With our house sitting firmly ensconced, we embarked upon our annual drive down to Kath’s parents. To save wear and tear on the family vehicle, I typically use my Amex membership rewards to pick up some huge Avis car for the voyage. And this time, just for kicks, I also opted to rent something I’d never seen before: the Garmin brand GPS.
Holy cow, how cool is this thing.
On a screen about the size of a hand-held video game, it gives you a constant view of the road up ahead of you, with a pink band of color charting your intended path. You can set it for any address in the contiguous United States and it will give you door-to-door directions, along with constant info as how much distance you’ve covered, how much further you have to go, your ETA, etc., as well as constant voice prompts courtesy of a polite female voice that we’ve dubbed “Majel.”
But that’s not all. First of all, at one point Majel informed us of an accident two miles ahead and offered to chart an alternate route, enabling us to sail around the jam. Second, when we hit a miles-long traffic back up (courtesy of an accident on the OTHER side of the road; even Majel can’t perceive rubber-necking delays), we triggered the “detour” function, got off the highway, and lost no time using the surface streets. Probably the best aspect was that, since I prefer to drive long distances at night, I was faced with impenetrable fog at 4 AM. My visibility couldn’t have been more than ten feet in front of me. No problem thanks to Majel: The display on the screen was unaffected, giving me half a mile of “visibility” as to when the road was going straight and, more important, when it was curving. It took me less than a minute to master the art of glancing between the screen and the road and consequently moved through an extremely hazardous traffic situation with complete confidence.
I don’t know that I’m going to go plunk down the retail price for one, but the rental price was certainly worth it. And if you do a lot of travelling, I can’t recommend enough having one of these gadgets.
Oh…happy holidays to anyone inclined to celebrate it.
PAD
• 
On our last road trip up in New England, my Garmin saved our tail any number of times. One feature Peter didn’t mention (I’m not sure what model he had), was the POI locator. Need gas? Food? A Hotel? Hit find and it looks for the nearest ones.
I’ll never travel without one again.
We call our GPS Pharos, because that’s the name on the bottom of the frame. I’m very happy we have one – even though it’s nowhere near top-of-the-line, it’s gotten me through a few very tricky intersections thus far, to places I’d never previously been. The only catch is, Robin hasn’t yet taught me how to use it so he has to be with me to navigate. Otherwise I need to call him up as usual, which is what I did last Tuesday after dropping a coworker off at the Stamford Amtrak station and wanting him to direct me to the Merritt Parkway because I-95 was crawling. In which case, thank goodness for bluetooth!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannakuh, Blessed Yule, whatever seasonal greeting floats it for ya.
My kid finally gave a kick I could feel. BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!!! Jerry, if you read this, try taping the earbuds from an Ipod to her tummy when she’s farther along. Run some classical through it. Beethoven seems to have a calming effect.
I want one!
I’ve had a Garmin GPS for years (it’s portable from vehicle to vehicle) and while mine doesn’t have the “detour” function you’ve described, it has gotten me out of many a jam in many parts of the country. I’m inclined to upgrade to a newer model now.
My girlfriend doesn’t like the voice, though. She calls in the “bìŧçh in the box”. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get celebrity voices (such as Majel Barrett) to speak the directions? I can hear the voice of Mr. T saying “I pity the fool who don’t turn left in 200 feet.”
In re: the iPod trick:
Try to check your child’s musical tastes first. When in the womb, our daughter Morgana used to settle right down with, believe it or not, a couple of Type O Negative songs – “Who Will Save the Sane?” and “Pyretta Blaze”, both from the album World Coming Down. To this day, if she hears “Pyretta Blaze”, she starts getting sleepy.
On the other hand, little Iain seems susceptible to Iron Butterfly’s “Inna Gadda Da Vida” (the long version).
I wish I could afford one of those GPS things, primarily so I can get near-instantaneous traffic updates. I can take one of two major routes to work every day, but I have to know right after I get in my car which one is best – more than a mile down the road, and the choice has been irreversibly made…
I’ve had a Garmin GPS for years (it’s portable from vehicle to vehicle) and while mine doesn’t have the “detour” function you’ve described, it has gotten me out of many a jam in many parts of the country. I’m inclined to upgrade to a newer model now.
My girlfriend doesn’t like the voice, though. She calls in the “bìŧçh in the box”. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get celebrity voices (such as Majel Barrett) to speak the directions? I can hear the voice of Mr. T saying “I pity the fool who don’t turn left in 200 feet.”
A friend has Tom-Tom, and during a recent 35-mile trip, I got to see (and hear) it in action. Such GPS devices are really cool, and are finally coming of age I think.
