp3 player sale aisles to grab up these affordable gifts for their family and friends.