Handhelds
Vexia Econav 435 and 355 tested: Saving you petrol, in theory at least
It's been a long time since anything new happened in the world of sat-navs, but finally the day has arrived we can report on something different.
Spanish company Vexia is bringing its range of Econavs to our shores. The twist is that the sat-nav gives you advice on the most economical way to drive, telling you which gear you should be in and whether you're accelerating too quickly. Continue reading...
Homer Simpson voice on TomTom sat-navs: About to hit a chestnut tree?
Homer Simpson has joined the ranks of Mr T and John Cleese as a downloadable custom voice for TomTom portable navigation devices. Fans of The Simpsons can now listen to Homer 'woohoo' and 'd'oh!' his way through their turn-by-turn directions.
Along the way, Homer adds his own commentary such as: 'Take the third right. We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm... ice cream.' We hope, however, that the voice won't be causing drivers to career into any chestnut trees.
The Homer Simpson voice was recorded by Dan Castellaneta, the same voice actor from the television show, and is available for download using the TomTom Home software suite for €9.95 (£8.50). Continue reading...
Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 hands-on
As we were being kicked out of Mobile World Congress for the day, we legged it to the Garmin-Asus stand and had a quick play with one of the brand-new sat-nav handsets from the joint venture between PC maker Asus and GPS specialist Garmin, the G60.
We wrote about the quad-band G60's announcement last week, and feared it would be a chunky mother lover. Which it is. But it actually felt smashing, and for a resistive touchscreen handset, it was more responsive than we were expecting, even with our meaty man fingers. The screen itself has a matte finish, rather than the usual gloss we see on resistive screens.
Continue reading...
BBC iPlayer goes mobile: Which player is best? 
First it was available only to Windows users. Then it adopted Adobe Flash and opened up its streaming walls to Mac and Linux. Now, the BBC's iPlayer is available not only on all desktops, but on the iPhone, and now a plethora of mobile devices that support Windows Media DRM.
We've got almost all the devices the iPlayer is compatible with in our capacious desk drawers, so we thought it'd be awfully charitable of us to load up some BBC content and take our favourite players for a spin. Continue reading...
Seismometer and Movies: Our favourite new iPhone apps
We've been perusing the iTunes App Store this weekend for some new nonsense to fill up our iPhones, and we've found some killer apps no iPhone or iPod touch should be without.
Movies
This is a free app from Flixster that every movie fan should install.
It gives one-touch access to all the latest movies at the box office
and on DVD, over 10,000 high-quality movie trailers, movie, actor and
director info, plus links to IMDB listings of every movie.
Continue reading...
Photos: Hands-on with the GPS-enabled iRiver M3
Back in April, Archos broke the PMP mould by announcing a GPS add-on to its popular range of Generation 6 video players. At the time we were all like 'omg lol wtf?', but now iRiver -- the Korean clan responsible for the Spinn and Clix -- is making a GPS-enabled MP3 player, the iRiver M3. And believe it or, it's just for us Europeans -- it's not even coming out in iRiver's home country.
We got to play with the new device at IFA last week. It's styled like a very traditional car-based GPS system, with a Spinn-like GUI powered by a responsive 89mm (3.5-inch) touch-sensitive screen. Continue reading...
Mio Knight Rider sat-nav hands-on video 
This past weekend word leaked out that Mio had a Knight Rider-themed sat-nav in the works, and now we can officially say that it's real. The Knight Rider GPS will indeed feature the voice of William Daniels (aka KITT), and there will be a database of names so you can customise the device to have KITT personally greet and talk to you (provided that your name is included). Watch video...
Socket SoMo 650-M: PDAs aren't dead
No, you haven't travelled back in time: this is a PDA. It might not do futuristic things like make phone calls, send text messages or take pictures, but if you're not bothered by those fancy features then this might be right up your street. It's called the Socket SoMo 650-M and costs around £450 -- which we think is ridiculous.
Aimed at the service industry, this rugged PDA looks retro but it's extremely sturdy and boasts a large touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Intel processor running at 624MHz, an SD and CF slot with the option to add barcode scanners for when you fancy scanning all the tins in your cupboard. Continue reading...
Binatone Carrera X350: Zebra-print sat-nav for £80
Let's get the most important fact about the Binatone Carrera X350 out of the way. It's available with a zebra-print fascia. If you need more information on this bargain- basement sat-nav we'd be very surprised. But what follows are the non-zebra print details about this £80 GPS device.
For your 80 squids you get an 89mm (3.5-inch) screen, which is capable of directing you to your destination in a 3D or 2D manner, should you have an aversion to the third dimension. There's also spoken navigation available, with turn-by-turn instructions. You also get told where the government is keeping its little road-side piggy banks speed cameras, so you can ensure you're sticking to the speed limit.
Continue reading...
Crave TV: London black cab races sat-nav
Ever wondered how well a cutting edge sat-nav would perform against a seasoned black cab driver with the Knowledge? We challenged experienced cabbie Steve McNamara to a race along the winding streets of London town to find out. Watch video...
