The British Are Coming (in the form of technology)

On my new GPS unit, the voice instructions were quite harsh so I toyed around with the menus a bit. Yes, my switching the language setting to "British English" had a lot to do with my being an Anglo-nerd. But it also just sounded better (click video above, depicting a sample maneuver very near my house). We have a long tradition of British-sounding robots, from C3PO to auto-callers hawking all kinds of products. The English accent, to American ears sounds authoritative, yet helpful. It's sort of like when BBC1 radio uses that same American announcer that we get on our classic rock stations announcing the frequency. He just sounds like a rock station announcer.

But what really surprised me was during a trip to mall yesterday, at the pay station (yeah, the Westchester Mall make you pay for parking), the voice instructing you when to put in your money, etc. had a decidedly cockney accent. Not quite Eliza Doolittle, but definitely an extra "ay" in "staytion." Can it be that *any* British accent makes us like technology more -- and accept having to pay 3 bucks so that you can spend money for an hour?

Maybe it's a new version of our own economic imperialism, but going the other way. The Brits already have the best entertainment, and now they're beginning to own technology too. Earlier this week, The Guardian have bought the American business blog paidContent.org for around 15 million quid. Rockstar Games are already in millions of American homes with their Grand Theft Auto series.

Something tells me that with the plunging price of the dollar, our cousins in the UK are just starting their shopping spree.