escort

Escort Live's social radar detection to help drivers spot 'ticket threats'

LAS VEGAS--I had my first encounter with Escort here at CES this week, and I'm not talking about looking for a date or an inexpensive sedan from the 1990s.

Escort is an Ohio-based company that's been making radar and laser detectors for decades now. This week, its "ticket protection social network for drivers," Escort Live, won a 2012 Innovation Design and Engineering award at CES.

The system is made up of the same kind of radar detector with which you're probably familiar, along with a Bluetooth-embedded "SmartCord Live" cord that connects to your … Read more

Escort announces GPS, radar detector mashup

Escort is a brand that's probably best known for its line of radar and laser detectors, but it got its toes wet in the world of GPS with its Entourage line of GPS vehicle locators last year. Today, Escort has stepped further into the world of GPS with its first portable navigation device, the Passport iQ (unless you count the SmartMirror, which is hardly portable). And because old habits die hard, they've crammed a radar and laser detector into its chassis for good measure.

Superficially, the Passport iQ looks like a standard portable navigation device. It's got a 5-inch touch screen, displays 3D Navteq-supplied maps, and mounts to the windshield with a suction-cup mount. The unit features spoken turn-by-turn directions, graphic lane guidance, and--like many GPS navigators we've tested--displays the current speed limit where available. However, where normal GPS devices may offer the ability to overlay POI icons for gas stations, hotels, and the like, the Passport iQ is able to overlay Escort's Defender Database icons marking red light cameras, speed cameras, and known speed traps. A 90-day trial of the Defender Database is included with the unit, after which a subscription will be required.

Things get interesting when Escort mentions that it has integrated a fully functional radar and laser detector based on its Passport 9500ix detector.… Read more

The 404 544: Where heroes get remembered but legends never die (podcast)

If you couldn't tell by the hockey picture and the well-placed Sandlot quotation in the title, today's episode of The 404 Podcast celebrates Jeff's 28th birthday! Wilson and I are fully prepared to light up a string of firecrackers for Bakalar, but our third host is less than enthused about his age, so leave a comment and wish him a very happy birthday, will you?

Most of the stories we talk about on The 404 highlight the absurdity of the Internet, but today is different. We're taking a different approach, starting with a feel-good story about a Mom-made iPhone Pillow.

Lynda Harrison began the project when her son, Drew Olanoff of #blamedrewscancer, began chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Disease. Drew says his iPhone kept him alive and connected during treatment, but we'll take a handmade version of the real thing any day, especially since the fluffy model has a LOLCATS button and a side pocket that fits an iPhone. Don't forget to hug your moms, everyone.

OK, let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming. A new service called GameCrush offers romantically inept gamers a chance to pay for a play date with an "attractive" girl over a Webcam via Xbox Live and games like MW2, GOW2, GTAIV, and Halo 3.

Sony fans, Nintendo addicts, and desperate nongamers alike can still indulge their inner creep with a second option that lets you set up play dates with simple Flash games like checkers and chess. This NSFW gallery on Kotaku shows a few of the options you can choose for your opponent and gives new meaning to "first-person shooter." Also, I'm pretty sure No. 7 is a straight-up dude.

Twitterers will love the next stories because they show exactly how stupid or useful the service can be, depending on the application. SleepingTime.org adds another dimension to Internet stalking--it lets you track the sleep patterns of any Twitter user based on the time when he or she is least active on Twitter. Watch the segment in the video version of the podcast below to see exactly how well this doesn't work.

On the other hand, Huffington Post founder Jonah Peretti found a way to use Twitter creatively by resurrecting one of our favorite books of yore, Choose Your Own Adventure! Jonah's truncated version of the game takes the words off the page and packages the scenarios into 140 characters that you can play online. If you're too impatient to run through all two of the possibilities, just head over to Jonah's Twitter homepage and see the results for yourself.

Thanks for listening, everyone, and keep sending your e-mails to the404(at)cnet[dot]com; we're going to start reading selected messages on the air in addition to playing voice mails. See? We really DO care! Now where's our 404 pillow?

EPISODE 544 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Escort Entourage CIS silently tracks your wheels

Escort, a company most often associated with radar detectors, has collaborated with Blackline GPS to create a vehicle tracking system that lets drivers keep tabs on their rides via the internet. Known as the Escort Entourage CIS, this device is hidden in your vehicle where it monitors its GPS coordinates and intermittently checks in via a GSM/GPRS cellular connection. If something goes amiss, the owner is notified via SMS, e-mail, or a BlackBerry phone application.

With the CIS installed in our CNET test vehicle, we staged a few mock thefts to see how the device would help us to … Read more

Escort Entourage tracks your car on the Web

Escort, a name typically associated with high-end radar detectors, showcased a pair of security solutions for car at CES 2010. The Entourage PS and CIS are GPS tracking devices that allow users to keep tabs on their wheels from anywhere in the world via the Internet.

The Entourage PS is a portable device that can be tossed in the glove compartment or in the trunk for simple, no-install tracking. The PS charges at home or via your car's 12-volt power outlet and can continuously broadcast its location for up to 10 days thanks to an internal battery. The PS … Read more

The 404 346: Where Anna David wonders if you can be Bought

Journalist and author Anna David comes on the show to give us a glimpse into the world of high-class escorts as featured in her new book, "Bought." Wilson uses this opportunity to solicit tips on how to obtain one of these (books), and we dig deep into Anna's experience researching the topic. It's getting foggy in here.

Today's show is all about Anna, a well-established journalist and sex/relationship expert whose second book tells the story of a tepid journalist who gets slapped with an assignment to explore the steamy underbelly of high-class glitterati and … Read more

Tech makeover for the Tesla Roadster

We just completed one of the most interesting installations that we've done in awhile. The owner of this brand-new Tesla roadster is a client of the Al & Ed's Autosound location in West Hollywood. The vehicle was in serious need of some mobile audio goodies, and also an update to the interior and some of the trim. The store has done a number of his vehicles over the years, and when he showed up in this all-electric roadster, nobody knew that there were some challenges ahead.

The Tesla is an all-electric roadster capable of 0-to-60 mph times in … Read more