Look Beyond

The Talking Tour Car

Last weekend, we were strolling down a busy street in Barcelona when suddenly an odd looking bright yellow open-top vehicle past us with its high pitched moped engine in full verse.  Tattooed across its side were the words ‘The Talking Tour Car’ - that was it, we were hooked!

Back at the hotel we found GoCar via the web and soon discovered how clever this innovation is.  GoCar have created a fun looking 3 wheeler and loaded it with advanced GPS navigation capabilities to not only guide you round the city but also highlight points of interest along the way, just like a personal tour guide.

All you have to do is turn the key, listen and drive where your virtual guide directs you.  You can stop where you please and even turn off route - unlike rigid group tours.  GoCar is also way more fun than renting a car for a city tour.  The only surprise is that it’s not battery powered.

Having booked our GoCar we were within minutes ready to take to the busy streets of Barcelona.   The GoCar was very easy to drive – its controls originate from a moped and the GPS took away the pain of driving on unfamiliar roads.  Our virtual navigator (no name!) gave clear directions, pointing to the various sites and giving us the city's history - topped with quirky, humerous interjections! 

GoCar charge by the hour and offer two different tours of the city.  Disclosure - we took up GoCar’s promotional offer of the first two hours free in return for a writing a review of our experience.

The only navigational problems surfaced whilst up on Montjuic - as we approached a roundabout we were not given instructions as to where to exit - so, unknowingly we took a wrong exit and were left to find our own way back onto the set tour – the navigator doesn’t say much when you go off course to re-direct you back to the guided tour - a minor irritant.  We were also directed to Montjuic’s peak only to discover the road was closed which meant we had to improvise!

But these little problems aside, this is a fantastic combination of technology and one which could revolutionise city touring. It was an exhilarating afternoon out and we discovered places we would not have seen otherwise.  And it was as much about the experience as it was about sightseeing. 

So if you’re visiting Barcelona, or the other cities in which they operate – Lisbon, Miami, San Diego and San Francisco – this is a really fun way to discover the city and highly recommended.

Virgin's "On the Move" Mobile TV

Earlier this summer, Virgin Mobile announced plans to pilot live mobile digital television in the London area.

I got to take a look for myself last night as one of my friends has been asked to participate in a three month trial.  He's been given a Windows-based QTek 8020 smartphone with the capability to receive live TV from Sky News and Sky Sports News as well as 50+ radio channels. 

The system works by broadcasting over the DAB digital radio network and the quality appeared fairly good given the resolution of the phone's screen and its small display, although I did notice the image freeze occasionally.

This service is not designed for hours of continuous use given the limitations of a mobile's screen size, but it enables people to watch snippets of programmes, perhaps when running late home to watch the start of a live football match, or to see the latest weather report.  According to Virgin's press release, they also plan to eventually let customers record programmes for future viewing.

There's no doubting this service warrants entry into the Gadget of the Month (GotM) competition - see the beginning of my prior post for an overview of GotM - not least as my friend has been one of only around 1,000 people trialling the service before it launches.

Gadget of the Month (GotM)

A few of my friends and I are gadget obsessed and like to out-do each other – in fact we have what has become known as the “gadget of the month" (GotM) competition, although it’s neither held monthly nor a competition!! When any of us acquires a new gadget, we email each other in anticipation of adulation, but more often than not jealousy prevails and there is only grudging acceptance of the worthiness of being awarded “gadget of the month”, or GotM!

These gadgets can take the form of high-tech hardware, software or some other device.  Some gadgets are completely impractical and useless like the and end up gathering dust in a cupboard.  In other words, unworthy nominations to gadget of the month.

Others such as FileBox eXtender (quickly navigate Windows file directories), Anagram (semi-automated capture of contact or calendar details for Outlook) or Orange's SPV C500 mobile (soon to be replaced by the SPV C600) have real practical use, providing productivity or functional gains.

Periodically, I will share the worthy entries to our gadget of the month competition - and I know myself and my friends welcome your own personal entries too!

So having given you a teaser, onto my latest gadget of the month nomination...

I have a large music collection, numbering 500+ CDs most of which I have ripped to iTunes which allowed me to take my music collection to the US where I spent much of the last year.  Now back in the UK, I find myself listening to music in my office on my laptop and have grown quite fond of iTunes' Party Shuffle feature which really invigorated my collection.  But the only way to use this Party Shuffle feature on my hi-fi was to hook up my laptop via an audio cable to the amplifier.  A pretty impractical solution for me and in my thirst for a neater technical solution I started to research possible gadgets which might meet the challenge...

There are a number of solutions enabling music to be played via a PC over a wireless network - all of them have pros and cons.  The primary con currently is that no solution plays songs downloaded from any digital music store, thus restricting your choice of online music supplier.  As a consequence, I plumped for the cheap but smart option of Apple's Airport Express with Airtunes.  Costing £90, it has no remote control or display but integrates seamlessly with iTunes.  It also doubles as a wireless router in its own right (useful for when travelling) and supports wireless printing.

As with all Apple products, it comes impeccably packaged.  However, the instructions are brief to say the least and initially I had problems getting the Airport to connect to my Netgear wireless router.  Taking a look on the web, it seemed a number of people had suffered from similar problems and after a couple of hours I was resigned to taking the device back to the store.  As a last resort, I called Apple's technical support and was at first told it was very difficult to connect the Airport to a different manufacturer's wireless router.  I was amazed this would be the case, especially given the advice in-store and information on the packaging.  The support consultant redeemed himself when he advised that a newer version of the administration software was available on Apple's website.  Having installed this updated software, I had the Airport attached to my network in minutes and music pumping from my B&W speakers - music to my ears!

Despite the initial teething problems, a worthy entry to "gadget of the month" and one I'd recommend to every music lover!