Never Get Lost Again Giveaway
Christina Tynan-Wood on Jul 28 2009 at 2:18 pm | Filed under: giveaways
I am trying out a subscription to the TeleNav GPS Navigator and it’s pretty darn handy. I downloaded it to a cell phone and it’s always waiting there in my purse to offer directions or help me find an address. For example, I might be biking along on a hot summer afternoon with my ten-year-old daughter, who is suddenly so bike crazed that we have to go somewhere every day. But the weather here in July is hot and steamy. So suddenly we both are overcome with a desperate need for ice cream. We usually avoid ice cream shops. But this is an emergency!
Novices at retail ice cream acquisition, we have no idea where the closest ice cream place is. Yes! This is a job for my handy TeleNav-enabled phone. I pull it out and ask it to search for ice cream shops. (It keeps tabs on 10 million points of interest including restaurants, Wi-Fi, banks, coffee shops, and ATMs.) And we choose from a list of places that are either close to our current location or on our route.
We make our choice. I click right from the map to call and confirm that our destination is indeed open and serving ice cream. Then it’s back on our bikes. TeleNav calls instructions to us as we bike along. It will even warn us – and reroute us – if it sees a traffic jam ahead. And without incident, we are guided neatly to the quiescently frozen confection of our choice.
TelNnav works with lots of cell phones on ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and, perhaps, others. You can get it from your cell carrier and it typically costs $9.95 a month. (It requires a compatible cell phone.)
Right now, though, I’m giving away a six-month subscription directly from the folks at TeleNav. It doesn’t matter what carrier you have, Todd at TeleNav tells me he will figure the details out with the winner.
So, did you get lost this summer and wish you had a GPS in your purse? Tell us about it in the comments to enter to win.
This contest is closed! Thanks for playing!
Hi Christine!
This I would love love love. Why you ask???? Because I am always getting lost in Boston, and Portland, ME, and pretty much everywhere I need to go! I try using google directions, but it is never right…especially in larger cities where there is construction/rerouting going on. If this will yell out the directions to me over my cell…I want!!:)
Hi Christina!
I am the kinda person for whom GPS was invented, seriously! I get lost in most places, but especially in Pittsburgh bcos of the winding and very confusing streets here. I have discovered that every local Pittsburgh-er has gotten lost here at some point. It makes for good story-telling.
Recently I got lost trying to get to work when I took a minor detour while trying to avoid a street that got flooded for half a day due to some pipe bursting or something. I sure could have used a GPS that morning.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Christina,
Thanks for the opportunity!
My Fiancee and I are always getting lost…we have this obsession with taking long drives to places we’ve never been. We come from a rural area, and as you can imagine, the city streets can be overwhelming! Having our own personal co-pilot would be marvelous
When I was younger I used to be very proud of my navigation skills. I was always the navigator on family trips and in my 20s used to boast how I never get lost. Well things have changed and I have days when I forget where I’m going not to mention how to get there. A GPS I’ve heard is a must have for a person like me.
Thanks for the great giveaway!
Lost!? Lost is my middle name! I have a road nearby that no matter how often I drive down it I almost always go the wrong way on it there is never a good time or place to turn around on it so I end up miles and mile out of my way. This is just one example I have many, many stories of being lost. This GPS would be awesome (especially since I have a 15 year old daughter who is following in my footsteps when it comes to directionally challenged.)
OOPS! I just realized that I typed “e” instead of “a”. Sorry!!:)
I lost my GPS for the car. This has resulted in much frustration and dare I admit tears a few times. Recently, I took my kids to camp for five days and went five different ways each day. The most common response from my five year old twins when in the car with me is “Are we lost again?”
I get lost on my bike all the time, and would love to have a small GPS so I won’t be late to drive my kids…well, everywhere.
I would love this. I live near Atlanta but rarely go into the city because I get lost everytime I get in there. There are tons of one way streets that confuse me that I just give up and don’t venture into the city. This would really help.
Ok….this IS just the thing I need in Charlotte, NC!! Although I have lived in several cities much bigger I find myself constantly lost here. The native Charlottians tell me the city was designed by farmer that released a load of chickens …….the roads follow the path of the running chickens!
