7 posts tagged “tomtom”

Another gadget from the Miami Boat Show, the Garmin GPSMAP 640 is a dual mode GPS device which can be used as a marine chartplotter and a city GPS turn-by-turn navigator.  When placed in the marine mount or automotive mount (which come included with the device), it will switch automatically to the appropriate mode.  It has a 5.2-inch touch screen, 800 x 480 pixels, an SD card slot, waterproof, preloaded with BlueChart g2 marine data (such as tides and currents, depth contours) and City Navigator NA maps.

Workaholics
When TWiTLive was off the air recently for a couple of days, Leo found himself at a loose end home and became a little unbearable to Jennifer.  Dick likewise is a workaholic who has not taken a vacation for years.

A Fireplace for TWiT Cottage
Dick's friend Dennis Wunderlin (aka Dexterity Dennis) has a fireplace insert from Dimplex, and Dick recommends it to Leo for the old fireplace at TWiT Cottage.  Leo saw one in action on Valentine's Day in a San Francisco hotel and plans to get one for the Californian summer.  At least that will give him something to talk about on another TTTT.

Respect for the Sea
Dick was once out in the sea in his boat when it was hit by a huge wave and the boat was tossed straight up.  Since then, he's had a lot of respect for the sea.  He now has a smaller 22 feet boat and he seldom ventures out into the ocean unless it's really calm.

Christmas Gift on Valentine's Day
Ludwik of GizWizSearch is such a friend to DGW that Dick decided to send him a Christmas package of GizWiz goodies.  Dick sent it by priority mail and the parcel arrived safely in Poland for Ludwik on Valentine's Day.  Leo suggests that Dick sell a Ludwik Prize Pack.  Dick thinks a Bernie Madoff Treasure Pack might be a better idea.

A Choice for Tomorrow's Gadget
Dick has prepared a gadget for tomorrow's show, but a parcel has just arrived too.  Leo will have the choice.


Listen to Episode 773
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Another GPS after Leo's TomTom One 3rd Edition (Episode 702).  Bushnell's BackTrack is designed for a limited and specific purpose.  No maps, no voice directions, just directions for getting back to where you started: your house, your car, and a customisable third location.  Good for camping, hiking, or getting back to your car-park.  Uses the SIRF Star III GPS Receiver.

Anti-Allergen
Kimberley suffers from a potentially deadly allergy to peanuts.  Having the Nirvana Organizer (Episode 691) is a life-saver for her as it protects her from any traces of peanuts which might be in the seat pocket.


Listen to Episode 711
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Another heads-up from a listener, Dan McCormick from Sewell, New Jersey.  The Multi-Colour LED Light Bulb with Remote Control can display different colours with its 5W LED, which can be set using the remote control that also adjusts the brightness level and lets you select from a choice of 4 transition effects (flash, strobe, fade and smooth).  Think Geek has the following example of one of the uses for this light bulb.

Entertaining The Troops
Back in Episode 43, Dick told us that he received emails from listeners all over the world, including people serving in Iraq.  Here's one, if not from a soldier, then at least from a civilian in Iraq.  In Episode 694, Dick and Leo wondered if celebrities still go and entertain the troops for the USO.  Cory was in Baghdad, Iraq as a civilian from July 2006 to July 2007.  The answer is yes, and performers include WWE stars, cheer leading groups, Toby Keith, Kid Rock, and Carlos Mencia.

Dick and Leo wonder if the troops would like to see them demonstrating the use of the CartStopper (Episode 701).

Past Old
Henry Laporte thinks Leo is 20 years past old, and Dick thinks in that case it is appropriate that Leo should give Henry a piece of crap for Christmas.


Listen to Episode 704
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A portable and very affordable version of TomTom''s GPS devices, the TomTom One 3rd Edition has a 3.5" touchscreen LCD display, 1GB internal memory, lithium ion battery, and what Leo likes best is the offer of downloadable voices, including the Samantha voice, Dennis Hopper, Mr T, and user-created voices (like Glados of the Portal video game) - some of which have to be paid for.


