Customize the speech of Garmin or TomTom GPS (both TTS and non-TTS)

Boring about hearing "recalculating" from your Garmin GPS and wanted to listen to something else, such as "oops, you don't follow my way"?

TurboCCC has come out with some interesting software tools for Garmin GPS users to easily customize the speech of their unit by hacking/modifying into the *.VPM voice files inside the /Garmin/Voice folder.

The tool to be used on Text-to-speech (TTS) voice file is called TTSVoiceEditor, and it can do the following:

• Change speech phrases like "recalculating" to something more enjoyable
• Control voice volume (level)
• Change voice rate (speed)
• Change the voice screen name
• Import/Export speech phrases from/to text files

Click here for more information and download of TTSVoiceEditor.

And to deal with non-TTS file, another tool called NonTTSVoiceEditor is used. It can:

• Split a Garmin VPM file into a serie of WAV files
• Split a TomTom CHK file into a serie of OGG files (Vorbis audio files)
• Preview and play WAV voice samples and phrases
• Merge them back into a VPM file

Click here for more information and download of NonTTSVoiceEditor.

Beside that, there is also a tool for you to replace some sound effects in Garmin GPS, such as during the picture click, the camera in sight dong-dong, the speed alert, etc. This tool will hack into the /Garmin/GUPDATE.GCD file in the GPS. It is called GUpdateMod.

Click here for more information and download of GUpdateMod.

TurboCCC has also produced some other tools such as the Extra_POI_Editor, TTS_Speech_Doctor, TomTom TTS, etc.

Microsoft prohibited from selling MS Word due to patent infringement!

A CNET news today reported about Judge Leonard Davis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has issued a permanent injunction that "prohibits Microsoft from selling or importing to the United States any Microsoft Word products that have the capability of opening .XML, .DOCX or DOCM files (XML files) containing custom XML.

In March 2007, the Toronto based plantiff, i4i sued Microsoft alleging that Microsoft voilated its 1998 patent (No. 5,787,449) for a document system that eliminated the need for manually embedded formatting codes.

In May 2009, a federal jury in Tyler, Texas, ruled that the custom XML tagging features of MS Word 2003 and MS Word 2007 infringed on i4i's patent and ordered Microsoft to pay $200 million in the case.

In Tuesday's ruling, Microsoft was also ordered to pay an additional $40 million for willful infringement, as well as $37 million in prejudgment interest. The order requires Microsoft to comply with the injunction within 60 days and forbids Microsoft from testing, demonstrating, or marketing Word products containing the contested XML feature.

I'm sure this will not be the end of the story. Let's see how Microsoft react on this.

Source: CNET News - Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word by Steven Musil.

How to set destination using Panoramio photo in Garmin GPS

Do you know that you can interestingly set your destination in Garmin GPS by selecting a photo of the location you want to go? The feature is called Garmin Photo Navigation.



You need to download the Panoramio photos from the Photo Navigation section in the Garmin Connect website at http://connect.garmin.com/photos.

I'll show you how to do that, step-by-step.

Ensure that your Garmin GPS device is connected to your computer with a USB cable, and that you have already installed Garmin Communicator Plugin Software in your computer.

Get your browser to go to the Garmin Connect Photo Navigation website.

You need to sign in your Garmin customer account if you haven't done so.

Look for Panoramio photos in your desired location by searching with the "Find photos" search. For example, key-in "Penang" to find photos around Penang.

You can zoom-in the Google Map to your convenient size. There might be more than one page of photos which you can switch between the pages with the "Photos" pagination bar on top of the Google Map.

Select the photos by click on them one by one. Click on the [+] button of the enlarged (selected) photos to put them in your selection list.

When you have done, click the "Send to Device" button to download the Panoramio photos to your GPS device.

Remember to also contribute some photos taken by you to Panoramio.com website.

The photos will be stored in the /Garmin/JPEG folder of your Garmin GPS device.

Now, switch your attention to your Garmin GPS device and go to "Where to? > Favorites > Panoramio Photos".

Select a photo and click the "Map" or "Go!" button. Have fun!