Tag: Gps »

Waze is more than a navigation app; its developers promise to help us all outsmart traffic together with a combination of social and database-driven technologies. The new update adds even more social features, including collaborative driving directions, live maps, new interface and design, as well as iOS 6 and iPhone 5 support.

Here's a list of all the new features:

✓ See friends driving to your destination & everyone's ETA
✓ Send a pick up request to grab anyone's location & navigate to them
✓ Share your drive by sending a live map of your route & ETA to anyone
✓ New design and UI throughout
✓ Sign in with Facebook
✓ Nearing destination bar
✓ Toll road usage indication
✓ Private messages
✓ Parking location pin
✓ Support for iOS6 and iPhone 5

Navigon has released a great update to their GPS apps for iOS. Updates include integration with iOS 6 Maps for transit info, and great last mile support. From the update:

- iOS 6 and iPhone 5 support

- URBAN GUIDANCE considers public transportation options, such as subways, trams, busses and water taxis, when calculating pedestrian routes. You will be guided to a transit stop by foot and you're able to look up detailed information on what line to take and where to get off. The feature is available through In App Purchase.

- LAST MILE automatically offers a pedestrian navigation when you park your car near your destination. The parking position will be saved and the app switches into pedestrian mode to provide walking directions.

- We're celebrating the 3rd birthday of the NAVIGON app and give away a free map update to all users.

You can think of Via as voice guided turn by turn navigation, for runners. It's pretty simple -- set your start and end points, then go! It's compatible with the built in Music app so you can listen to music while running -- the voice navigation prompts will guide you over the music. Awesome idea.

Good news for those who use CoPilot Live, version eight. The developers, ALK Technologies, are offering a big upgrade free of charge to version nine. The new line of CoPilot Live GPS apps for the US and Canada still have access to live navigation, but now with more perks. The biggest addition is voiced turn-by-turn directions, no doubt a response to Apple’s iOS 6 announcement, but there’s more. The new routing features give you three different ways to find where you are going, each with information not only on distance but on mileage and with the year of free live traffic they are offering to new subscribers on their website it’s even better.

The new design is less distracting, with lane assist arrows and what they call “ClearTurn” display. There is also “Tap and Go” navigation which lets you literally just tap on a location on the map to get directions. It even has “social navigation” allowing you to check into Facebook and Twitter with your locale or to search Wikipedia or Bing’s Local Search from within the app. If you upgrade or try V9 for the first time, let us know what you think in the comments.

Waze has been a fascinating example of the power of crowd sourcing since its inception in 2010. We've loved it ever since with its steady stream of updates keeping things fresh. Now comes one of the more ambitious updates.

Update 3.2 now provides Waze users with the means in which to keep track of real-time gas prices along their route, along with the ability to update prices themselves, where neccessary.

The new category search makes it simple to check things and at certain participating locations, it'll even be possible to receive exclusive in-app discounts on gasoline. Partnerships have already been arranged with Kum & Go, Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores (Exxon and BP stations) and Vintners Distributers (Shell) locations.

One other major new feature is the addition of waypoints to coincide with the new categories, including gas stations, parking lots and car repair shops.

Waze has little competition given its free nature, but now there's all the more reason to check it out.

Waze is out now for both iPhone and iPad. It remains free.

Doubtless most people these days carry around one or two club cards. Virtually every single retail and grocery store in existence uses them and they’re a great way to save some money with (typically) no initial cost. The only problem is having to dig out a given card at the register. I myself sometimes get annoyed with flipping through all the little tags on my keyring to find the right one. 1Card exists specifically for this sort of thing.

The app lets users to store and organize a number of different membership cards in one non-physical place. Even better, it can accommodate virtually any card because it allows for barcode scanning/copying with the iPhone’s camera. Assuming the company in question doesn’t already have a listing on the app in the first place. But the handiness doesn’t stop there. 1Card also displays promotions and coupons associated with a selected card with the push of a button, and another push or two can bring up a store’s phone number or even location on a GPS map (via the tracknose website).

1Card is already sitting in the App Store, just waiting to be used by disgruntled card-carriers. And much like the memberships cards most of us have no doubt accumulated, it doesn’t cost a thing.

crowdplayce, location-based iOS game developer, has announced the release of its upcoming game Mafia Planet. The game immerses players in a location-based mafia game where they work their way up the ladder to become a mafia Don.

