Homer Simpson GPS Voice

[arniejolt]

It certainly took long enough to get here, and I actually know a few friends who'll be all over this one like sprinkles on a glazed donut...

Um, woohoo?

Homer Simpson is the latest "celebrity" voice to join the TomTom GPS voice lineup, the GPS maker announced on Tuesday. Users can visit the TomTom site and download the voice for $12.95, or €9.95 in Europe.

As you might expect, the voice of Homer (actually voiced by Dan Castellaneta) provides some occasional commentary, such as: "Take the third right." "We might find an ice cream truck! Mmm…ice cream."

TomTom already offers seventy official voices for its navigation devices, although user-based uploads can add more.

"Celebrity voice downloads are one of the many features TomTom offers to our customers to personalize their driving experience," said Jocelyn Vigreux, president of TomTom, in a statement. "With Homer Simpson's voice helping them to navigate their trip, TomTom customers will not only travel safely and with less stress, but will also be highly entertained along the way."

The voice was licensed by Locutio Voice Technologies and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising (Fox Licensing).

From PC Magazine:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2348896,00.asp

[topperharley]

Does it say "mmmm, dooonuuuts..." whenever you pass by a Dunkin Donuts? :D

[gosox333]

Win.

This makes me curious as to what other celebrity voices they have for sale.

[Transbrak]

I love my Garmin but this makes me want to jump ship :D

[BevoTheWarrior]

I'm very seriously considering buying that now... I don't really need GPS, but I guess it couldn't hurt. Having Homer as a navigator is too good to pass up.

[ArchangelZero]

I need that GPS...

[Cataclysmo]

I hope it goes "Doh!" when you crash your car.

[harveyglobetrot]

Win.

This makes me curious as to what other celebrity voices they have for sale.

I believe that they have Mr T, John Cleese, one of the actors off Sex And The City (Kim Cattrell maybe?), Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds and some baseball player. Anyone can upload their own voice skin and people can download it for free, so apparently you can download parodies of all sorts of people to play, but only those I've mentioned above are the actual person's (or character's) voice.I read an article about this yesterday that said the reason they have so few official voice skins is because of a difficulty in licensing celebrity voices.

Because I'm such a Simpsons fanatic, if I were to invest in a GPS unit I would make sure it is a TomTom. Apparently some of the stuff is genuinely funny (you can hear a small sample here (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/2509709/Homer-Simpson-makes-GPS-debut)).

[Bonez]

I like my stock British guy. He calls the highway "the motorway", which makes me happy, and he even talks in the Imperial system and not Metric, which is great because I am usually confused as it is when I am lost enough to have to bust out the Tom-Tom.