You know what would be worse than getting lost by following your satnav’s directions too literally? If the satnav spoke with your voice as it told you to drive off the side of an overpass onto the road below. And now it can do just that, thanks to Garmin’s Voice Studio software
Available as a free download for PCs, Voice Studio lets you record a few dozen phrases (best done using an external microphone), then edit them to copy over to your nüvi satnav. Apparently the entire process takes about 30 minutes.
Of course, it doesn’t work with text-to-speech, so you won’t get street names read aloud as you drive. But as a free way to listen to yourself get lost it’s a pretty unique solution.
Glenn Fairbairn
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 3:08 PMBetter yet, record your voice on someone else’s, but reverse the directions.
Ivan
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 10:57 PMGreat idea! Or you could record a sultry female voice on your friend’s Garmin, and get her to say all sorts of things like:
“Mmmmm, time to turn left now you sexy thing you.”
“I hope that raging boner you seem to be sporting wont stop you making a right turn in 50 meters.”
“You have arrived at your Destination, Nick. When are you going to dump your wife and run off with me instead?”
Or just replace one or two seldom used messages with things like:
“OH DEAR LORD! YOU JUST RAN OVER A CAT!”
“Man, it stinks in here. What did you have for dinner?”
“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
If you have a Garmin, and untrustworthy friends, it may be a good idea to use a PIN number (assuming Garmins have them) even if you don’t plan to use this feature yourself.