Category — GPS

I see tons of commercials, but I haven’t seen very many tv spots for hand held gps units. I’ve heard radio spots for On Star* systems that are built-in features for GM vehicles, but nothing specifically marketed for gps systems. I know they sell tons of these gadgets, but I feel the public has no conception of the difference between a garmin 72 gps and a Magellan model. I certainly don’t. I wonder why they haven’t really attacked the tv market.

At least, GM is trying to raise awareness. They come off sounding like car gps helps you stay safe. Here’s cool one featuring Batman.

I noticed the other day on HBO that they brought back “Taxi Cab Confessions”. That show is so engaging. I love hearing their random weird stories. This episode had some preppy guy who was just back from the Outback. He was telling stories about how he lived with some tribe for several months. And he gave all these details about how he had sex with a bunch of wild women. He tried to explain how more casual it was over there and that it was just another life function like eating or sleeping. The cabbie kept egging the customer on trying to get more details. But how random is that? Some guy just starts going off on a tangent about his sexual escapades in the outback. What luck they have sometimes.

While watching this show, I wondered where in fact were they driving to and whether the producers follow them with some sort of gps review screen. Do they have a really high tech system in place like a garmin etrex legend gps unit? That way they’d never lose the driver. Or do they crazily let the driver film the subject completely alone? What if someone flips out and finds the camera? They would never show those episodes I bet.

Suffice it to say, I was not thrilled with the Spider-man franchise based on the last two films. But a friend talked me into seeing the new film. I tried to go in with an open mind, almost with some sort of expectation. I thought it would be at least watchable. I really liked the idea of Venom as a villain, despite Topher Grace’s horrible dye job. The whole parasite/alien host thing is kinda scary. And there was potential here for the film to go darker, instead being chocked full of cheesy dialogue like in the other films. Plus, Thomas Haden Church is a great comedic actor, so I was curious to see him out of his element.

Let me tell ya, this movie was boring and every character freaking cried! Check out Pajiba for better plot ideas (esp. from Pyd). I don’t know who approved this script, but it really takes the cake. One villain is dispatched (temporarily), then another one magically pops up. Can’t Spider-man at least dispatch one villain for reals?

I felt like the screenwriters needed some sort of gps locator to figure out where this story was supposed to go next. It’s like they couldn’t decide whether to go darker (i.e. left) or cheesier (i.e. right). And Kirsten Drunkst sings! Three times!!! This comic wasn’t written to become some cheap musical.

I did like Venom, but when Tobey Maguire turned into his alter-ego, he was the spitting image of Bright Eyes. I mean, he did have eyeliner on for crisssakes. And what was with James Franco’s weird dialogue and smirking. I didn’t know whether we were supposed be afraid or laugh during several scenes. They tried to do too much in one movie. Didn’t you learn anything from Pirates 2? I guess they did, America will pay to watch anything. 148 million in 3 days. I still can’t believe it.

As I watched Beverly Hills Cop, I notice how all the action was either shown with a car chase or a gunfight. The cars seemed so outdated too. And how the hell did these bad guys keep getting away despite having over 12 cop cars chasing them. Another weird thing was watching them use of police radios, instead of cell phones. Cell phones and similar tech are so commonplace now (it seems almost overnight).

I laughed during the scene where the police switchboard was trying to track down Axel Foley & Rosewood (Eddie Murphy & Judge Reinhold). They used some crude gps units to find the warehouse. I think it was some sort of tracking device in the cop car. They got the location and sent in reinforcements. Pretty high tech for 1984, but to now it seems obvious to just track them using a cell phone frequency. With “CSI” and other tv shows, all the technology in this movie seems silly. But I still love it. Eddie cracks me up every time with his observations on Beverly Hills culture.

A couple of weeks ago, my friends from Texas came out for Coachella. They take it very seriously and even rented a mini van to drive out to the desert, equipped with a car gps. He thought that was an added bonus to his rental package, turns out he was mistaken. The streetpilot only gave him directions using surface streets, all 200 miles to Palm Springs! He ended up driving through Inglewood, Compton, Baldwin Park and various LA suburbs to make his way to the freeway.

Instead of giving him the simplest route, it only directed him to the next turn without giving him any context. He had no idea where this gadget was taking him! I think it would have been hilarious to put a spy camera in the van to record his frustration. Probably wouldn’t be the best publicity for Garmin, but I’m sure people could relate.