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The RoadGeek
Though we love and remain devoted to the classic and the vintage, we've always been advocates of technology put in the service of finding the perfect meal, the warmest tavern, and the coolest attractions. The RoadGeek provides real-world reviews of some of the latest gadgets and software to help you in your open roads explorations.
Elizaville Panoramas
- Published on Monday, 04 March 2013 17:21
Thanks to the Photosynth iPhone app by Microsoft, we can capture some amazing panoramas. While the new(ish) iPhone5 has panorama software built into the camera, Photosynth allows for a much wider scope of image. While not practical, it is possible to capture an entire spherical image.
Today we stopped at the Elizaville Diner in Elizaville, New York, had a great conversation with owner Brian Pitcher, and enjoyed an excellent lunch of fried haddock, cole slaw, and split pea soup. The diner, brought over from Pennsylvania in 2006, still looks amazing, though Brian did ask for some restoration tips.
You can see the full image after the jump.
AmtrakConnect late to the station
- Published on Sunday, 04 March 2012 17:43
Recently I had the opportunity to take a train ride from Philadelphia to Boston and back, marking my first time using Amtrak's new AmtrakConnect wifi service on its Acela regional trains. I've yet to have the pleasure of a ride on an Acela express train, which got its wifi service before the older train sets, but before the wifi, the only way to get online was to tether my laptop to my cell phone.
When I first tried this in the earlier part of the last decade, the carriers had yet to discover the cash cow that tethering would provide them. Sprint and Verizon back then charged a mere five dollars per month extra to access the internet via your cell phone and charged nothing extra to tether your laptop to it. Today, tethering starts at $20/month on top of your existing data plan. So, having wifi on the train gives riders the ability to avoid running up usage charges or extra monthly fees
GPS can set you free
- Published on Wednesday, 23 February 2011 16:30
Only last night, I discovered that my increasingly amazing Waze iPhone app generated tracking information and saved it in my account archive on their website. I can now use this information to import into Google Earth and keep a very accurate record of my road trips, pleasure and otherwise.
Yes, I know, it also opens up a whole list of privacy concerns as well, but I immediately began to use the data to build a map of last October's roadtrip to Nashville. I could only wish I had this tool years ago to aid the accuracy of my accounts I might later publish in the magazine.
Waze recently issued a major upgrade to their app that, on the iPhone 4 at least, displays far smoother performance and makes it much easier to report road incidents. Count me as a huge fan of this application.
Meanwhile, I stumble on the following story that points out yet another use for the tracking feature: Keeping cops honest. I wish I could say otherwise, but not all cops are exactly trustworthy or even qualified to be wearing badges, and I make it a practice to always, always challenge speeding tickets. To introduce even the slightest doubt into the officer's account can mean the difference between a huge fine and the satisfaction that your iPhone just became an investment.
How My Smart Phone Got Me Out Of A Speeding Ticket In Traffic Court
Last year a traffic cop pulled me over while driving home and handed me a speeding ticket. Although nervous and somewhat startled since it was my first time getting caught, I ended up walking out of traffic court a few months later without having to pay a fine or adding a single point to my record. Surprisingly, it was all thanks to my Android-powered smart phone and a little creativity.
Nashville Pilgrimmage: Tools in my travels
- Published on Wednesday, 10 November 2010 19:39
When I originally decided to try making my travels into a vocation, about the only things I took along for the ride were a camera, a notebook, and a road atlas. This worked fine, except that back at the home office, I had gone very digital.
I produced Roadside with the latest personal computing equipment and software. I gathered up all that information and entered it into Filemaker databases when I returned. Sometimes, that process took days if not weeks, and often not at all as the distractions piled up. I would later discover untranscribed notes and unscanned images that might have come in handy had I had them readily available on the computer when I needed them.
If only, I thought, I could gather and digitize all that information in real time. The trip to Nashville provided an experiment of sorts, because never before had I hit the road armed with so much technology. If nothing else, I wanted to see how much better and more efficient the process would prove.
Road trip with helper monkey
- Published on Sunday, 26 September 2010 11:38
The downside of all the technology now available to today's roadside traveller comes in the form of the necessary accessories, adapters, wires, and batteries that must by nature accompany the all-too-useful gadget. Not so long ago, I'd hop in the car with a printed road atlas, a notebook, a camera, and maybe a small tape recorder. Long trips gathering photos, information, and other lore-in-progress would then require several hours of transcribing and sorting the information upon the return home.
Between then and now, we've seen the advent of ubiquitous internet, allowing instant documentation and dissemination of all that data. As wondrous as this appears, getting it all to work still seems to require just as much preparation, planning, and spending as it ever has. How many times have you had to make emergency stops at a Radio Shack for a missing cable or to pick up a special battery? For me, too many to count.
iPhone apps for the road
- Published on Sunday, 10 January 2010 00:00
UPDATE--January 13, 2010: The folks from Trapster just issued a new version of the app which adds even more features, including the ability to communicate and track other users of Trapster. I can't wait to get out there to give it a go, but the program did crash upon first launch.
For me, serious roadtripping began a good ten years before the I began publishing Roadside. Still in college and a few years beyond, I'd take off with a friend or two deep into Vermont and New Hampshire foliage country, challenging myself to see how far I could travel and how lost I could get in a single day.
Over the years, I've taken every possible opportunity to apply some of the latest tech to road tripping. Back in 2000, while traveling on Ball Publishing's dime, I used a Delorme GPS system that required having a laptop in the next seat. I also had a Handspring PDA for recording changes to the database, a Motorola Timeport cell phone, which allows me to surf the web and email people in a very primitive fashion as well as make phone calls. The phone also served as a modem I could hook up to the laptop.
Today, I hit the road with my iPhone, which largely incorporates the functions of all of those aforementioned gadgets. I've come to rely upon it more an more for navigation as well as communication in all forms. I waited out the whole dedicated GPS thing, and I'm glad for it since I mostly have that ability with the iPhone now. The iPhone also directly connects back to the diner database on my home server, so I can make real-time updates.