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RoadTour GPS Tour Guide Launched

 
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Darren
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Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40
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Location: Hampshire, UK

PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:10 am    Post subject: RoadTour GPS Tour Guide Launched Reply with quote

pocketgpsworld.comA new SatNav tour guide that alerts motorists to Britain’s greatest historical sites as they drive near has just been launched. The RoadTour software works with Garmin and GPS equipped Windows Mobile devices to trigger audio commentary and pictures of 600 key attractions, including castles, stately homes and battlefields.

As cars approach places of historical interest throughout the UK it delivers information narrated by a friendly female voice and means you will no longer remain oblivious to the cultural treasures around you as you traverseBritain’s roads.

The guide is launched today, as new research shows that a quarter of people think Leeds Castle is in Yorkshire, rather than Kent, one in ten that the Romans built the A1 and 10 per cent of 18-24-year-olds that Stonehenge is in Norfolk. A further 38 per cent of all those questioned by YouGov believe that Hadrians Wall is in Scotland, not England.

Five years in the making, this invention fulfils creator Daniel Taylor’s passion for history and his desire to help Britons use technology to get the most out of our heritage.

Quote:
“Restoring our knowledge and understanding of the history of this amazing country is what this product is about,” said Daniel, managing director of RoadTour. “A friendly reminder, which tempts us into exploring our heritage as we’re driving up the M40 or wherever, seems to me to be altogether a good thing."


Examples of the commentary include this snippet about Charlecote Park, near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire:

“It is easy to believe the stories of a young William Shakespeare poaching deer at Charlecote Park. It is reputed that he was given a beating by Sir Thomas Lucy - in return for which Shakespeare ruthlessly mocked Sir Thomas in a satirical verse which he stuck on the landowner’s gate.

This time coincides with a ten year period in which Shakespeare made a mysterious disappearance only to re-emerge 10 years later in London.”


Noting that the gardens at Bowood House, Wiltshire, were designed by the eminent eighteenth century landscaper Capability Brown, the guide says:

“So determined was he to create a grand design for the Wiltshire countryside surrounding this stately home, that he submerged a village in the process.

He created the centrepiece, a 45-acre lake, by damming a nearby stream and flooding a village called Manning’s Hill. The story goes that he simply had the buildings taken apart and the inhabitants re-housed elsewhere.”


Daniel hit on the idea for RoadTour five years ago while walking round the Roman baths in Bath with his wife. “We were listening to one of those walk-around hand-held audio guides which really bring the history to life and I got so absorbed that I very nearly walked away with it,” he said. “I felt truly inspired and began wondering about other heritage attractions nearby.”

For more information visit the RoadTour website at www.roadtour.co.uk. We hope to be reviewing this software in due course.
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AndrewRH
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Joined: Dec 19, 2007
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought RoadTour's Heritage sites guide along with their pubs guide.

The pubs guide shows up on my Garmin Nüvi 670 in the "Extras" list as "RoadTour Pubs & Inns 2007".

The Heritage guide is there too but buried one more level deeper: its inside the "Custom POIs" folder.

It is nice to have a story behind a heritage location - they are written well (some are like short stories!) and the lady's voice is plesant to listen to.

The pubs guide lacks the audio commentary - but each pub/inn listing includes a very detailed description. Many (all?) of the photos say this at the bottom: "Sawday's Pubs & Inns of England & Wales www.sawdays.co.uk"

Bizarrely, when you are reading the pub's description, there is a button at the bottom beside the "back" button which seems to contain random text or nothing at all. Clicking it brings up a bigger version of the picture. For example, the entry on "The Royal Oak" in Maidenhead has a button called "Turn In". This is probably a software error and may be fixed by a new revision of the pubs guide or gasp! Nüvi firmware. For the record, my Nüvi is using v4.20 firmware.

Both guides include a full address and phone number - which you can call automatically by pressing the phone icon, provided your Bluetooth equipped phone is paired with the Nüvi.

My Nüvi does not play the Heritage entries automatically - I have to go into the sub-menu and search for nearby points of interest!

Yes, I do have "Proximity Points" set to on (i.e. TourGuide = Auto Play and Alerts = "Custom POIs" is checked). I have informed RoadTour of this issue.

I have just rebuilt my poi.gpi file, so I will see if that sorts it tonight on the way home from work...

~Andrew~
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have a Garmin to test this on so RoadTour sent me the PPc version. I've had a quick look and already found some interesting info about sites in my area.

I'll be giving it a better test over Xmas with trips to family etc but first impressions are good and on the PCC, as it is a standalone app it works very well.
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Bruggen
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Joined: Aug 22, 2005
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Location: Surrey UK

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've downloaded both files and put them in my Zumo 550 they work well, but the way a Garmin works is that they will only auto start the tourguides if you are approaching the object on the road it's actually located on and not if you're on a parallel road etc. The within 5 to 10 miles thing is more of a Tom Tom type function I guess or perhaps it works on the PPc edition.
So Andrew, if you slect a heritage site from your custom folder and then navigate to it your commentary will start automatically as you approach.
Try it, works for me.
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PeterB
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Joined: 04/10/2002 16:38:07
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now have 'Road tour' installed on an Ipaq travel companion rx5915.
It operates fine using COM7 at 9600 baud alongside TOMTOM which has a direct GPS feed.
The location and product information is excellent and well worth the £20 charge for Heritage site info.

With the Garmin setup you can 'goto' the site in question by simply tapping the screen, however with the Ipaq you have to manually set, by post code etc., the location on TOMTOM in order to navigate there, a pitty!!

As this is the first version we can hope for further improvements and compatibility with other satnav systems.

This MUST be the way that all 'points of interest' will be presented in the future!!
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Darren
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PeterB wrote:
Now have 'Road tour' installed on an Ipaq travel companion rx5915.
It operates fine using COM7 at 9600 baud alongside TOMTOM which has a direct GPS feed.

So are you running TomTom and RoadTour concurrently? Any performance issues?
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PeterB
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TOMTOM and Road tour seem to co exist OK on the rx5915 so far although the experience has been limited.

However I also have Memory Map installed on the same PDA, again via COM7 at 9600. With this setup I can set a route on TOMTOM and then switch to a MM screen and get the best of both worlds. i.e. a MM OS map or Sat. picture and the TT voice instructions, fascinating!!

Will advise if I get conflict with more road use!
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PeterB
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Smile Smile

I now have some experience of running TomTom 6.1 alongside RoadTour on an rx5915.

It is possible to set up a route on TT and then start the Raod Tour programme.

Road Tour will give verbal and pictorial info. when a new POI is detected and TT will continue to give verbal route instructions.
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PaulB2005
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Joined: Jan 04, 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Everytime i switch my Nuvi 760 on with the RoadTour loaded it starts playing a random item and then switches off when i try to do anything....
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tayldn
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:40 pm    Post subject: Performance Reply with quote

When did you buy RoadTour? Some of the performance issues were improved in the last 4 months. If you email support, a new version can be sent.
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