Mafia Planet boasts that it's going to be the first location-based crime game for iOS. There are other (very) similar games (like Parallel Mafia), but this one might be unique in it's own way. No matter where players are, there will always be something to do. Players can rob nearby banks, other mobsters, and do quests that can be completed anywhere in the world.

Players have districts that can be attacked by other mobsters or attacked directly. Players gain experience and money as they work their way through the game in their goal to become the next mafia Don. This is one of those games that will be progressively more fun depending on the amount of people locally that decide to use it.

The game is going to be free and ready to play later this month on May 23th.

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The iPhone is packed with all sorts of sensors: GPS, gyroscope, facial recognition (camera), and more. It also has a fairly decent camera. Triggertrap combines the features in this powerful piece of equipment to set up automatic triggers for the iPhone camera. Users can set up some interesting automatic triggers with Triggertrap, like "take 50 pictures over 10 minutes" or "take a picture every 200 meters."

Triggertrap offers 12 different trigger modes including time-lapse, sound sensor, facial recognition, and distance-lapse to name a few. The app also has an automatic HDR mode, HDR time-lapse, and a manual long-exposure mode.

Triggertrap even sells a dongle and connection cables to perform its automatic functions on SLR cameras. Customers can buy the Triggertrap Mobile Dongle for $9.99 and a connection cord that works with their camera that’s also priced at $9.99. There’s also a Twin Head Flash Adapter for using Triggertrap with flashes instead of cameras.

Triggertrap is $9.99 but a free version of the app exists with limited modes (time-lapse, seismic, and cable release modes).

Augmented reality (AR) apps frequently pop-up on the App Store giving users a visual experience over our everyday reality. LEGO has recently jumped on the AR game with LEGO Lens. LEGO Lens lets users watch and interact with LEGO creations at various locations in the U.S.

The app shows LEGO creations that are close on a Google Map. Once at the location, the LEGO creations can even be captured in a picture to share with friends. A radar shows the LEGO creations when users are close.

We hopped on LEGO Lens to check out the locations of where these LEGO creations are popping up. There were none in my immediate driving distance (but a fair few in my state). Looking at the pins on the Google Map, there are quite a few places boasting The Avengers & Loki in the sky. The locations that these LEGO AR creations are popping up in include movie theaters (lots of Carmike Cinemas), malls, and stadiums. The LEGO creations are swarming in New York, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago.

It’s important that parents supervise with the use of this app given the GPS capabilities and suggestions to visit the LEGO locations.

Easy Trails GPS, the navigation application made specifically for outdoor enthusiasts, has updated to 6.0 and added new features and interface changes with the release.

The interface for Easy Trails GPS 6.0 has been significantly changed with this update. The interface design was rewritten completely from scratch to keep in mind usability. The new interface displays every feature of the application regardless of the current activity going on, making it easy to switch between Easy Trails GPS’s many features.

Other features added in the release is support for Retina display devices, sharing location via Twitter, the ability to archive up to 1000 tracks and 2500 waypoints, waypoint proximity alerts can be turned on with use of the Notification Center, exporting all track information, and the ability to copy and save waypoint pictures to the clipboard or the iOS camera roll.

Easy Trails GPS is available for $3.99.

Some social networking apps are designed to bring people from faraway lands together. Glancee can do that too, but it’s also designed to try and bring people nearby together, slaying that most heinous of demons once and for all: the awkwardness that comes from trying to meet other people.

Users log in with Facebook, then start trying to find people with interests similar to them. Profiles are automatically filled out by Facebook information, including likes, which helps to cull together a list of other users that may be compatible based on shared interests. Matching attempts to base compatible interests on similar subjects, like sports teams, and not just scanning and saying “these two people like these exact same things on Facebook!” This does tend to fall apart at times, though – there are reasons why a fan of football player Michael Crabtree might not be compatible with a fan of the Texas Longhorns and Colt McCoy.

Once a match is found, users can then chat with each other. The app finds people by proximity, and on the iPhone, it can use GPS in the background to help alert when compatible people are nearby, helping to break the ice. Glancee is available now as a free download.