Car Bluetooth
3I drove my poor old minivan into the ground and replaced it with a Honda CRV. Yay! It doesn’t have an aux-in jack. Boo!
I have a Fire tablet and would like to hook it up to the audio system and can’t figure out how- it seems to expect a phone. I like to play Audible, Chirp and downloaded Spotify music. Maybe some podcasts. Can I do it?
If not, is there a cheap phone I can buy? I prefer to not use my good phone all the time. Or should I just use one of my many Meh speakers?
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Does the fire have Bluetooth?
Edit: this one does
https://www.support.com/how-to/how-to-connect-to-bluetooth-on-an-amazon-fire-tablet-10625
@RiotDemon IT WORKED! I just had to ignore the stuff that said “phone” and now it’s connected. I’m pretty sure anyway. The manual was not helpful at all.
@sammydog01 woohoo!
What year and model is the CRV? I have one about 10 years old and they hide the aux in jack in the center console between the seats. Odd spot for it, but it’s there and it works. Have you checked the owners manual?
My son tells me there were a couple of model years from almost all cars that the manufacturers didn’t put in aux in jacks.
@bookerttt It’s new and the only car I looked at that had an aux in was a Lexus. It had a CD player too. I asked at every dealership. I guess it went away with phone headphone jacks?
@sammydog01 that’s crazy. My wife just got a new car, upgrading from a 2004; she might have completely missed out on having a car with an aux port!
Not the most notable achievement, but still kinda weird to think about…
@Moose Shoulda got a Lexus.
@bookerttt @sammydog01 My mother’s 2019 Camaro SS has an aux jack, but it’s hidden inside the center console conpartment. On my father’s 2009 E350, it’s inside the glove compartment.
@bookerttt My daughter drives a 2007 CRV and it always annoyed me that it didn’t have an aux in. I just found it in the center console. Thanks!
@PooltoyWolf @sammydog01
They certainly don’t make them easy to find.
Worked with a woman who wanted to get a remote starter installed in her company car. We went to a biz function together and I drove her company car. Upon leaving the function I look at the keys and see that there’s a remote start button on keychain. You guessed it…she had the car for a couple years & had no idea it had already had the remote starter installed.
She said when she picked up the car the dealer never told her and she never read the manual. In this fast paced world we live in, I’d venture to say that other people have had the same issue.
We have a newish Ford with no aux inputs! It does, however, have a couple of USB ports that will read media from flash drives and usually works for devices like phones and MP3 players. For streaming apps, however, this likely wouldn’t work. My saving grace is it is works with Android Auto, so I can connect via the USB cable and it allows me to stream Amazon music and such. As far as audio quality, this works a lot better than bluetooth. I still need to connect my phone via bluetooth for taking calls and stuff via the car speakerphone. Kinda odd that the Android Auto connected over USB doesn’t handle everything even without bluetooth, but it usually all works.
Still…I was really surprised that with all the connectivity options, they didn’t include an aux input.
@medz I have a USB port that works with phones and I guess ipods but didn’t seem to work with my Fire. It does Android Auto and some Apple thing but I would rather not stream. What, am I made of data?
I mean, how hard could it be to toss one stinking aux in somewhere?
@medz i’d check the user manual and in the middle console.
If it’s the factory radio, having usb and android auto would likely mean it has ford sync, and those all should have aux in.
Now if it is an aftermarket headunit, there might be an aux on the back of the radio not hooked up and routed anywhere.
I know you said you prefer not to use your phone all the time, but one benefit of bluetoothing your phone to your car is booming speakerphone in surround sound. So everyone around can hear the mundane details of whatever important call is going on.
Streaming will use a lot of data, especially if Spotify keeps wanting to play video commercials if you haven’t ponied up for premium (but since you download, it would seem you have).
You could always get a 1/8" jack to Bluetooth transmitter and make yourself a Bluetooth aux port
@djslack Or go old school with an aux port FM transmitter!
@djslack Ooh, good idea! But the Fire does bluetooth to my car- I’m just stupid.
My battery also lasts a lot longer in airplane mode. I guess that’s the price of progress.
@medz I have one of those things somewhere! It was a pain in the butt and didn’t work at all close to a city.
@sammydog01 Back in the day, I installed an aftermarket tape deck head unit (car only came with AM/FM radio) and put a 6 disc CD changer in the trunk that worked via FM transmitter. It was great. (didn’t live near big cities) If my friends parked close to me, they could also tune in and listen to my jamz.
@djslack
A friend bought a new car and hooked up to her phone via Bluetooth. During her first commute in that car, while driving to work, she had a sexy call over the car audio w hubby who was then traveling. She finished the call while in work loc parking lot.
After she finished the call and came into the work building, she got a bunch of grins.
A good work friend then whispered to her that many of her co-workers had overheard the final portions of her sexy phone call w hubby quite loudly/clearly.
She no longer uses the car audio system for phone calls.
If you decide you don’t like your current solution, I would think any car shop can install an aux-in.
Might improve sound quality if you use for music. Audiobooks: didn’t matter v much.
@f00l I usually listen to audiobooks or old time radio podcasts but when I listen to music I don’t really care about audio quality as long as it’s not terrible.
I followed @RiotDemon’s Bluetooth for Dummies instructions and hooked up my 7 inch Fire. Guess what? The touch screen in my car shows the name of the song or podcast I’m playing and has buttons for pause, next track and previous track. How did electronics get so smart? Maybe change isn’t all bad? Naw.
@sammydog01
if you use that auto bt setup for audiobooks, make sure that your audiobook player has the > and < buttons set for jumping something like 30 or 15 seconds forward or back, as opposed to “jump forward to the next track” or “jump back to the previous track”.
it works a lot better that way (at least for me).
@f00l You’re asking a lot from my car. My tablet does have that though.
@sammydog01
That control is usually somewhere in the settings in the audiobook player, when I’ve messed with it
I just happened to notice this is the deal of the day on monoprice. https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38072 Not sure how it would work in the car.