Do not buy an MP3 Player if you do not have to.  I do not recommend using cell phones as MP3 players for regular, everyday use, because it can place a serious drain on your battery.  The phone will go dead in an hour.  For this reason alone, MP3 players might never go out of style.  But if you do not have an MP3 player, you can use your cell phone as a substitute.

The first thing you will need to do is open up your phone and replace the memory card that came with the phone.  You will need a Micro SD card.  Find out just how much memory the chip on the phone can address.  If you cannot find your users manual, this information can easily be obtained by looking up the manual or specs for your phone on the Internet.  If you do not know what type of phone you have, you can go into the settings to obtain that information.

The phone I will be using for this demonstration is a ZTE F160, refurbished.  It can be found online for less than $20, at times from the AT&T website itself.  There is no contract on this phone; quite honestly, I am not sure why anyone would want to take out a contract on a phone.  I would rather own the phone outright than to use credit and get hog tied for 2 years, but I digress.

Anyway, I looked up the PDF for this phone and found out that I can support a Micro SD up to 8 GB.  I already have a 4 GB card in the phone.  That can get me around 1,000 songs, give or take based upon my contacts, pictures, and videos that I store on the phone.  But it is more than enough for a road trip.

I take the Micro SD card out of the phone and place it in a SD card adapter, and place that in my computer.  I find my songs on the computer and copy them over to the Micro SD card, unmount the SD card (on Windows this is Eject or Safely Remove), and then place the card back into the phone.  The reason why I do not use the micro USB cord to connect the phone directly to my computer is because the phone has a hardware issue, and while it can be detected and you can charge it up through micro USB, you cannot actually read or write to the device.  That is one of the issues you may encounter buying refurbished phones.

I never use software, other than a file manager, to do my transfers.  Syncing a phone with computer software is for amateurs.  You want to know where the files are stored on your phone, so that you know where to get to them.  Opening up two windows; one for where the music is stored at on your computer, one for the actual SD card, should be sufficient. 

Now that I have the songs on my device, I need to figure out a way to connect that device to my car.  I have an older vehicle that only takes cassette; this is what happens when you are poor and are making inflated payments just to get by.  I went to Five and Below and picked up a cassette adapter and a car phone charger for $10 bucks and tax and connect the phone to the adapter, and the headset port to the cassette adapter, and then put the adapter in the car.  If there is no audio, the cassette player in the car goes into seek mode, just hit the tape button on the stereo, and you will be fine.

There are other options, such as a FM transmitter that are a real pain.  The problem with FM transmitters, other than interference and the off chance that some college radio station or NPR interferes with your party is that you may end up having to user a power adapter to power the transmitter as well as the phone.  Not that those devices do not exist, but they are hard to find.  Cheap FM transmitters are not worth the money, and even though Five and Below sells an FM transmitter, it was not a pleasant experience.  The power save function on the adapter kept kicking in, and it kept turning itself off.  Very embarrassing when you are trying to listen to Rick Ross’ “I’m Not A Star” or “BMF”, which is what I was into at the time. 

You will have to use an FM transmitter if your car does not have a cassette deck, and no USB port, the later of which is typically a function of an expensive car radio, in which case your MP3 player is probably stuck in the trunk somewhere and you do not even have to use your cell phone.  This is a poor man’s MP3 player, for older, cheaper automobiles, but it does work, and $10 dollars for some hardware is a lot better than paying $50 for a new MP3 player.  Well actually I saw one for $35 with a touchscreen and 8GB at the discount store on sale for the Holidays, I would imagine you could take that and …

BET 106 & Park

Mariah was a guest on BET 106 & Park which is a favourite programme of mine. I love the trend, style, performances and artists that come on the show. The presenters are not bad looking either. I got hooked to the show when my lovely parents sent me to further my education in cold and sunny Canada back in 2003.

106 & Park showed a clip of Mariah Carey’s previous guest appearance on the show which was sometime in October 2007. She wore a purple short dress, black boots and looked like she could rock my world anytime.

Charisma and Confidence

The show presenters asked her all sorts of questions. Her charisma, confidence and the way she answered the questions just blew me away. An important question that stuck to my mind was when she was asked if she was going to continue releasing songs? The confident “YES” that came from her was so reassuring. It cemented the love I’ve always had for her music. I wait in anticipation of further hits from her in the future and I know this Diva is not stopping anytime soon.

E=MC² Album

I have just gone out and bought a not so sophisticated Ipod mp3 player so I can download Mariah’s latest E=MC² album and listen to it everywhere I go. I also got an ITrip device so I can play it in my car. I hope the good old Volkswagen car stereo is compatible with the device. Maybe I should have checked the manual first before shelling out a few pounds for it.

I do not criticises artists because of a few bad things that may have happened in their personal life. I concentrate more on their work and as long as they are doing what they know how to do best, that’s all that matters.

The world needs more Mariah Carey’s doing what she does best i.e. releasing beautiful music and enjoying it.