The TomTom One 3rd edition also comes with a windscreen holder, a car charger and a USB cable.

From the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the Uganda University
Leo wants to include Dick in this business proposal from the Dean, Joseph Owor.  For Dick's share of email scams, see Episode 525.

And now, a Real Letter
Bill Burgar from the UK uses a DGW theme to create a playlist for every day of the week, and uses the playlist as his "alarm clock".  Sometimes Bill has to catch up with the DGW shows, and has listened to 16 in a row.  Not recommended for keeping your sanity.


Listen to Episode 702
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A heads-up from a listener, Charles from Berkeley, California.  No need to worry about your shopping cart with your child sitting in it rolling down the slope.  At one end of the CartStopper is a giant suction cup, connected to a bungee cord with a hook at the other end which you attach to the shopping cart.  The device is strong enough to hold in place a full shopping cart with a child in it.

Leo thinks the CartStopper might be another Purseguard (Episode 406).  That's not going to please Shopping Mom Dyanne who designed the device!

CES 2009 Preview
Dick was at the CES 2009 Preview last week.  CES has to hold a preview in order to announce the CES awards in January.

Busy Bee
Busy Bee Ludwik Trammer is at work again.  He has some ideas for Dick's site, and is going to show Dick on Go To Meeting.  By the way, Giz Wiz Search now has a new .com URL: www.gizwizsearch.com.

The Joy of Gadgets
The Kodak Disc Camera (Episode 690) brings back fond memories of a strong and vibrant company for Brent [Cascamenti] from Rochester, New York, who has been working for Kodak as an electrical engineer for 27 years.  Brent has been a faithful listener since Episode 1, and thanks Dick and Leo for bringing him the joy of gadgets.

Skunk Works
Brent uses the word "Skunk Works" in his letter, which Leo explains to Dick, with a little help from Wikipedia, first used by Lockheed Martin in 1938.  The name has its origin in Al Capp's comic strip L'il Abner.

Dick's Thanksgiving
No small talk for Dick's party at Thanksgiving, where his pineapple upside down cake is de rigueur (in addition to the gravy of course).  For more on Dick's Thanksgiving celebrations, go back to Episode 199.  Whenever Dick misses his Thanksgiving fare, he can go to "Good Enough To Eat", all year round.  This is also the restaurant Dick took Leo for a huge breakfast when Leo was in New York (listen to the beginning of Episode 334).

Ready for TTTT
Leo had numerous ideas for last week's TTTT (see Episode 697), but only after the recording had ended.  This time, he's ready.


Listen to Episode 701
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Today's gadget is also the What The Heck Is It gadget for September '08, which no one cracked, not even WTHII aficionado "Marked".  Made by Totes, maker of umbrellas, the Pocket Shave, when the cap was removed, revealed a razor that flipped up and out, and inside the cylinder was compressed shaving cream released by pressing a white button.  It was the size of a fat pen, and the cap even had a clip for your pocket.  A perfect travelling companion.  No sign of it now, but you can find an article on the New York Times still archived on their website.




A Poem for Dick's Gadget Warehouse
Ed Hansen from Rexton, Canada, long-time listener since Episode 1 (see his letter in Episode 204), has been inspired by the suggested name for Dick's mansion, "Wizneyland", to compose an opening poem for the Gadget Warehouse:


Wait For Dick
The phone rings for Dick, and Leo can't wait to play the Wait-for-Dick Jingle.

Parting With Junk
As may be expected, Dick is a real hoarder and has difficulty throwing out junk.  He tried disposing of the Atari Video Music (Episode 85), still in its sealed box, but in the end retrieved it from the trash bin.  Hence the Gadget Warehouse, where in some dark corner, there ought to be, in a little Kodak film canister, a bit of Bill Gaines, which Dick has yet to rediscover.  But Dick has unearthed an old Mad box with more original Match Game Cards from 1974 and 1975.  For more details, go to matchgamequestions.com.

