Gadgets Gizmos Gossip

The iPhone has become incredibly popular over the last few years, and offers one of the best mobile operating systems in existence (alongside Google’s Android OS). The number of applications available for the phone is now momumental; there are so many it can often be difficult to sort your way through them all looking for what you need.

So to try and help out a little bit, here’s the first in what will become a ‘Top App’ series. Here’s the top car-related applications for your iPhone:

1. AA Fuel Prices

This genius little app will find the cheapest fuel prices in your area, and will even direct you to the cheapest filling station closest to you. It’s £4.99 so it’s not the least expensive app you’ll ever come across, but it’s reliable and it will make you the money back in no time, just by saving you money on your petrol.

2. TomTom UK & Ireland

Satellite navigation systems have been increasingly popular over the last couple of years, but they can be quite expensive. So why waste the money on an expensive Sat Nav system when you get download one for your iPhone? Admittedly it’s not the cheapest app in the world at £49.99, but  it’s less expensive than buying a seperate sat nav machine and you don’t have to worry about carrying around an extra gadget.
The app features all UK and Ireland road maps, making it the perfect solution if you’re looking to find your way around the UK.

3. Free Parking

This application helps you locate free parking spaces, and costs just £1.79. Currently the app only works in London, but it’s extremely useful if you do find yourself regularly looking for parking spaces in the capital. If they roll out the same service for the whole of the UK however, this would be one of the most useful driving apps in existence.

4. RAC Traffic

This one does pretty much what you’d expect it to do; it warns you of particularly bad traffic problems and queues, allowing you to avoid them and get where you’re going quicker. The app itself works brilliantly, and it’s free, so you can’t really complain.

5. Car Spotter

Car Spotter costs just 49p, and allows you to find your car when you’ve forgotten where you left it. When you park you can leave video and voice memos, or simply log the position via GPS, then when you’re on your way back and have forgotten where you parked.

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Guest post by Steve; a freelance copywriter in his spare time, who’s day job is working for a company specialising in temporary car insurance, specifically dar car insurance.

With Christmas nearing, thoughts turn to presents, and whilst Christmas is generally the time for giving, it is also a nice time of year to reward and treat yourself.

It is also the one magical time of year when adults can abandon their ‘grown-up’ status and indulge that child inside.

There are so many great possibilities with Scalextric, from the style of track you build, to the type of cars you run on it, each option provides a different experience.

We found the following video on YouTube of a four track drift circuit, which features four minis battling it out to be the ‘Last Mini Standing’:

The whole setting has been so well thought out, with all the little extras from the trees to the street lighting adds a fantastic ambiance that really sets the scene.

So just how can you create a similar scene yourself? The Sport World track designer is a great piece of software which helps you to create your perfect Scalextric track from your own PC.

As the latest James Bond movie is soon to hit our screens, with probably a cool Aston Martin DBS at his beck and call, we look back at the greatest ever fictional cars that have hit our screens and give a brief description of them.

Bat Mobile

This has to be one of the greatest fictional motors; it is a trademark of batman and provides great protection for Bruce Wayne’s alter ego. This car is usually equipped with armour and high performance engines as well as being an anti gravity vehicle and implemented rocket boosters.

Grease the Movie

If you have not seen grease then you must be on another planet, the love film of Danny and Sandy A.K.A. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. If you are familiar with the song “Go Grease Lighting”, you will remember the gorgeous red car that was created out of the imagination of the cast. This car was a babe magnet and had the cleanest engine I have ever had the chance to see, not to mention that it could fly!

Back to the Future

One of the greatest science fiction films of all time and probably one of the top fictional motors, Michael J Fox who starred as teenager Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as crazy scientist Dr. Emmett Brown. This car had the ability to time travel, even watching it back now I still would love to see this vehicle. I have to say though that the second film was probably the best, as the car also ran on rubbish. If only we could use a car like that now.

Knight Rider

David Hasselhoff staring as the Knight Rider, this vehicle was a sentient talking car with artificial intelligence. I have to say that I think the KITT was the star of this movie, as people just used to tune in to see what the car would do or say next. Magnificent stunts and deserves to be up here with the rest, a true classic.

Transformers

Well these are amazing to say the least, these cars had a mind of there own and could transform into powerful destructive machines. The recent movie has propelled these cars to a top spot position.

There are plenty more fictional cars that just could not be mentioned such as the James Bond, Spy Who Loved Me, Dukes of Hazard, Men in Black and who could forget Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!