And although most people don’t know it, you have your U.S. Air Force (not NASA) to thank for launching, and maintaining, the GPS satellite network that allows stuff like this to be available for the average Joe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System
If you have a Palm or PocketPC, you can run GPS software on it. My wife and I have a Palm and a Treo and run TomTom Navigator. It’s just like the regular TOMTOM except that it cost us $300 to get the software running on TWO palms – that’s $150 for each of us, and a lot less than a stand alone GPS.
Also, my Palm T5 has a faster chip and better screen than most GPS units.
—matt
I can’t afford such fancy things. On the other hand, I DO have an older but functional laptop. Has anyone tried one of those plug-in GPS dongle thingies that are sold along with Micro$oft Streets ‘n’ Maps ‘n’ Spam? Do they have enough functionality in a driving situation to be worth the money?
I don’t drive enough in strange areas to afford one of those expensive toys, or even to rent one with a car, but I always liked the idea of using a general purpose tool (which is what a computer is) for such a specific purpose.
PAD,
Happy Holidays To You As Well.
Majel, huh? Funny, I named mine Lwaxana. Must be in the air. 😉
My Verizon cell phone ($29.99) has the GPS function.
The color screen is not quite as big as the one on the Garmin, but it works just as well. You can even select different voices.
In addition to the regular phone service plan, the GPS costs $10/month if you use it regularly, or three bucks for a 24-hour usage. I opt for the 24 hour deal once in a while (if I get lost) and spring for the ten bucks if I’m traveling out of state for a vacation or some such. You can always cancel it again after the month is up.
So, for the most part it costs nothing, and it’s there when I need it.
My friend Jay’s GPS is named Hannah. Don’t know why; I suppose she just sounds like a Hannah.
As far as in utero music, I was fed Cream and Aerosmith and Jimi Hendrix. Why yes, my father is a musician. I was also nearly born at one of his shows. Good times, just not for my mom. 🙂
Happy Holidays to Peter and family and all you other posters!
Hello everyone long time lurker first time poster. I want to point out a big saftey Mistake it sounds like Peter made and I would like you people not to. If you cannot see the road DO NOT OVERDRIVE the conditions.
GPS units are a great aid I own 2 that I use at work and home however they are just downloaded maps and generally the maps used are at least a few years old so the road it shows on the screen may have changed slightly,there could be construction or detours it is not going to show all these things nor will it show I moose walking out on the road 15 feet ahead of your 10 foot
visability so you can(WILL) end up in a very serious accident if you use a GPS as your eyes.
So all that said they are a great tool I recommend them to anyone with a car however they do not replace commonsense and your own eyesight. I hate the fact that my first post might sound a little negative I just dont want anyone getting hurt this Christmas(especially you Peter you still have to write another 10 years of hulk for me lol) Happy Holidays everyone.
Anthony
Merry Christmas
PAD,
Any chance you and Kath will swing be to see Santa and Rudolph? (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/arts/television/23rudo.html)
Merry ChristmaChannuKwanzakah!
– Sasha
I recently got the Mio Digiwalker c 310x. LOVE IT! I dpn
t ahve the traffic antenna yet, but it comes standard on the 700something model. I thought about upgrading for the bluetooth capability to take cell phone calls hands-free with its speaker, but the compatability list is short. So, I’m going to research the traffic antenna. It too has an “AVOID” mode that you can use if your itenerary uses a street or turn you know you need/want to avoid.
Regardless, “Jason”, as the American English voice is dubbed, is a great device. It has various modes for the car, bike, pedestrian, and others. Best of all, STAPLES has it on sale for $200 almost every day, and Circuit City has it on sale for $250 online and in stores, if you keep missing the Staples stock.
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get celebrity voices (such as Majel Barrett) to speak the directions? I can hear the voice of Mr. T saying “I pity the fool who don’t turn left in 200 feet.”
You can. And actually, Mr. T is one that you can get for the TomToms.
http://navtones.com/tomtom.php
Re: In Utero Musical Selections.
Just remember the immortal (to my mind at least) words of Greg Behrendt:
“Babies hate Black Sabbath. Hëll, I don’t even listen to them with the lights off any more.”
-Rex Hondo-
Ironically enough, Stace listened to nothing practically but country music the whole time Brian was becoming Brian. He hates country music, and has just informed me that he likes KISS, ZZ Topp and Carfax Abbey. (Well, considering it’s 20 after 12, he didn’t JUST inform me…)
Question for everyone that has these nifty navigators in their cars–do you get to ignore them if your spouse is in the car? Or not check it?
Oddly enough, this webcomic on the very same subject was just posted today.