Dick once even went to an Anti-Clutter Class.  You can hear the story in Episode 94.

Breaking Down Barriers
Tony Colonello, aka Kwai Nor or Kwai Naawy (little water buffalo) to his Thai wife, has been prompted by Episode 671 (the Mio Knight Rider GPS) to write about his own GPS.  The TomTom GO 720T not only has voice directions in Thai, but also can record any voice so that his wife can now nag him about his driving even when she's not in the car.

In support of the Daily Giz Wiz, he is now an Audible subscriber.  Being an Amazon Kindle (Episode 472) owner, he's got his wife to listen to Audible books on the Kindle, so she can learn English at the same time, breaking down cultural and language barriers.


Listen to Episode 680
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MyDash is an account you set up for yourself, using the Dash Device Number at the back of the Dash Express, which you can access from any computer.  You can pre-enter your destination, add any addional information you want (such as telephone number and other notes), and send the data to your Dash Express.  They also have a software plugin for web browsers and Microsoft Outlook called Send2Car (including support for Macs), which you install on your computer.  You right-click a destination and click Send2Car and the information will be verified and sent to your Dash Express.  Other features include Saved Searches, MyLists and MyFeeds to customise the information you want to access conveniently on the Dash Express and the way it is organised.

A further feature is the DashApps.  The Dash Express uses OpenMoKo's Neo open hardware platform, and it is open to third party applications which you can download on to the device, to add functionalities, such as accessing your calendar using funambol, finding out about speed traps via Trapster.

You get 3 months' free trial of MyDash, and thereafter, depending on the length of your commitment, the monthly charge ranges from $10 to $13 per month.  The monthly fee includes any Wifi and GPRS charges.  If you don't subscribe to the Dash Express service, the device continues to work as an ordinary GPS (and naturally without any updates).  Watch the video introduction of the Dash Express:


For another discussion of the Dash Express, by Leo and Jason Calacanis, listen to TWiT Episode 143 (starting at about 1 hour 5 minutes into the show).

DGW Gadget Costs
Ludwik Trammer, who created the Giz Wiz Search, was challenged by listener Jeff Royal to calculate the total cost for acquiring all the gadgets covered by DGW, in Episode 563.  Ludwik does not disappoint.  He's already posted a comment to the blog post for Episode 563.   He's also written to Leo about it, and did an mp3 voice mail.  The cost comes up to about $62,700.

Here's his letter to Leo:

Hi Leo,

Yesterday I've listened to Daily GizWiz 563 (I was a little behind, because I moved out of my parents' house, and moved in with my friends, so I have more of this thing called "social interactions").  Anyway, your listener Jeff asked about combined cost of all the gadgets you talked about on the podcast.  Obviously I'm not going to go through all the podcasts - I'm too lazy. But I asked my computer, and the answer, based on a sample of 200 gadgets is:

$110 per episode on average. And that gives you $62.700 for all 570 episodes.

I had names of the gadgets in my database already (from id3 tags), so I just run them throw Amazon products API and Yahoo Product Search API to get the prices.

Then, to verify that APIs responded with the right products I displayed product shots I got from APIs side-by-side photos Leo put in the mp3 files. After quickly scanning through all the pairs and ensuring the picture is the same product I calculated an average of the prices - $110 per one episode.

Ludwik

PS: I'm also sending you an mp3 with DGW letter in audio, but I don't really expect you to use it.  For one I have a new MacBook, and it turned out I can't plug my mini-jack mic into it, and I had to use built-in MacBook mic.  And my English really sucks, anyway.   After two or three years of listening to podcasts I understand English almost perfectly (at the beginning I didn't understand almost anything), but I struggle to find a way to learn to talk in English.  I recorded it mainly to practice.  The answer to Jeff's question starts at 01:00.

Synthesised Voice
Leo also plays part of Ludwik's voice mail on the show.  Leo thinks it's a computer-synthesised voice.  For the complete recording, listen to it here:



Listen to Episode 572
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