Gadling Gear: A review of the TomTom XL330S

by Grant Martin on

TomTom just released their new XL330S model, and this lucky blogger was able to get his hands on one for a test drive.

I’ll preface this article with the following disclaimer: I’ve never been fond of automotive GPS units. I think that while useful to many drivers, they can also have the adverse effect of preventing the driver from learning routes, a city’s layout and beautiful niches of the city that go unnoticed unless you’re really focused on the outside.

But I agreed to do this review, partially because I wanted to disprove this theory to myself and partially because these new TomToms are just so damn cool.

Despite my unit being programmed in Estonian when it came from the TomTom PR factory, it was fairly simple to boot up and configure. It asked me to set up my preferences, including style of map, voices and other tidbits, then immediately dumped me into a map showing my location under an arrow. All I had to do to power the unit was plug it into the cigarette lighter with the supplied cable. Similarly, hooking the unit up to my computer used the same mini USB jack and didn’t need any drivers.

Being a chronic avoider of instruction manuals, I figured I would first just wing the programming of my office into the system – and I was right, navigating was easy. Tap the map with your finger, tap “navigate to”, select your city, then punch in your the street and number. It’s a completely linear interface that cuts down on superfluous buttons and options and is incredibly easy to use.
You can get traffic data with the XL330S as well, although it’s a service that you have to subscribe to online.

Naturally, I decided to download some customized voices to give me directions. After a quick look at the pay-per downloads on the TomTom website, I googled “TomTom voice downloads” and found a database of free content, including Sean Connery, Patrick Steward (from Star Trek, The Next Generation, John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) and Dr. Evil. Installing the voices was as easy as plugging in the unit to my laptop then dragging sound files over to the voice directory.

This would later haunt me on a train between Providence and Boston, where I booted up the GPS to check our location and was greeted with Captain Picard from the Enterprise shouting “YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION, INITIATE DOCKING PROCEDURE.” Awkward. I should also point out that if you want a celebrity voice, you’re not going to be able to get them to pronounce the street names (text-to-speech), so it may not be worth your time.

House hunting with my girlfriend in Boston this weekend, I put the XL330s (the “s” stands for text-to speech capability) to it’s first real test. The first thing I did with my new demonstration TomTom was drop it four feet onto an asphalt surface. Durability? Check. Still running.

At the time, I was late for my train, we were in Cambridge and we needed to get to the South Station quickly. I tapped “navigate to” + “points of interest” in the railway section, and scrolled down for “South Station”. Not there. Luckily we had a map that showed the intersections of the streets, so I plugged in “Atlantic” and “Summer” streets and the TomTom calculated our journey there.

As I would soon find out, however, much of Boston’s highway system is underground where satellite signals can’t reach. So while the TomTom could lead us towards the Big Dig, we were blind while underground. Furthermore, it takes a few moments to acquire a signal once you’re above ground, so if you exit quickly and need to make a quick turn, you don’t get directions for 20 or 30 seconds.

This isn’t a problem with TomTom though; until they create satellite signals that can penetrate through 40 feet of soil and cement, all GPS units will lose signal underground.

For what it’s worth, navigation in my home town of Ann Arbor has been fluid and easy, although I spend a surprising amount of brainpower on the device. I’ve never been a great multi tasker, so when the GPS is babbling, a friend is in the car and NPR is on the radio, two of the three are going to get tuned out.

Overall? I think it’s a nifty, well-designed little device. I like its battery life, slim design and ability to call streets out to me on the road. I also like how simple both the hardware and software are – easy enough for your grandmother to use but with enough options to make a metallurgical engineer think. Would I buy one? If I was in the market for a GPS, sure thing. But I’m going to stick to my analog maps for now.

Check out TomTom’s product website for full specifications and purchasing options.

The toughest digital camera on the market?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

I’ve seen many a digital camera die a slow and painful death while on the road. Sand that got caught in the lens mechanism. LCD screens cracked by bumper-car-joyrides. Accidental drops on unforgiving pavement. Not to mention those of us who abuse our cameras in adverse situations involving water, dust and extremes of temperature.

For anyone who’s ever risked their digital to get a great shot but lost a nice camera in the process, I recommend checking out the Olympus Stylus 1030SW. According to the reviews I’ve found at Travel Gear Blog, as well as on CNET, the 1030W is one of the sturdiest cameras on the market. In addition to being waterproof and dustproof, the Olympus is also shockproof, crushproof and freezeproof down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

How durable is that exactly? According to specs, you can drop it from up to 6.6 feet and crush it with up to 220 pounds of pressure. While the 1030 SW can’t match the optics of some of the top-of-the-line point-and-shoots out there, it does offer a solid 10.1 megapixels and the standard digital camera features like panorama stitching and image stabilization we’ve come to expect from most consumer point-and-shoots these days.

