Technoglam

TomTom release White Pearl special edition SatNav

I must confess that I find this special edition TomTom rather attractive. It's been touched up with a white pearlescent design with a subtle 'swirl' pattern which should appeal to the ladies who like a fun finish but don't find any appeal in the pink tech route.

It's based on the ONE IQ routes edition and has some useful new features including 'Places to be seen' and 'Shop 'til you drop' with POIs of everything from restaurants and bars to cafes, cinemas, theatres, fashion and home furnighing stores.

Like all TomTom devices, operation is super easy with a 'plug-in and go' set-up. It comes in a silk drawstring pouch and will be out this month at Amazon for around £179.99.

 

Aldi to stock affordable Medion SatNav

Is there nothing you can't pick up with your weekly shop these days? Aldi will start stocking the £129.99 Medion GoPal E3230 Satnav from Sunday 29th March. It has a 3.5" TFT touchscreen, 2GB memory with 23 Western European maps including points of interest, speed limit advisor and safetey camera warnings, 2D and 3D displays, free lifetime TMC traffic updates and a three year warranty which all makes it quite an attractive budget model.

If you're heading out to mainland Europe, there are pre-loaded Berlitz city travel guides for where to go, what to see and where to eat.

Medion.

Stars in your car - TomTom offers Brad, Sean, Kylie and Claudia voices

I'm rather fond of my TomTom and whilst the generic female voice is perfectly fine, I'm certainly interested to hear that TomTom is offering four of their 'most desirable' voices free for download with all purchases made between 7th and 21st February 2009. There's a downside though. Whilst Brad, Sean, Kylie and Claudia might evoke ideas of famous stars, they are in fact soundalikes which makes it slightly less interesting.

View and buy all TomTom SatNavs from Halfords, Comet, Currys.Digital, Amazon, John Lewis and all good electrical retailers. Prices vary depending on model and stockist.

CES 2009: Track your kids with a Nu.M8 GPS locator watch

Just about every parent I know feels some fear when their kids go off alone but does that mean we should take to tracking them with a Nu.M8 GPS locator watch?

The watch, made by Lok8u is designed to be worn by children with a GPS device inside. Parents can see their kid's location by texting a message from a mobile phone or PC to a secure website and seeing the location with address and postcode on Google Maps and also set up a virtual 'safety zone' that signals parents when kids have left a certain specified area.

The problem is that it is the watch that is actually being tracked though the website states the watch "cannot be removed or deactivated without your knowledge." Sure, there is an automatic alarm if it is forcibly removed but what good is that if the kid voluntarily takes it off and leaves it somewhere? I think the idea is a good one - it's designed to give children freedom - something certainly in decline - and parents some peace of mind and the design is quite attractive (I hope to see more styles and colours to appeal to a broader range of children) but I just wonder if it is playing on our fears too much? The watch launches at this week's CES with a price tag around £149.99 and a monthly subscription fee of £9.99. Would you consider something like this for your child?

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