When I moved to New York, one thing I was really looking forward to was the public transportation. As weird as that may sound, when you’ve paid as much money in speeding tickets as I have, you kind of look forward to not driving. I’ve been busted for going 10 or 15 over the speed limit on a highway, sure, but I’ve also been busted for doing silly things like waiting five minutes at a red light at 2am, then seeing that no one is around for miles, “running” it, and getting a ticket a week later in the mail. Silly me! I thought we could use common sense in Murica! Well, maybe we can. If I’d known about the Escort SmartRadar, I could have saved myself literally hundreds of dollars. And saving money is just common sense.
Not content to rest on their laurels as the leading radar detector brand, Escort/Beltronics have partnered with Apple to bring you the Escort SmartRadar Detector Apple Pack (rolls right off the tongue). The SmartRadar was already named “Best in Test” at the annual SML Radar Detector test in El Paso, TX, but Escort has added a few new features to make this product truly stand out for iPhone users.
First of all, it’s completely plug-and-play, hooking directly into your cigarette lighter and sitting nicely out of the way behind your rear view mirror. The lighter plugin even has a handy USB port to keep your iPhone charged on the go. For those of you who don’t want a cord running from your mirror to your cigarette lighter, you can do the minimal install of plugging a smaller, built-in power cord directly into your powered mirror and since the iPhone connects via bluetooth, you can keep that dashboard looking streamlined.
The Escort isn’t cheap (insert awesome joke here), but at the time of this this writing, the Apple pack saves you $50 off the standard SmartRadar package and comes equipped with a 12-month subscription to the Escort “Live!” appp, which is really the selling point of the new package.
Escort “Live!” is an app that tracks real-time data from third party software and other Escort “Live!” users to allow drivers to know where camera-guarded intersections are, tells them what the posted speed limit is, alerts them when they’ve gone over, and notifies them of police traps down the highway. I thought the last point was moot, seeing as how the detector itself has the longest range on the market, but after speaking with Ron Gividen at Escort, he told me about mobile ticketing vans, which are gaining traction in the United States and are already prevalent in the UK. Basically, police park a special van along the road that has a speed camera in the back instead of radar or laser guns. Because cameras can’t be detected as easily, the social network aspect of Escort “Live!” seems like the only way to avoid speed traps like this. Aside from trap detection, the app also has cool traffic-avoiding features, which Gividen highlights in the video below.
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With a hefty price tag, the Escort SmartRadar Apple Pack is not for everyone, but Gividen brought up another point I’d never considered, but often encountered: “What happens when people see a cop car on the side of the road? They all slam on their brakes! That’s a bad situation to be in, especially with your family on a vacation or something. But if you have Escort ‘Live!’, you can avoid the trap, sure, but also keep your family from getting in a wreck.” It’s hard to put a price on safety. And that’s exactly what you’ll tell your wife so you can run out and play with this cool new toy.
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