All you skiiers, snorkelers and adventure-travelers take note. Although there are better cameras on the market for image quality, this Olympus packs some great features into a highly durable package. Sometimes avoiding the aggravation of a ruined camera is worth that small sacrifice in functionality.

Gadling flies Virgin America

by Grant Martin on

So what’s the big deal with this Virgin America that you’ve been yammering on and on about Grant? Are they secretly paying you money under the table to write good things about them?

No, they’re not, and even though I keep asking for free plane tickets (and none have showed up), the fact of the matter is, however, it’s a very different experience than flying a legacy carrier across the country, from in-flight service to entertainment to general ambiance.

Before I get into the details though, I will tell you this: flying still sucks. I have yet to find an economy class service on any airline in the world that is a true pleasure to fly on – you just can’t operate a competitive airline and make everyone comfortable and happy at the same time while remaining profitable. The whole idea of making a coach-class experience better basically has to do with making it suck less — you’re still crammed three people across in seats-too-small with no legroom. What Virgin America has done is made enough distractions so that you temporarily forget about it.

And they do a great job at that. On the jetway, you’re first offered free headseats to plug into VA’s special Red entertainment system. It’s a standard minijack with fairly weak speakers, so you can bring your own set if you want. Once you get on the airplane, you’ll obviously notice the purple, blue and pink ambient lighting which makes the airplane strangely calm. Seats are made of new leather material with plastic backs into which the Red system is integrated. With about 32″ of seat pitch, your space is about on par with other carriers, while the 17.2″ width is slightly wider than the norm.

In flight services start immediately, so once you plop down in your seat you can fire up some Food Network and watch the new hip chef with spiky hair cook octopus stomach while other passengers shuffle past you and cram their luggage-too-large into the overhead compartments.
After pushback and a cleverly animated safety video, you’ll spend about twenty minutes dinking around with Red, perusing your options and trying to get your friends to chat with you via the video system because you’re too afraid to invite the girl in the seat in front of you. Then you’ll probably scroll through the ten pages of pay and free movies and settle on a free flick for the next few hours of bliss. Or maybe you’ll dip your credit card (in-seat) and purchase a premium new release or order a sandwich and bevvy.

Flight attendants don’t roam up and down the aisles with carts per se. Since you order anything you want off of your entertainment system, they sit in back, download your order and come straight to your seat with whatever you want. This clears up space to walk around the cabin if you aren’t glued to your seatback.

And then before you know it, your flight will be over, and you’ll rub your neck, suddenly noticing that you had it cocked all funny because the girl in front of you kept her seat reclined the entire time. Stretching, you’ll swap notes with all of your friends on what movies you watched, agree that it was a pretty sweet flight and head out into the warm streets of San Francisco.

How big of a difference does an in-flight entertainment system make? Consider the effect of adding a fully interactive environment into the back of every seat. You aren’t forced to watch cheesy chick flicks from the nineties. You have options and the system gives back. Children automatically tune into the LCDs and suddenly start to behave. Aisleway traffic goes down because people aren’t wandering around talking or going to the galley for beverages (you order them from your seat). Nobody really makes much noise because they’re locked into their televisions, so the cabin adopts a silent, mood-lit atmosphere. It’s actually quite pleasant.

As I look back down the aisle of the major-carrier A320-SR that I’m currently on, I see six people in the aisle fighting to get around a flight attendant while some are standing talking to friends in other regions of the aircraft. The hot latin guy in 4C is chortling with the young woman next to him and everyone within a two seat radius keeps glaring at them. It’s a stark contrast to what I flew on VA earlier this week.

For now, Virgin America’s modus operandi seems to be working. Everyone I’ve spoken to that has flown on VA has emerged with glowing reviews and I have to admit, on service alone the airline scores high marks. Add an outstanding in flight entertainment system, new aircraft, strong financial backing and a fresh approach to airline travel and you’ve got a winning combination.

Gadling Reviews: “The Smart Traveler’s Passport: 399 Tips from Seasoned Travelers”

by Willy Volk on

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Budget Travel had published The Smart Traveler’s Passport, a nifty compendium of 399 tips concerning the art of travel. Interestingly, each and every one of the tips was provided by the readers of Budget Travel. I was curious to see what ideas “non-professional” travelers could generate and if those ideas would be applicable to my life. To that end, I recently got my hands on this idea-filled book.

