Hey A.Z.,
I recently discovered ILX owners can just drag and drop their entire itunes into a USB and plug it into the USB jack for instant music via USB mode. It is amazing how the car can even remember what song you were on and save your place, mid song, even after turning OFF the car and UNPLUGGING the USB.

However, do you think that keeping the USB plugged in 24/7 (aside from adding more music) is harmful to the jack? I know on computers (laptops especially) keeping a USB plugged in 24/7 (through shutdown and startup) can damage the hardware. Thoughts? Experiences?

 

I had my usb plugged into my tsx and now ilx for months at a time. I'm sure it won't damage it. But, I'm not one to provide scientific backing.

 

I bought an iPod classic just to keep in the car and have it loaded with about 35,000 songs. I've had it plugged in for about 5 months now continuously. Twice, I've had to do a hard reboot because it just locked up, but that's fairly typical for iPods in or out of a car IMO.

One caution: I live in Northern Cali which is a very temperate climate. Leaving a device like an iPod in the hot sun or super cold temperatures might not be good for it. If your car is in a garage, though, like mine, it's probably fine.

 

Same here!