There are many GPS apps available for our smart phones nowadays. Just to name a few is Tomtom, Papago, Sygic, Navigon, PapaGo, Garmin, etc... the list goes on. But how many are free? Its safe to say they are mostly quite costly, Tomtom for example, sells for at least US$49.90, Sygic at least US$19.90 and Navigon around US$29.90. And to top it off, they are sold separately for each region. So if you have Tomtom USA and wants to go Singapore and use it, you'll have to buy a separate app at US$69.90! Same goes for the other GPS apps, they are all sold separately according to region.
Enter Waze. It's a GPS app with a difference. I would like to call it a social-GPS app. It costs nothing (FREE!) for you to own it and it functions more than adequate as your everyday GPS app. Here the description of the app found in the AppStore:
"When you download Waze, you not only get a free traffic & navigation app, but also become part of the local driving community in your area, joining forces with other drivers nearby to outsmart traffic, save time, and improve everyone's daily commute!
When you download Waze, you get:
* Live community-contributed traffic information and road reports + notification when approaching police traps, speed cams, heavy traffic or hazards on the road
* Free traffic by-passing navigation featuring voice-guided, turn-by-turn guidance
* A 100% live map + real-time road monitoring & automatic re-routing as conditions on the road change
* Ability to create or join local driving groups, plus the option to link up with other drivers for carpooling
* Foursquare, Twitter & Facebook integrations, plus fun, geo-gaming elements
So, how does it work?
After typing in your destination address, just drive with the app open on your phone to passively contribute traffic and other road data, but you can also take a more active role by sharing road reports on accidents, police traps, or any other hazards along the way, helping to give other users in the area a 'heads-up' about what's to come.
That's about it - Waze is all about contributing to the common good out there on the road, so do your part and get involved in your local driving community today!"
As you can see, besides a GPS, you will also get traffic report and other incidents happening around you. Because this app is a community driven system, as long as there are many people using the app and sharing, you will get the report you need no matter when. Most of the other GPS apps only have traffic report in certain countries, like USA, Canada and probably UK. But Waze offer you traffic report no matter where you are.
Of course being free isn't without its limitations (for now...). Waze depends on your 3G data connection in order to function because it does not store maps in your device (hence the small download size). But if you have more than enough monthly data usage to spare, its a good bet. Take note though, if your data connection is weak or unavailable, you will need to load up your regular GPS app for help ;-) Once you view a map of a certain area, this map is cached and saves on your phone so you won't need to download it again the next time you are driving in the same area. How much of it is cached, I have no idea.
You get points for the distance you travel and more than less times, you will see dots on the road that you can travel along and pick up points. Sometimes a big candy will lay on the road just for your Wazer to gobble up and collect a huge chuck of points. What are the points for? Well, its just to make your driving a little bit more fun. Sometimes I find myself driving off my course just to collect those little dots or that big ass candy sitting along the road. You can add/join driving buddies/groups to see what and where everybody else are.
The voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation is surprisingly good. It sounds just like a regular GPS app, telling you when you have to turn or how far ahead is your next turn. There is even a host voices for you to choose from and multi-language too. The voices have to be downloaded when you change the settings as they are not installed together with the app.
The interface for Waze is also a minimalistic design, which makes a lot of room for the maps. Colors on the map are refreshing, unlike the conventional GPS apps. It even turns to night colors when it gets to the evening. There are other functions like sharing on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter too.
Events will pop-up pretty often notifying you off traffic congestions, road blocks or even weather hazards nearby. If you find these irritating, you can easily turn them off individually. You can also limit events notifications base on the radius distance around you.
This app does suck up a lot of your battery juice though, as does all other GPS apps. So unless you have a charging cable in your vehicle or you have the battery pack, be ready to see your battery get suck up like a vampire sucking blood. GPS + 3G date, that's gotta taxing to your battery.
Waze isn't designed to be a full fledged GPS app but rather as fun social app, but it can be functionally used as a GPS app and a little bit more. So if you're looking for a cheap alternative and have an unlimited data plan or a lot of allowance from your data plan, look no further.
Waze is available for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile for free!
Download Waze from this [LINK]
No comments:
Post a Comment