Each tip in this book is a clever, practical nugget that helped someone along the way. Some of the tips made me think, “Brilliant” (e.g., use a small piece of painter’s tape to protect the lens of a disposable camera while hiking, page 211). Others made me say, “Huh?” (e.g., pack non-skid bath mats to prevent falling in the shower, page 118). Though I’m pretty sure I’m never going to pack tub mats in my luggage*, I’m confident that one man’s “Huh?” tip is another man’s “Brilliant!” tip.

Moreover, even if I toss out this one tip, there are still at least 398 other useful tips in the book.

Designed to resemble a US passport…

…the 224-page is, nevertheless, much thicker than a regular US passport.

Simply by looking at the table of contents, you’ll immediately notice that The Smart Traveler is NOT a destination guide. While some of the tips are location specific, the bulk of the tips are provided to make you travel smarter, cheaper, and more comfortably — to anywhere.

In short, The Smart Traveler’s passport is a tool to help you think systematically and creatively about trip-taking. Each page has one or two travel tips on it that relates to the chapter at hand. There are no pictures, no ads, and no clutter to distract you from what you want: simple, practical advice on how to get the most out of a trip.

A few of the tips I found useful are:
  • Use laminated city maps, so you can mark your destinations at the beginning of the day and erase them at night (page 158).
  • While flying, a partially inflated beach ball can function as a footrest, back support, or a table for your book (page 90).
  • Don’t save the activity you’re most eager to do for the last day; weather or other forces could make you have to cancel it (page 187).

There are a number of things I really like about this book.

  • It’s clearly organized. I like that it’s laid out simply, one tip at a time. There’s plenty of room in the margins to jot notes to yourself, or to edit the tips with your own variation(s).
  • The advice is practical. It doesn’t focus on expensive or lengthy round-the-world trips that most people don’t take advantage of. Rather, the tips are for “real people” taking “real vacations.”
  • The tips are creative. While I’ve used dental floss on a trip to sew some ripped shorts, I never thought to use it as a ruler. Excellent idea.
  • Many of the tips are applicable to different kinds of trips. You could use this book as a resource when preparing for an across-the-state road trip just as easily as you could use it for that around-the-world adventure you’ve finally gotten around to. Business travelers could benefit from the book, too. I’d suggest looking through the book a week before a road trip and as much as a month before an international trip.
  • Finally, I love that this book “democratizes” travel books. While I support — and regularly depend on — expert guides, I’m delighted by the fact that this book has been made by real people. In other words, it shows that travel isn’t something to fear. Rather, travel is something to relish, think positively about, and have fun with.

The back of the book lists the price as $15, and I definitely think it’s worth that much. However, you can find the book online for as little as $10, which I would consider money well spent.

Have fun! And smart traveling!

* Now that I’ve bashed this tip, I’ll almost certainly wish I’d packed tub mats on the next trip I take.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of December 10

by Adrienne Wilson on

Ready for another week in review at Gadling? If you missed some of this week’s goodies I won’t keep you waiting a minute longer. Just sit back, chill out and catch up.

5. Driving a Piece of East German History:
In this fine piece, David Luna points us to a tour company called Trabi Safari. The tours are pretty much “do-it-yourself” style, but what’s cool about driving the Trabant around Berlin to Dresden is that the car is a work of art meaning it rides more like a riding lawn mower. What’s cooler than any of that is David Luna being the newest member of the Gadling team. Go over, take a read and send David some love.

4. Traveling with Co-Workers: An Obsession with Steak Tartare:
For those who don’t already know I’m on the road traveling for work and an enormous portion of my time is spent with my one and only co-worker. To keep it short and sweet things ain’t so sweet… They are rather tart or is that tartare, as in steak tartare. I don’t want to hear anymore about steak tartare. Please.

3. No Surf in Cleveland? Sure, There is!:
Here is a plug from Iva that caught me completely off-guard, but then again I don’t surf. Cleveland (yes, Cleveland, Ohio) appears to be a rather gnarly place to hang ten. Don’t listen to me though read what Iva has to say along with the NY Times where the article was originally found.

2. Getting Out of Quicksand:
While it is not too common that you’ll run across quicksand in your travels should you stumble, trip, fall and start sinking away to your untimely death you may wish to know a little something-something on how to escape. Again, it isn’t very likely, but check out some of Erik’s own quicksand musings and then read the tips.

1. Hot Icelandic Blondes?:
Stop the stereotyping people! Not every Icelandic woman is blonde and not all of them are hot and according to Neil who found this awesome culture read in the Iceland Review the author of the piece is both, but still she is annoyed with the stereotype. Hey I OVERstand. Whether it is good or bad, stereotyping isn’t the right thing to do. We’re all different! Now, off my soap box I go and on you go to read the piece.