This Week In Gadgets

The AA has dubbed iPod listening pedestrians as iPod zombies and has even gone so far as claiming that they could be the reason for pedestrian related accidents increasing by 5% over the last year. Things could be about to get worse with iPhone zombies too, as the incredibly popular US game MyTown which is like a real world Monopoly game is launched in the UK. Leicester council has basically given the iPad its seal of approval by saying that although they need to be making 1,000 people redundant they will be spending £40,000 on iPads for everybody that’s left.

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Yoda Or Brian Blessed? – You Decide… On TomTom SatNav At Least

TomTom SatNavs have helped lead the way (see what we did there?) for years and as well as offering clear turn by turn instructions and perhaps more importantly to those of us that have to regularly rely on the digital stars to guide us home, they even allow us to download new and more interesting skins and voices. Let’s be honest after a few turns the standard voice becomes dull (no offense to the original voic actor) and lifeless at best so downloading and using a new voice is a good way to add a little extra spark to your journey.

Homer Simpson was one of the first voices offered and he went down such a storm that several others have been added. Yoda is one of the more recent examples and his voice has been offered by voiceskins.com and Lucas Film so that you really can use the force to get you home.

The TomTom community is able to request voices and the most popular requests are usually filled. In fact, one Facebook group that was started several years ago, forgotten about, and then promoted with some vigour, has helped ensure that one of the boomiest, deepest, and most theatrical of all voices will soon be heard ringing frantically from car windows as drivers follow Brian Blessed’s directions home.

The actor, probably best known for his role in the film Flash Gordon, became the subject of a Facebook campaign led by Richard Gardner from Manchester. He initially started the group to have Blessed used as the TomTom voice in April 2008 but having forgotten about the group was surprised to learn that it had gathered 450 members in Feburary 2010. Several thousand members had soon joined the petition and Gardner approached TomTom.

Gardner was told that if he could raise 25,000 members of the group then TomTom would approach Blessed to start negotiations. With 25,772 members, the SatNav manufacturers have remained true to their word and Brian Blessed really will soon be showing you the way home (if you own a TomTom of course).

Who navigates you home?

Will you be downloading Yoda or Brian Blessed?

Garmin launches pooch tracking dog collar

Satellite navigation firm Garmin has come up with a suitably high-tech dog collar that will allow owners to keep tabs on their hounds if they ever go astray.

Garmin’s Astro DC 40 is available in a garish orange, which is a fairly useful visual aid for dog seeking in itself and the black GPS receiver is attached in a durable manner to one side. Garmin assures potential purchasers that the collar is comfortable for the dog as well as being convenient for the owner.

The main application of the tracking collar is for keeping tabs on hunting dogs, according to Garmin. For this reason the compatible Astra 220 receiver module which you will need to find your animal is capable of maintaining contract with ten different collared dogs simultaneously.

You can set the GPS beacons on the collars to emit location information in incremental steps between five and 120 seconds, which might make the sport of hunting a little more interesting, with modern technology on hand to help out when required.

The Astro DC tracking dog collar is powered by a battery which you can recharge using an included adapter and it should last for several hours, depending on how frequently you choose to refresh the transmission of data.

Although the collars will obviously be useful for hunters, it is easy to imagine that owners of household pets who do not want to chase after a particularly adventurous dog will end up buying this gadget in order to avoid irritation or, at worst, heartbreak.

TomTom launches Star Wars-themed sat nav update

GPS sat nav manufacturer TomTom has released what some may regard as one of the most geek-friendly navigation voices of all time, getting the dulcet tones of legendary Star Wars villain Darth Vader into a new add-on voice navigation download.

TomTom launched the Darth Vader voice navigation pack on May the 4th, which has traditionally been designated as Star Wars Day by fans of the epic space saga and for the princely sum of £7.95 any TomTom owner can be ordered around by Darth Vader during a journey.

A promotional email was circulated last week, ostensibly from the Sith Lord himself, although the media kept quiet about the launch until the day actually arrived.

TomTom has commissioned novelty voice navigation packs in the past and it seems that the number is set to grow as Scottish comedian Billy Connolly and fictional cartoon father Homer Simpson are both confirmed for future releases.

The launch of other Star Wars navigation packs are planned for the next few months, when TomTom is set to bring mercenary Han Solo, robot C3PO and wise green sage Yoda to a sat nav near you.

It remains to be seen whether the novelty factor of these voice-overs is enough to keep you using them for extended periods, or having a quick giggle and then reverting back to the neutral, default voice files. However, the modest price is sure to attract quite a few TomTom owners over to the Dark Side for a dabble with Darth Vader and chums.

Free navigation from Google hits UK

Owners of smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system will be rejoicing at the news that a beta version of a brand new Google Maps, complete with voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, has made it across the Atlantic amid absolutely no fanfare.

The Google Maps Navigation app is in pre-release form and it first turned up in the US as version 4.1.1 at the beginning of April. Now the app has been proven to be working well on certain UK-owned Android smartphones.

The latest Google Maps Navigation app is ostensibly designed for use with phones running Android 2.1, but according to reports from the XDA Developers forum, phones with version 1.6 of Android onboard are also said to work well with the new app. This includes such behemoths as the recently released Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, which with a 4 inch screen is perfect sat nav replacement material.

Independent tests have confirmed that Google’s own Nexus One and its step-sibling the HTC Desire are both able to run the app in full. The Nexus One, being an official Google device, actually gets a couple of perks over the other Android phones, but all of these mobiles can reap the benefits of free navigation whether you are behind the wheel or on foot.

Nokia made history when it launched the first ever completely subscription-free turn-by-turn navigation app earlier in the year and other firms have been struggling to catch up. Google already launched its own free navigation app in the US, but international users had been left in the dark, until now.

Don’t let the SatNav drive you up the wall!

Its not the first time that Gadgets and Gizmos has brought you news of daft SatNav users (nor will it probably be the last), Matt in July 2008 brought you the sorry tale of ‘Slaves to SatNav’, which no doubt brought some superior smirks from the ‘SatNav non believers’. The latest tale of SatNav disaster is in respect of Robert Jones who managed to follow his SatNav directions to the letter and end up teetering on the edge of a Pennine cliff in his BMW! It took nine hours for the car to be recovered and Police have now decided to take the matter further and have charged Mr Jones with driving without due care and attention.

If you have been considering buying a SatNav but are put off by the bad press associated with incidents such as these or sarcastic goading from male friends or relatives then don’t worry. Millions of these devices have been sold and are used daily by most drivers without any problem, other than maybe taking the odd wrong turn. If you use the SatNav in the correct manner then they are a useful prompt to tell you that your next turn is due or will provide you with an instant alternative route if there are major road holdups. They are a useful aid to driving and should not ever be followed if the road ahead looks like it presents dangers, if you follow all visible road warning and direction signs, read the road correctly and of course use common sense then you will not encounter any problems. There will always be the odd car driver who has a mishap, such as driving their car through the side of a house after a momentarily lack of attention but that doesn’t mean we all do. A SatNav will provide you with easy access to route information both here and abroad and can be a valuable tool to assist the competent driver. Don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed to buy one they are a fantastic aid to driving and never again will you need to drive around in the dark trying to find a passing pedestrian to ask for assistance (unless you are a kerb crawler).

For the very small minority of SatNav users who rely on the device too much (some even seem to think that they drive the car for them) then it is clearly bound to end in disaster and quite frankly they should really not be allowed to leave the house without being wrapped in bubble wrap and with a police escort!

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