I'm sure many of you have a Sat Nav (Satellite Navigation) tool, such as a TomTom or Garmin device. You probably realise that you can change the voices, but maybe you haven't been bothered to do so yet because you thought it would be too much effort.
Well, it's not difficult and won't take you long at all. Changing your Sat Nav voice is easy and can be done for free (or nearly free) using voice files from lots of sources. Today we'll go through the basic steps to get new voice files installed on your Sat Nav and then give you a great list of sites with free and dirt cheap voice files you can get.
How To Install New Sat Nav Voice Files
Since I have a TomTom, I'll take you through the process quickly. If you have the TomTom setup software installed on your computer, plug your TomTom in and start it up. Navigate the menus to voices (the voice option is shown at every step). You'll be shown a huge collection of voices, starting with premium content, popular freebies (like Hungarian Grandmother) and moving on to community voice files which are free. To install a free voice, just click on "Add" to the right of the detail. It's really that simple!
For Garmin instructions for downloading and adding voice files, see here. It's pretty straightforward. However, I would guess that the Garmin software has a similar directory to make purchases even easier for you.
For all of the following websites, you'll need to follow slightly different instructions depending on your model of Sat Nav and the site. Mostly they simply involve unpacking the files and copying them onto the Sat Nav while it's connected to your computer as a drive.
TomTom's Voice Collection
Here's TomTom's collection of downloadable voice files. TomTom do have a free voice section on their website, but it's currently just listing different languages and accents. However, if you browse the voices on your TomTom computer software you'll find there's plenty to choose from already which came as default options.
Some more TomTom freebies you might be interested in include StarWars wallpapers and games.
Garmin's Voice Collection
Garmin's online voice file collection is quite small, but has some interesting voices on offer. It also has a few free offerings which are mostly funny or seasonal.
Sat Nav Voices
Sat Nav Voices offer plenty of free sat nav voice files, plus a few cheap voices for you to consider. They've recently made free a "Dangerous Steve" voice which is in honour of Steve Irwin. All of these are made with voice actors, but they're quite good.
Celebrity Voices
Celebrity voices has nothing for free, but offers plenty of voice files for TomTom and Garmin dirt cheap. Voice files are made using voice actors doing imitations of Jason Statham, Elvis, Jack Nicholson & Doc Emmet Brown and more. There's a great variety of interesting voices here.
NavTones Voices
NavTones Voices offer a good variety of voice files for Garmin or TomTom [No Longer Available] at a wide variety of prices, ranging from free to $12.95. Here's where you can find KITT (from Knight Rider) and Daria alongside Mr T and Burt Reynolds. Plenty to choose from!
Pig Tones (no longer available)
Pig Tones has nothing for free, but does offer some rather cheap voices. All of them are done with voice actors imitating the originals, but they are pretty good and give you some more variety to consider.
GPS Data Team
GPS Data Team has a list of free downloadable voice files for many Sat Nav types. It's very straightforward and gimmick-free, but mainly only features voices you can get at their original sites as shown above. Occasionally you can find voices on GPS Data Team which may have been available elsewhere for free as a promotion at some stage, but has now gone up to regular price. For instance, GPS Data Team has Darth Vader for free, which is normally $12.95 at other sites.
What's your favourite Sat Nav voice?