This Bluetooth accessory lets you stream tunes from your phone and talk hands-free–if you have a compatible phone.
Venturi Mini Car Audion System

The Venturi Mini is a speakerphone that wirelessly streamsmusic and phone callsover your car’s stereo; it’s a great accessory if you want to unleash the tunes on your music phone.

To stream songs wirelessly, your cell phone (or mp3 player) must support stereo Bluetooth. Setup couldn’t be easier: You plug the $129 Mini–an apropos name since it’s about the size of a teeny cell phone–into your vehicle’s cigarette charger, tighten the ring at its base, and then swivel its neck to adjust the view. After you set the Mini to the FM frequency you want to broadcast over, you pair it with your phone.

Finding a good, open frequency can be a challenge. The Mini lacks a station-finding feature, and the first few random frequencies I tried produced too much static. Once I consultedradio-locator.comfor recommendations, however, I was rocking and chatting away with little interference.

I have a minor grievance with the scroll wheel, which requires endless spinning to span the spectrum of FM frequencies. Conveniently, though, the device stores four station presets, and once you have your presets, you don’t have to tinker too much with the wheel.

The Mini features a music button and a phone button on the top, along with play/pause and stop buttons at the bottom; these double for call answer and end when you’re using it as a speakerphone. The scroll wheel lets you advance and reverse tracks. Although the buttons don’t protrude, the simple layout allows you to pick up calls and control music by feel. A bright OLED screen displays caller ID and other information.

I tested the Mini withNokia’s 5300 XPressMusicfrom T-Mobile andMotorola’s Razr2V9m from Verizon Wireless. While the device worked impeccably with the 5300–controls were ultraresponsive, and music consistently stopped when calls came through, resuming afterward–it had a few fits with the V9m (Venturi acknowledges some compatibility issues with this phone). When I used the Mini as a hands-free Bluetooth speakerphone, callers said my voice sounded clear. Occasionally the phone didn’t respond when I tried to pause or stop music, and once in a while tunes refused to recommence after hanging up.

With a few button clicks, you can redial the last number. You can also import your phone book into the Mini, but my results were mixed. It easily imported contacts from the 5300, although only those designated as main numbers appeared. It refused to bring in contacts from the Razr (likely due to that phone’s crippled Bluetooth data-transfer capabilities), and it consistently froze while importingiPhoneentries. The company says that the latter problem is caused by the iPhone’s long-form contact names and that the issue will be fixed in a future software release.

The Mini comes with an audio-in port and a cable for connecting a music player; an audio-out jack for wiring the Mini to your car stereo (if equipped with a 3.5mm input); and a USB port that allows you to charge your phone or other vehicular gadgets. It’s a solid device if you want to listen to tunes and chat hands-free in your car, but be sure to checkthe site’s phone-compatibility listbefore taking out your credit card.