Car emergency kits aren’t exactly a new thing.  In fact, more people really ought to have these, especially if they’re going to be doing a whole lot of driving in snowy climates.  And with winter coming on, I figured what better time to take another look at the humble winter emergency car kit?

Some are big, some are small, some have every tool you can imagine and even a few you can’t.   For instance, I found a kit on Amazon for right around thirty two bucks.  It’s a AAA sixty three piece weather emergency kit, and comes with stuff like this:

1 AAA double-sided carrying bag, 1 AAA emergency care guide, 1 AAA membership brochure, 1 hand-charged dual LED flashlight, 1 three-piece fleece set (cap, gloves, and scarf), 1 folding shovel with sheath, 1 ice scraper, 1 LED safety strobe light, 1 emergency survival blanket, 3 emergency candles, 1 box of waterproof matches, 2 hand warmer packets, 1 emergency whistle, and a 45 piece first-aid kit.

That’s no small amount of choice hardware, especially for the price.  If you live in the cold climates like I do, folks, you may want to pick one of these up.

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Okay, so there’s plenty of people right now that are super pissed that their car phone of choice, the HTC HD2, which is by itself supposed to be some kind of super-magnificent Windows based mind-smasher that will change most everything, but from the looks of things, O2 will be carrying it.

Now, for you American readers, you likely won’t want to be getting it from O2 as everything there is sold in pounds sterling, but a US launch is forthcoming and should hit sometime in the front part of 2010.

Here’s why you should probably want this, and want it pretty badly:

The HTC HD2 has a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen running at WVGA resolution, and is powered by the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.  Connectivity includes HSPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and – in a first for an HTC Windows Phone – a microUSB port; it’ll also be offered with an optional in-car kit, though that’s not expected to hit the market until December.

Sounds like a pretty top-flight car phone, huh?  Well, considering I can’t find much pricing data on it, it likely WILL be pretty top flight and will be reflected in the price.

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GROM Audio, the developer and producer of in-car multimedia technology solutions, has released the GROM-USB2 Car Kit (Interface Adapter) for Ford car stereos. The adapter permits listening to audio files directly from a USB flash/disk drive, using the original car stereo system. This newest version of the GROM-USB Car Kit (GROM-USB2) comes with an additional iPod/iPhone integration and a 3.5-mm port for any external audio source.

This solution is great for playing iTunes, MP3, WMA and AAC, files directly from any mass- storage USB drive without a dedicated portable player. GROM adds a USB port, iPod, and AUX input directly to the car audio system giving customers the power to manage media through the car stereo or steering wheel controls. Previously available only for Japanese and European car makes, the newest GROM-USB2 supports the CAN-BUS protocol, including Ford car stereos.

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