Tag Archives: radar detectors

Cobra and ESCORT Offer Great Tech Gifts for Drivers

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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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OhGizmo! Review: The Escort Max 360 Laser And Radar Detector

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Escort Radar + Laser Detectors for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Earlier this year I was driving in a rural area where the speed limit is typically 70mph. It was at dusk with no one around and I was going about 75mph. Suddenly, I see out of the corner of my eye what appeared to be a police car on the side of the road but with his lights off. He then proceeds to flip his lights on and pulls me over. So I’m thinking to myself, “Hey this shouldn’t be a big deal, only 5mph over the limit isn’t going to call for a ticket, he’s probably just going to warn me to slow down or something”. Nope. He informed me that I was doing 75 in a 55 zone. I was blown away. “55? I just saw a sign that said 70 a few miles back!” I exclaimed to the officer. He was generous and bumped my speed down to 69 so that it would not impact my insurance as much, however I had just joined the 41 million Americans ticketed every year for speeding. I was frustrated with this sudden speed limit change because no sooner did I get back onto the road did I see the speed limit change to 65mph and then in a few miles back to 70mph. I later learned that this particular stretch of road is well known for its constant varying speed limits and speed traps. Boy do I wish Escort had sent me their latest radar detector and driving aid, the Max 360, back in January.

The Max 360 features dual antennas, one in front and one in back. These allow for a total 360 degree protection whether it be radar, laser, air, or photo detection as well as using arrows to indicate where the signals are coming from. While this is fantastic, there are other radar detectors that have similar features. What sets the Max 360 apart I found, are Escort Live and AutoLearn.

Escort Live is a crowdsourced app that you can download to your smartphone that allows you and other Escort users to mark speed traps, red light cameras, and other road hazards. With the Max 360’s GPS system, it can alert you via spoken messages about these hazards, as well as warning you when you exceed speed limits for the roads you are on. This would have been great to have had that fateful day I got my speeding ticket in January. AutoLearn allows for Max360 to take full advantage of its GPS system so it can intelligently reject false alerts based on their signal frequency and location. That means whenever you drive by a gas station with automatic doors you aren’t going to get false alerts like you would with other radar detectors on the market. I learned that you can also manually lockout any false alerts you do encounter by tapping the mute button three times on the car charger. I used this feature often to help teach the system what were false positives. It did surprisingly well I found, and it was not uncommon to have car rides that were completely silent as Autolearn was actively tuning out false signals.

My two favorite examples where the Max360 has helped me in driving were both centered around speed traps. The first was when I was coming home from work late one night and I had just gotten onto the freeway. As soon as I merged, I instantly heard a loud beeping, an arrow point straight ahead and a female voice say calmly “laser”. Up until this time I had encountered an unusually low amount of speed traps in my area and hadn’t really had a chance for the Max360 to truly shine in this regard. But that night it instantly let me know that about a half mile ahead of me was a highway patrolman sitting on the shoulder, lights off, shooting laser at all cars merging onto the highway. I was doing the speed limit of 65mph so there was no reason for him to stop me, however it was surprising how quickly I learned of the speed trap ahead of me and to not worry when I eventually saw the cop on the side of the road. The other example was when I was going to a family function on Thanksgiving. I was driving along the highway when suddenly I saw a highway patrolman on the side of the road, once again shooting laser. I panicked as I hadn’t been paying attention to my speed and was not sure how fast I had been going. As I passed him, I saw his car pull out, lights turned on. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I thought for sure that I was going to get a ticket again. But then I thought to myself, “Wait the Max360 didn’t detect anything, there’s no way he hit me with his laser gun”. I was right, because soon after I realized this I saw him blast past me to pull someone else over.

The Max360 has been a great tool that has helped me drive smarter since I got it a few weeks ago. By alerting me to speed traps, it has kept me from getting any further speeding tickets as well as keeping me aware of red light cameras and photographic speed traps (through early warning on the K and KA bands). What really has impressed me though, is that Escort will pay for any future speeding tickets you get when you purchase the Max360 from the factory. To me that really shows they stand behind their product, and after having used it for a few weeks, I can understand why.

You guys should definitely check out the Escort 360 website!

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The New Escort Max 360 Radar + Laser Detector Brings A New Level of Awareness to Speed Conscious Drivers

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Escort Radar + Laser Detectors for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Getting from point A to point B should be simple, but the reality is that along the way you’ll encounter a good number of obstacles that can end up costing you a lot.  Speed limits change suddenly from one portion of the road to another, and drivers often don’t notice.  This, coupled with the almost never ending array of photo radars (speed cameras), air patrol, radar and laser guns, and red light cameras, make it quite likely that you’ll end up getting a ticket on your way to your destination.  

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As a matter of fact, 41 million drivers are ticketed every year, generating over $6 billion in revenue to the relevant agencies.   The average ticket will set you back $150 on the spot, but can go all the way up to $900 in increased insurance charges over 3 years.  To make matters worse, the National Motorist Association estimates that about one third of these ticket charges are erroneous.  It stands to reason that when some technology presents itself with the promise to help put the odds back on your side, we’d take notice.  The new Escort Max 360 Radar + Laser Detector does just that.  It’s a high tech device that can alert you when your speed is being measured, which can help you slow down in time and avoid costly tickets.  And if you manage to avoid even one ticket with this device, it’ll have paid for itself when you factor in all the costs!

The best part, unlike what most people believe, is that it’s completely legal in most of the US.  The only places where it isn’t is Washington D.C. and Virginia. So with all this in mind, what exactly does the Max 360 Detector do?

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For one, it has dual antennas which give it complete 360 degree coverage, alerting you of threats all around your vehicle and arrows pointing at the direction of the threat.  GPS-based  AutoLearn technology teaches the device to avoid false positives, so you don’t get alarms ringing when there’s nothing to worry about.  The system’s Digital Signal Processing means it’s faster than older detectors, giving you a longer detection range and faster response. As a matter of fact, Escort believes so strongly in its technology that they’re ready to offer a “Speeding Ticket Limited Guarantee” including both radar and laser speeding tickets when purchased factory direct.  Escort detectors are definitely recommended over Valentine One.

We’re happy to introduce you to the brand, because we believe in their product and have heard of them before.  We encourage you to find out more about features of the Escort 360, but know that in a few days we’ll be releasing another article where we share our own experiences with the device.  We’re eager to take it through its paces and give you a hands-on report of how it can help you avoid expensive tickets.

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ESCORT Max 360 Radar Detector ups the Ante in All Directions

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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.

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