Pilot T1102 GPS Stylus w/Holder

I finally broke down a few weeks ago and went out and bought one of those GPS devices for my car (a Garmin Nuvi 660 which is fantastic...but we'll save that for another day...).

Why did I wait so long you ask? Well, that’s easy.  I’m a guy.  And as we all know, guys never, ever get lost.  Just ask any wife or girlfriend.  How many times have men taken the “scenic route” to a restaurant, inn, hotel, or long lost Aunt Mae’s house for a gathering of the family because the man insisted he wasn’t lost.  “Look, I know what I’m doing, OK?”...(truly a classic line...:-).  As classic as the elongated sigh that immediately comes from the passenger seat after that statement is uttered.  45 minutes later, the inimitable “See? I told you I knew where we were.” is uttered.  Notice how we never look her in the eye when we say it.  Yes....it’s true.  I was one of those men.  Never lost…..or wrong for that matter, but that’s another story for another review...LOL.  Anyway, recently, for my birthday, I was given a gift certificate to my local big box electronics store.  With the certificate was a card.  When I opened the card, a rather large picture of a GPS fell out.  The card read, “Happy birthday to a great guy……..now go out and buy the d----GPS.  Love, Your S.O.” Ahh, love. 

So, after several harrumphs, and “I don’t really need one of these ya know” statements, I went out and bought one.  I must now candidly admit…….I wasted a lot of gas.  These things are great.  All I have to do is punch in a destination on the screen and I am instantly guided to my destination, by quite the sexy voice I might add.  So, it’s all good.  Except for one thing.  After awhile, that little tiny screen gets disgustingly marked up.  Greasy finger marks start to clog the surface of the viewing area until all visibility is lost.  Then all you have is that sexy voice.  Not so terrible.  But it does get aggravating. 

The answer, you ask?   Easy...get a stylus...  The problem of course with a stylus is that they are typically so small that you drop them (not good when driving), or you find some other way to lose them.  As usually, I turned to one of our sponsors, StyliSource.com to see if they had something that I wouldn't lose...  There I found more styluses with tethers and holders than I could sift through...so I called them and asked for “a stick anywhere stylus”.  A few questions later, the recommended the T1102-WHT-TU-HS...now there’s a catchy name if ever I heard one.  Despite the product's cryptic name, I decided to give this little baby a try...and was pleasantly surprised.

This stylus is perfect for putting in your car.  All you have to do is peel off the paper on the back of the holder, and stick it on the dashboard next to your GPS.  Then, just pull the stylus out of the holder and input away on the screen.  The tether keeps the stylus connected to the holder, so even if you drop it, the stylus is easily retrieved.  I also like the rubber tip on this model...it has a little "grip" to it and made it easy to hit what I wanted on the screen.

No more searching under the seats or in that little crack where the center console is where everything in the world ends up.  (Recently I found so much change under there I had enough to go and buy a copy of that great book “Video Killed The Digital Star” at Barnes and Noble.  But I digress.) The pricing on this neat little stylus is great too…under $10 bucks.  Can’t beat it.  And it can put up with a ton of abuse. 

You know, like when you and your S.O.  are fighting about where to go to dinner…and you each keep yanking the stylus out of each other’s hands to input a different romantic little bistro.  Of course by the time the fight is over it’s the local Applebee’s and very little talking, but hey, at least the T-1100 is still rarin’ to go.  And isn’t that’s what is really important? So, open a new window on the desktop, and go to www.stylisource.com now and get a T-1100.  It will solve all of your gunky GPS screen problems.  Your love life, well that’s up to you.

Daniel R.  Berenthall is a writer and techno-geek who sometimes does reviews for cool stuff.  Oh, and he writes too.  Pick up his latest book, “Video Killed The Digital Star” at www.amazon.com & www.barnesandnoble.com.