Your mileage may vary depending on the type of USB hub you are using. Although I could only play songs from the USB storage, the phone’s data connection with the Toyota Entune app still worked. But to my surprise, the car detected both the phone and the contents of the USB storage. As expected, both the phone and the USB powered up. Then, I plugged my phone and my USB drive into the hub. So, I tried something: I took an old USB hub and plugged it into the USB port on the console.

But then I realized that there was no USB port left to charge my phone. When I discovered the first trick, I felt pretty smart. Overall, it’s a much more efficient way of playing MP3 files (or M4A or WMA) through your car stereo.

Second, you can usually cram a lot more onto a 32 GB flash drive (which you can get for under $10) than a smartphone since you won’t be competing with apps and videos for space. First, it frees you up from having to tether your phone to your car – or worse – eat up your battery sending audio over Bluetooth. But there are a few benefits to using a USB mass storage device instead of your iPhone. You’ll be able to browse by artist and album and view song information. The functionality of using a flash drive for music in your car isn’t much different from using a smartphone. Just load it up with properly tagged music files and plug it in. But what the ads don’t usually tell you is that you can use that same USB port to plug in any mass USB storage device and play your MP3s right off of that. Honda has HondaLink and Ford has Ford Sync. But, of course, what they really want you to do is sign up for their paid subscription-based “car apps” service, which lets you use things like Pandora and OpenTable from your dashboard (instead of just using your phone.) Toyota’s version of that is called Entune. Here are a few gadgets you should try: A USB Drive Full of MP3sĪlmost all new cars today will come with a USB port “for your iPhone,” say all the ads. It turns out you can plug more than just your phone into your car. But after a bit of tinkering, I found four additional groovy uses for the 16.4-inch color display, RCA jacks, two 120V AC power outlets, DVD player, USB port, and wireless headphones that come with my new Toyota Sienna’s Dual-View Entertainment Center. Of course, this means plugging in your smartphone to listen to your music or make hands-free calls for most people. This is the first time I’ve purchased a new vehicle, and I was pleasantly surprised to see quite an array of ports, plugs, and interfaces for various gadgets.

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