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Cobra and ESCORT Offer Great Tech Gifts for Drivers

This post brought to you by Cobra. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Technabob.

These days, cars offer all sorts of built-in technology to improve driver safety and convenience. But there are some automotive gadgets that you’ll want to consider adding after the fact too. Car accessory makers Cobra and Escort are offering up a number of products which can improve the quality of your driving experience.

I’ve been a fan of ESCORT radar detectors for years, and recently upgraded to their latest and greatest model, the ESCORT Max 360. This impressive radar detector is more accurate and versatile than any other I’ve ever used, and loaded with features that offer greater peace of mind whether driving in the city or on long road trips. For starters, the Max 360 offers the ability to detect signals from every direction, providing not just signal strength graphs, but arrows which show whether the signal is coming from in front, behind or to the side of your vehicle. It picks up signals fast, and from a great distance, giving you plenty of time to react to an alert.

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The ESCORT Max 360 is capable of not only detecting X, K, and KA band radar, but also laser signals, and even can alert you to upcoming red light and speed cameras. Living here in Chicago where these cameras are all over the place, I can’t tell you how many times that feature has saved me from tickets. I especially love how it tells you how many feet you are away from the camera, and what direction it’s in.

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While all radar detectors can occasionally pick up false alerts – especially in urban areas and around malls, the Max 360 lets you mark locations which you know aren’t police using its GPS system so you won’t be bothered by them ever again. The ESCORT Max 360 also integrates with ESCORT Live!, an app which runs on your smartphone, and can provide alerts based on both a centralized database, and real-time crowdsourced data from other ESCORT Live! users. This is especially useful for knowing about radar and laser alerts detected by other drivers in your area, as well as speed traps which have been reported.

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ESCORT Live! works as a standalone app, and in this mode can provide red light, speed camera and speed trap locations as well, though I prefer to use it in concert with my Max 360, so I also get my own radar and laser detection. This combination provides maximum protection and peace of mind.

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Speaking of peace of mind, one of the things that every driver dreads is a dead car battery. Whether you accidentally left your interior light on the night before, or you’ve got a loose alternator belt, it’s a hassle to find your car won’t start. The Cobra JumPack provides you with your own personal, portable jumpstart battery. No more calls to the auto club, or begging strangers for a jump.

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The JumPack has a 6000mAh battery that’s capable of jumpstarting both small and large vehicles safely, thanks to its impressive 360A of peak current. It also doubles as a fast charger for smartphones, tablets and other gadgets via its hefty 2.4A USB port. So even if your car battery is just fine, it provides added reassurance that you’ll be able to use your devices if you’re caught away from home or in an emergency.

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These are just a few of the great high tech products available for drivers, offering added confidence, convenience, and safety to your ride. Be sure to check out the complete product lineups on the ESCORT and Cobra websites.

Escort Max 360 | Cobra JumPack – Tiny but Mighty

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Review: ESCORT Max 360 Radar/Laser Detector

For years, I’ve been on a quest for a radar detector that’s accurate enough to protect me from tickets on both highway and city roads, but that won’t constantly go off from every garage door opener. One detector that might just be up to the task is the new ESCORT Max 360. ESCORT was kind enough to send me their new radar/laser detector for an opportunity to put it to the test.

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For starters, the ESCORT Max 360 is a deluxe, high-end unit, capable of detecting signals at a greater distance and accuracy than inexpensive models, and offers a variety of high tech features that really add to its usefulness. Setting up the Max 360 is easy. Simply attach the ultra-sticky suction cup to your windshield, and plug it into your car’s 12 VDC accessory outlet. As a secondary step, you can pair it with your smartphone for added functionality, but I’ll get to that later. Of particular note is the improved mounting system compared to earlier Passport models. This version uses a powerful magnet to hold the detector onto the bracket, which makes placing and removing it easier, and it’s less susceptible to breaking.

One thing of note is that the Max 360 is quite large compared to other models, presumably to make room for the second antenna, but the mounting bracket has no trouble handling its added heft.

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Out of the box, the Max 360 does an excellent job detecting all the major radar bands: X, K, and KA, and does so in a really useful way. It has both front and rear antennas, which allow it to sense if a signal is coming from in front, behind or to the sides of your vehicle. The bright color display shows the signal strength for each antenna, and a 4-way arrow indicator shows which way it’s coming from. Alerts are a combination of visual, tone and voice with adjustable brightness and volume settings.

While I don’t have a scientific way to measure its accuracy, I found that the Max 360 was very good at picking out radar and laser signals along my routes, and it alerted me to speed traps along the highway on numerous occasions, giving me plenty of time to check my speed and make sure I wasn’t going to get into trouble.

