In honor of Cookie Monster’s birthday, Waze, the navigation program, is bringing back his voice. Now Cookie Monster can you tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street. Or wherever your destination may be. Be warned though, this is a limited-time feature. Earlier this year, in honor of Sesame Street, Waze had several voices from the iconic children’s show but Cookie was an overwhelming favorite. When he disappeared in August the backlash on social media was immediate.
Right now the voice option is only available in the United States, to the consternation of millions of worldwide Cookie Monster fans. Here is how to make Cookie your co-pilot:
To change the voice in your app first launch Waze and then tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom left side of the page. From there, tap the Settings button at the top left and then select Voice and Sound from the menu. That will bring you to the Voice menu. Tap Waze Voice to see all your options. Select Cookie Monster and your commute or trip just got a lot better.
Waze has a history of temporarily adding interesting companions to get you from Point A to Point B. In the last few years the service has had limited-time featured voices such as Morgan Freeman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Elvis Presley, Ed Helms, Jay Leno, and Neil Patrick Harris. Currently, along with Cookie Monster there is an option for a “Boy Band” voice pack as well.
Among Waze’s previously featured voice packs, some of the most popular that people are asking for a return of are Star Wars C3PO and Grand Tour hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. The Waze Suggestion Box forum is chock full of suggestions from all over the world from people who want to hear other Muppets such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and Rowlf The Dog.
Waze is a GPS navigation software owned by Google that works with smartphones and tablets. Waze was originally developed by Israeli-owned Waze Mobile, Google acquired Waze in June of 2013 for $966 million. At the present time, Waze has 130 million subscribers.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.