Putting Things In Perspective

Up early again this morning to go pick up my car from the garage and to drop of the loaner that I'd been given for the day.

First thing I notice about the car is that the dealer has given it a valeting, which is cool cos I find cleaning the car hard work. They'd even vacuumed it! So it's all looking sparkly and new :)

Second thing is that they have in fact upgraded the software in the car to try and resolve the SatNav issues. So I've now got the latest software running and it's alot more nippy in terms of loading and changing between functions than the last version. It's also added a "perspective" view to the SatNav meaning that I don't have to solely rely on a flat map alone, I've got a further choice to help me get from A to B.

So of course on noticing this I have to give it a go and set the SatNav off to get me home. The perspective view is quite cool, you get to see the road laid out as it is in front of you, and even better for the ladies it orientates itself to the direction your going (well it would have to really). The roads are also a bit clearer to see, and they've also put on some fluffy clouds and blue sky to add to the realism (though in the UK I'd have thought storm clouds and rain would have been a better option). I also notice that the bint's voice directions have been amended too. For example, when I previously drove the route I tested the new sat nav on, there are 2 roundabouts that are very close together. Originally the SatNav would say something like:-

Now however that is all cumulated into one voice command, so you get "at the roundabout take the 2nd exit, then take the 1st exit".

Pretty cool provided you've got an ounce of ability to follow directions.

They've also tidied up the menu navigation is the SatNav section too, with a handy menu on the right hand side which displays when you've got the map up whereas before you had to exit from the map view to go to any other menus. Dead handy for cancelling the satnav bint in an instant when before you had a good 3 or 4 idrive maneuvers to perform.

Another thing too that I've noticed is a change to the central locking. Previously the car would lock the doors as you drove off and the doors would remain locked until you physically pulled on the handle to get out. It still locks the doors as you hit 20mph or so but now it automatically unlocks all the doors when you take the key out of the slot. Kinda handy :)

All in all then the upgrade is cool, the only downside is that I've lost all my settings that are controlled by the software and all of the addresses that I had stored in the SatNav. Not a problem really, I'll just have to add them as I arrive at places.

I then spend the rest of the day getting down and dirty with some tricky CSS stuff, and at the end of it I had 1 whole page to be proud of.

Layout was so much quicker with tables!

Posted by Abi on the October 11, 2005 9:27 PM