“do you get to ignore them if your spouse is in the car? Or not check it?”
Yes! You can silence them or turn them off, too. If you miss a turn, it “recalculates” the route to get you back on track.
Has anyone heard a bit on the “Bob abd Tom” syndicated morning radio show called “The Naginator”?
It’s basically a talking navigator with the voice of a really annoying pasenger seat driver/wife.
Personally, I still use the good ol’ Streets & Trips. Not perfect for trucks because it sometimes will route me down no truck routes, but adequate for yer basic “get me to there” purposes.
The office had me try out a ‘Blackberry’ with built-in GPS. Gave a wildly inaccurate height readings, and very inconsistent position results. Oh, the actual position (checked against a better GPS unit) was correct … when it was actually displayed, which was more often not the case as the unit couldn’t seem to get a lock on the signals.
As for that ‘better’ unit, it was a portable GPS rig belonging to a tech-happy friend who relies far too much on it as was shown one late summer evening as we went out for some shooting-star-gazing. Having reached an unlit area on the outskirts of the city, I recollected the newspapers said we should be looking in a [say south-east] direction. Where was south-east, I muttered. Friend eagerly told me to wait as he pulled out his toy and started fiddling with it. Minutes later he confidently announced “that-a-way!”
“Um … what’s that glow?”
He thinks for a moment. “The city.”
“Right. And what direction did we take leaving it in a straight line?”
Thinking some more he ventured: “South?”
“Which would make (pointing about 110 degrees away from where he’d been pointing) THAT south-east.”
Back to punching buttons he looked up a few minutes later to announce “Oops, it was using the wrong date. The programs got itself turned around.”
Thanks. I’ll stick to the one between my ears. It hasn’t let me down yet.
I recently got the Garmin IQue-M4
Very cool – it’s primarily a pocket pc with Win XP but also has MP3 player and SAT NAV built in
a great all in one never leave home without it super-gadget.
You know I just wonder at what the environmental and social cost is with our love of gadgets that (lets face it) offer us very minor improvements like avoiding the odd traffic jam and for telling us where we are (which any traveller should know anyway). There has to be some price to be paid with the way we suck down this endless avalanche of electronic contrivances. I’m not saying that any technology is bad in itself but we seem to use it without any discretion.
>There has to be some price to be paid with the way we suck down this endless avalanche of electronic contrivances. I’m not saying that any technology is bad in itself but we seem to use it without any discretion.
Quite so. A preliminary study done in Tokyo has sown clear indications that many peoples’ memory skills are deteriorating due to two sides of this tech.
1 – Relying on gadgets such as PDAs (as opposed to PADs?) to store things such as phone numbers, addresses, and so on, means our memories aren’t getting the workout they need to stay sharp.
2 – Being ‘connected’ and ‘on-line’ so much also means we can become deluged with information to the point of saturation and literal overload.
One extreme case was cited where a salesman in his twenties would show up at a client’s place of business, only to be unable to recall exactly why he was there. No physiological condition accounted for it. Just that old “use it or lose it” principle.
Another side of technology working against people.
How often have you seen twits with cell phones in store aisles calling home to ask “Honey, do we need…”? Whatever happened to people thinking “hmm … I’m going out of the house. Just MAYBE I might be near a store. Perhaps I should PLAN AHEAD and see what we need … just in case? And, just maybe, see if I remembered to have some CASH on me? Just in case I need it? (Some places wisely refuse cards below a certain purchase amount.)
But, no, I have gadgets, so I don’t need to do this.
Feh.
Khan may be a fictional character, but he was quite correct – for the most part – that you gain a hëll of a lot more in working to improve people than you do in improving their gadgets.
Just look at how much we spend on medicine each year just because people can’t be bothered to take good care of themselves and work to ensure they have a healthy, properly functioning immune system.
We are rapidly becoming what I deem ‘slaves to convenience’. (I keep thinking about writing a book about that some day …)
>Has anyone heard a bit on the “Bob abd Tom” syndicated morning radio show called “The Naginator”? It’s basically a talking navigator with the voice of a really annoying pasenger seat driver/wife.
Haven’t heard it, but a year or so ago a French-language comic did a skit about a guy who winds up trashing his car because he’s driven nuts with the thing constantly nagging him about every little thing.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get celebrity voices (such as Majel Barrett) to speak the directions? I can hear the voice of Mr. T saying “I pity the fool who don’t turn left in 200 feet.”
You can. And actually, Mr. T is one that you can get for the TomToms.
http://navtones.com/tomtom.php“
For the first time, I’m tempted to get GPS…! 😉 Is the Macho Man Randy Savage also available? 🙂