We even have a place where Queens road meets Queens Rd. Needles to say
I STAY lost…..I could really use this technology.
Also wanted to let you know I found your great blog thru your April 17 09 article in Family Circle! You had some fantastic suggestions….I will be a repeat visitor for sure….and I am going to order that book today!
wishing you all the best
Jan
HAH! What a fun contest Christina
Anyways, just like everyone before me, I’d love this…why!?
Hubby has a GPS in his cell phone and it’s the best thing Ever! And, I don’t get to use it nearly enough; if I’m lucky a couple times a month. Usually during errands on the weekend, when I don’t need it at all. But, just to feel good we let us talk our way around town.
As a not-at-home-school family we’re going to parks, museums, coops, field trips on a daily basis throughout the state with new destinations every other day or so. IF I had this on my cellphone I wouldn’t get lost the average 3-4 times a week, stuck in traffic for hours, or waste anymore precious gas. My littlest one just said “Mama, you get lost *many* times *every* single day”
Today, we tried to go to an amusement park and I had google maps printed out; but that did NOT work, because just like noted above they’re not always wrong. In my experience, I’ve banned mapquest about 3 years ago, because they were notoriously wrong.
Also, as forgetful as I am–I always fail to map out and print return directions. Believe me, I’ve lost much gas, sanity and time, simply because the return trip due to multiple highway exits/entrances, one-way streets, and multiple-lanes-that-I-can’t-turn-because-I-didn’t-see-the-street-coming-and-I’m-in-the-wrong-lane roads *always* get me off track.
I’m *always* driving in circles. I’ve even mastered the quickest, hopefully safest, K-turn on the tightest roads and U-turns on the big ones.
As for traffic jams: 7 miles from New Haven, we have the states worse highway bottleneck which can clog up traffic for hours for a 5-15 min. drive. When we took separate cars: Daddy, 1 daughter and me in one; Hubby & 2 other daughters in another, we were coming home from Newport, RI which should’ve been a 1.5 hour drive; took use close to 3.5 hours, but hubby got to navigate his detour and was home in less than 2 hours. We obviously lost him, and missed his exit; but even when he called by cell; we couldn’t guarantee we’d know how to get home.
In New Haven and NYC (which we visit ~ 2 times a month), we need detours for traffic jams and alternative routes to find parking. One convenient time, we parked and had the GPS lead our way by foot to the museum and restaurant of choice. Oh…what I would do to have this luxury every single day.
Add the fact that I have a bad memory and always seem to recall the “wrong” landmarks–I can never stray off one-set of directions. So, a detour is my worse enemy. Especially because the signs never seem to get me to where I needed to go. We had so much road construction in New Haven this summer, and 3 of my girls’ camps were in the center of the city–oh, how I dreaded those days!
Last, we leave SO much earlier than necessary to compensate for my driving, just to make things on time. For all the reasons above, we didn’t have the best reputation for being on time much, even allotting what I thought more than enough time in the first place.
Geez…my 9 yo is reading over my shoulder and sighing…”Mama you can write forever about this topic”. So, I might as well stop now. If I don’t win, just seeing how much time, energy, gas money I wasted these past 3 months–it may be an investment I *have* to make–hopefully not
Fortunately, my girls have mastered car games, and can read and write incredibly-neat in a car–well, as you can see–we’re in it ALL the time
I live in Alaska, Yes, Alaska and when traveling on our rural roads throught out alaska and Canada the roads are rarely marked. You could be in the next town before really knowing if you are heading in the right direction, and most often than not you have taken the wrong road. Not to mention if you go to one of our bigger cities like anchorage or fairbanks where the signage is also horrific you could be going the wrong direction in no time, which makes it all worse when I am in all senses of the phrase “directionally & navigtionally challenged!!”
Then when my 3 little angles realized our long ride to Anchorage or Fairbanks is about to get longer than it already is they just HAVE to mention that “mommy is lost AGAIN!!” or “you should have turned when I said mom!” which is my 16 year olds favorite phrase to say after we get back on track.
Thanks for the chance to try and get the telenav.
DEM