Ride your own Knight Industries Two Thousand

Jul 9, 2008 17:06 GMT  ·  By

The recent history of electronics has been filled with all sorts of devices inspired by some of the most successful movie and TV franchises around (lightsaber remotes, R2-D2 projectors, Batman-inspired gadgets, we've seen them all). And since this year, the hit TV series "Knight Rider" is making a big comeback, the people over at Mio have decided to capitalize on this hype and launched the Knight Rider GPS, a personal navigation device that can actually turn any vehicle into the famous Knight Industries Two Thousand (K.I.T.T.).

Quite obviously, in order to be able to deliver the most authentic Knight Rider experience possible, Mio partnered with Universal Studios to become a Knight Rider licensee and collaborated with Navtones in order to include exclusive voice guidance and turn-by-turn directions featuring the original voice of K.I.T.T.

Thus, whenever you switch it on, you'll hear one of the device's integrated randomized greetings and 300 custom names. Additionally, the Knight Rider GPS features an active LED voice synthesizer display that moves in sync with the voice, just as it did on K.I.T.T.'s dash. The Knight Rider GPS can even be programmed to advise drivers of speed limit infractions, if they happen to be in "hot pursuit" of anyone.

Now, leaving aside the more "glamorous" and entertainment-related features the device from Mio has to offer, it's time to take a closer look at the technical specs the PND can provide. Hence, the Knight Rider GPS features a 4.3-inch widescreen TFT LCD touchscreen display with 65.000 colors, which allows users to navigate the menus and view the various built-in maps, as well as the up to 4 million POIs the PND comes packed with.

Additionally, the device allows drivers to choose routing modes including the fastest or shortest route and highway preference. Everything is possible due to the built-in SiRF Star III (with InstaFix) chipset (WAAS-enabled for better accuracy), which instantly acquires the signal and delivers very good positioning information, regardless of the surrounding environment.

Connectivity-wise, the PND from Mio sports an SD/MMC memory expansion module (used for adding supplementary data or maps), as well as a USB 2.0 interface, used both for powering the built-in rechargeable battery and for transferring data from the users' PCs.

Quite surprisingly, the Knight Rider GPS is not even that expensive, as it has an MSRP of 270 US dollars, a sum most hardcore fans of the TV series will certainly cough up in order to be able to transform their old, piece-of-junk vehicle into the famous K.I.T.T.

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