No radar detector that I know of is capable of filtering out every false alarm, but the Max 360 did a good job minimizing these alerts from things like banks and shopping malls, and offers a GPS feature that lets you mark areas that you want to ignore going forward.

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The Max 360 comes pre-loaded with ESCORT’s DEFENDER database, which includes locations of red light and speed cameras throughout the U.S. and Canada. Using its GPS, it’s able to display alerts for upcoming cameras, and gives you a distance warning to indicate how far away it is. Keep in mind that you’ll need to sign up for a subscription if you want updates to the database. A 1-year subscription is $19.95, and a 3-year will run you $39.95.

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You can also connect the Max 360 with the ESCORT Live! smartphone app via Bluetooth. This iOS and Android app augments the device with additional data, such as threats spotted by other drivers using the app, and also pulls in local speed limit data. As an added bonus, you still get access to the crowdsourced data if you don’t have your radar detector with you – which comes in handy if you’re traveling and have a rental car.

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In addition to providing real-time maps of threats, the app shares your detector’s information back to the cloud and maintains a history of signals detected. To get full benefit from ESCORT Live!, you’ll also need to subscribe – at a cost of $4.99 a month, or $49.99 a year. If I have any qualm at all, I’d love to see the Max 360 come bundled with at least a year of its companion services, given its price.

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Overall, I’m very impressed with the ESCORT Max 360. It’s definitely the most full-featured and user-friendly radar/laser detector I’ve ever used, and now that it can detect signal direction, it’s just that much more useful. I also love having the speed and red light camera alerts, and the extra crowdsourced data from the ESCORT Live! app. If you’ve got the budget, there’s not a better radar detector on the market. The Max 360 is available direct from ESCORT for $649.95(USD).

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ESCORT Max 360 Radar Detector ups the Ante in All Directions

The last time I got a speeding ticket, it was in one of those places where the speed limit changed without warning, and I just didn’t even realize that it had decreased from 70 to 55. In some locations, even a small violation can cost you big dollars – not just with a ticket, but with large insurance rate increases, that can add up to thousands over just a few years. In my case, I was lucky to get just a $150 ticket, and no insurance bump, but I was without my license for more than a month while I waited for it to be returned. A good radar/laser detector would have saved me both some money and a major inconvenience.

Contrary to popular belief, radar and laser detectors aren’t illegal in the vast majority of America. Only Virginia and Washington D.C. prohibit their use. There are a number of radar and laser detectors on the market, ranging from cheap models that might drive you nuts with false alarms or are simply inaccurate, ranging to high end models which can catch just about every radar and laser threat, and are much better about filtering out noise. ESCORT’s latest radar detector falls at the latter end of that continuum, aiming to provide the maximum in accuracy, distance, and can even tell you the direction that a signal is coming from.

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The new Escort Max 360 Radar/Laser detector is jampacked with technology to help you get the most advance notice of radar and laser signals, and includes a variety of features to make it easy to use and accurate. The Max 360 offers the ability to detect all of the major radar types, as well as laser signals, and can tell you exactly what direction the signal is coming from thanks to a series of arrows which point in the direction of the source. Antennas in the front and rear help it to accurately triangulate the signal. There’s an easy to read full color OLED screen, which shows both the speed limit and your current speed, as well as the level of any signals detected from its front or rear antennas. And loud, audible alerts keep your eyes on the road.

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The Max 360 can also alert you to speed and red light cameras, and when used with the ESCORT Live app and service, radar and speed trap data is shared among users so you get extra protection (a la Waze). In addition, its GPS capability automatically learns false alerts and you can also store locations on the occasion you do get a false alert.

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ESCORT is so confident that the Max 360 is the best radar detector on the market that they offer a Speeding Ticket Limited Guarantee – which will cover you in the event that you get a radar or laser speeding ticket (some restrictions apply). You’ll just need to buy your Max 360 directly from Escort to qualify for this perk.The ESCORT Max 360 is available now and sells for $649.95(USD). I’ve got one in my car now, and won’t leave home without it.

Escort 360

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Hands-on with Escort SmartRadar

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Escort has long enabled heavy footed -- but ticket shy -- drivers a little more freedom with just how quickly they're able to complete the daily commute. Escort's SmartRadar is set to extend that fun and cut the cord by including Bluetooth connectivity in the detector itself and enabling users to have a mostly out of sight installation -- as your handset becomes the interface to the radar. The SmartRadar integrates with Escort's Live ticket protection app which shares other users of the system's radar / laser hits and updates them in real time on your phone's display. Check the gallery for some pics of it installed behind the rearview mirror and a simulated laser notification.

Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.

Hands-on with Escort SmartRadar originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 21:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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