[MOSFET]

So there's a heads-up for you,
if you want to connect your new phone to your stereo, make sure that
there's some sort of feedback cancellation.

Wow, thanks for the heads-up. That's EXACTLY what I was thinking when I
bought the phone, a call comes in, pauses my music, press one button and my
stereo becomes my cell-phone speaker. Now I haven't transferred my service
over to the phone yet (I just got it), I have just been playing with all the
other stuff the phone can do like downloading apps and trasnferring my music
to it. Unlike my sister-in-law's Samsung phone (the model number escapes
me, but it's fancy too with querty keyboard and she can surf the net and
send Emails with it), the Blackberry has a 3.5" output so it works perfectly
as my new in-car MP3 player (I wouldn't have bought it if it didn't have a
3.5" headphone output). So I, like you, imagined being able to integrate my
cell-phone with my stereo, I hadn't thought about the feedback issue but
you're right, that's something to consider. For instance, I hate it when
you're talking to someone on a cell-phone and they have you on "speaker",
most phones do not take the feedback problem into account and you hear
yourself 1/2 second after you've said something, making talking very
difficult (for a while I thought this was due to problems with the cell
connection until I finally figured out what was going on and needless to say
I now ask anyone I talk to to turn the speakerphone function off).

But man, I hadn't even considered that this very problem could now be mine
as well. I've never in the past considered integrating my cell-phone with
my stereo as you have to buy a Bluetooth adaptor for my Alpine and so on.
If I get calls in my car, I just use the single cord ear-piece/microphone
my LG came with. You have no idea how many calls I have missed when I have
my stereo cranked. It annoys my wife to no end.

So like you, the idea of integrating my MP3 player and stereo with my phone
was part of what made the Blackberry so attractive to me. I mean, I will
use the planner and perhaps some of the other apps but I am not planning on
paying to connect to the internet, I just don't forsee needing to send or
recieve emails to anyone so badly that I can't simply wait until I get home.
I mean, I think it's cool that the feature is there and I know my
sister-in-law uses her new Samsung all the time to surf the net and send
Emails, but her computer is not connected to the net and she is rarely at
home, so it makes perfect sense for her to have on-the-go internet access.

In going through the owner's manual, I don't see anything that would
indicate the Blackberry has any type of feedback supression. Hmmmm.....
Once I'm connected (I'm waiting for a Cingular SIM card I bought over the
Internet, I know I could get one for free if I commited to some kind of
plan, but I hate being tied down like that) I will see if that's a problem
for me as well, my hunch is that it will be. Oh well, at least I won't miss
calls anymore as this is my permenant MP3 player and MP3's are all I listen
to. But it sounds like I probably won't be able to use my stereo as my
phone "output" as I hoped, I'll have to work something else out. You're
right, I'm sure that's not exactly how they designed the phone to work in
the car (they assume you'll use Bluetooth in some manor like a cordless
earpiece or the cheap non-Bluetooth simple corded ear-piece/microphone like
I use now).

Besides turning the volume down and moving the microphone, how else do you
deal with that problem as I will no doubt have the same issue?

I actually have NEVER used the shuffle feature of ANY music device I have
ever owned in my entire life. I am the type who seems to always want to
hear a particular song NOW (or at least a particular genera of music, NOW).
MANY years ago I used to always be changing CD's, like I always was putting
a CD in to hear one single song, then putting in another and so on. Today I
have my music broken up into about 10 directories (catagories of music) so I
don't have to shuffle through a thousand songs to hear the one I want (this
is how I have done it for at least 10 years now, first on a collection of
several CD's (each a different genera), then directories on a single DVD
when I got a DVD burner, and then later directories on my flash drive MP3
players) and I am always forwarding or reversing to hear a particular song.
So a problem with the shuffle function will clearly not be a problem for me.

But like I said I'm concerned about this feedback issue and am curious how I
can still integrate my stereo with my phone, avoid Bluetooth (as I don't
want to spend $150 on an Alpine Bluetooth adaptor), but not annoy those on
the other end with feedback. Hmmmm...... Ideas?

Nick