How a Tom Tom will improve your life

Your Easy Articles Belong Here...

You Are Here:

Word Count: 537 || Total views: 23

Article

How a Tom Tom will improve your life

Until a few weeks ago, I'd never heard of Tom Toms. I've recently moved, and a visiting friend told me she'd got there by following the directions from her new Tom Tom. I asked whether she'd taken up drumming and the drums had started talking to her. However, she looked at me incredulously at my lack of knowledge, and told me they were the most popular form of Sat. Nav.

Sat. Nav. is not something that's ever appealed to me. Whenever I want to go anywhere, I look it up on the map. Recently, I've started using journey planners, but I still look at the map. Sat. Navs seem lazy to me, another unnecessary reliance on technology.

However, like any good advertising campaign, the name stuck with me, and a few days later I ended up looking it up. Browsing online shopping sites, I realised that not only do Tom Toms work in cars, but you can get them for motorbikes, PDAs and mobile phones.

However, none of this information has answered the question that's been really bugging me ever since I first heard the word � why are they called Tom Toms? After trawling through online shopping sites, I came across the official website, and I've discovered there is some link with my initial reaction � drumming. There is the tenuous link that only advertisers can imagine of a computer system being linked to signaling and communication (the original form of this kind of drumming).

I've always had a slight paranoia about what I know know are called TomTom Rider. The idea of having a device that constantly tracks my location in my car freaks me out. However, I know this is exactly what I have with my mobile phone. And I guess, the same way I can leave my phone at home, I could leave my Tom Tom at home. For some bizarre reason, it is easy to forget these devices are not attached to us like some weird symbiont.

I also think I like the element of adventure involved in finding my way to new and exotic locations. Well, the exotic might be a bit far fetched, as the last two long distance places I've tried to find are friend's houses in suburban Cardiff and London. However, even today, dropping off a form to a friend, I enjoyed finding the right road, and the right green gate without technological assistance.

Having said this, it is not always that easy, and invariably I get lost and end up pulling my hair out in desperation as I've made yet another wrong turning. I've also discovered, since perusing the web, that Tom Toms can tell you where speed cameras are located. Given I'm one speeding offence off losing my license, this might be a godsend.

So, next time I'm pulling up every five minutes to read the map, shouting and swearing, and getting hot and bothered, could someone remind me that maybe having a device in the car telling me where to go might be a really good idea.