TomTom voices

As if I needed any more justification for adding a TomTom Go navigation system to my ‘You know, I really fancy one of those’ list: you can get different voices for the things. Including an outrageously vampy woman, a New York cabbie, a Mafia Don, and… John Cleese?

My favourite, however? The American granny. Genius.

(But while I’m on the subject — how come GPS isn’t entirely ubiquitous already? Just why do so few digital cameras location-stamp each image, and why doesn’t my PowerBook know where it is? It’s not like it’s particularly new technology.)

6 thoughts on “TomTom voices”

  1. GPS is suprisingly hard to integrate… large antenna, loads of power, not *that* cheap, plus it isn’t very customer-friendly – long time to first fix, doesn’t work indoors…

  2. Instead of a TT Go, why not run TomTom on a PDA? The main advantages:
    – address book integration. Just select a contact, instead of having to fuss with selecting letters from an A-Z grid on a touchscreen.
    – if you do want to enter an address directly, you can use the PDA’s handwriting recognition instead of (again) selecting letters from an A-Z grid.
    – portability (depends on which GPS unit you choose, though)

  3. Chris – Oh. Well, that makes sense. Merde.
    (For the uninitiated, Chris works for Nokia doing ‘cool stuff.’ So, like, he should know about things like this.)
    Harro – PDA? What, you think I have a PDA? I still have a Newton, but I don’t think that’s quite what you mean. However, if I did have one, I’d take your point.
    (for the uninitiated, Harro is a general loon).

  4. On behalf of the uninitiated: congratulations, Harro, on making general and best of luck in one day advancing to the rank of field marshal loon.

  5. Thank you, thank you. I’d give a speech, but can’t be bothered right now.

    ObTT: In my car, I’ve got a bracket to hold and feed the Palm for navigational purposes. The bracket is ‘attached’ to the windshield with a suction cup. Today, the damn thing fell off, after being in place for a little under a year. Suction cups suck.

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